Automated Damage Detection and Visualization of the 2003 Bam, Iran Earthquake Using High-resolution Satellite Images

This study focused in how to thoroughly exploit the capability of high-resolution satellite imagery such as IKONOS and QuickBird for disaster mitigation. An efficient automated methodology for damage detection was firstly implemented to derive the available rich information from satellite imagery. That detected results and the satellite imagery consequently were attractively presented through a fly-over animation and visualization. It aimed to assist the field-based damage estimation and strengthen the public awareness. Since oblique-view image or movie taken by a helicopter is more understandable, fly-over animation using Digital Terrain Model (DTM) and attributes of buildings from building inventory database simulated a movie taken by a camera equipped on a helicopter flying. Available IKONOS and QuickBird data capturing the recent strong Bam earthquake on December, 2003 were employed to demonstrate the competence of our automated detection algorithm and fly-over animation/visualization. Good agreement between our result and field-based damage detected results was found. Capture scenes from fly-over animation are depicted in this paper and the animation is presented elsewhere in a more appropriate form such as web or slide show.