Use of post-storm images for automated tornado-borne debris path identification using texture-wavelet analysis

A rapid automatic tracking mechanism for tornado damaged location from an eagleʹs eye perspective could diminish economic as well as non-replenishable human losses. Japan faces a yearly average of 21 tornadoes. Automatic tracking of tornado footprints provides an immediate survey report on the location of the wind damaged area, thereby emergency aid to the injured and apposite maintenance to damaged structures can be facilitated faster. This paper introduces an efficient automatic tracking method, texture-wavelet analysis, from wind-borne debris deposits distributed around damaged building structures. It focuses on a fatal tornado that occurred in the Wakasa area of Saroma town in Hokkaido in 2006. It employs post-storm aerial imagery only, rather than the conventional pre-storm and post-storm images together. The results are compared with field investigation data.