Potential of pleiades VHR imagery for risks management and sustainable reconstruction in Haiti: The KAL-Haiti research database example

Following Haiti earthquake in January 2010, the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche has funded a project named KAL-Haiti which aims at gathering remote sensing imagery as well as in-situ measurements and exogenous data into a knowledge base. Too often limited to the "response" phase, Earth Observation data should also be available for use by relevant agencies involved throughout the disaster management cycle, from recovery and mitigation to preparedness. The resulting geo-referenced database, seen as a shareable resource, can serve as a basis for helping the reconstruction of the country but also as a reference for scientific studies devoted to all phases of risk management. The database is freely available for scientific studies devoted to the different phases of risk management and for reconstruction tasks in Haiti. KAL-Haiti will also be enriched with new satellite images such as Pleiades, monitoring the evolution of Haiti over the next 10 years.