A flexible environment for earthquake rapid damage detection and assessment

This paper outlines a system architecture able to reduce the effects of a devastating seismic event by providing a rapid and reliable damage detection and estimation of the extent and location of the suffered area. This result has been accomplished by the integration of data access and standardization techniques, image processing tools, GIS technology, analytical modeling and communication tools. A two-phase operating model has been conceived. In the pre-event era, images and data about building and infrastructures are collected and analyzed exploiting GIS capabilities. Immediately after the occurrence of the earthquake, the system must be ready to receive near-real time satellite imagery of the affected area to be compared with the pre-event imagery data set. A correspondence between the integrated databases, within the GIS environment, and the real-time imagery is also established. The post-event imagery is then compared with the pre-event one, by means of different digital processing techniques to exploit the different resolution of satellite images