Mapping urban damage of the 2011 East-Japan earthquake using multi-temporal PALSAR images

Difference of coherence between pre-seismic and co-seismic pairs of ALOS-PALSAR images was used to detect damaged areas in Ishinomaki city due to the 2011 East-Japan earthquake. Detection threshold was determined at a prescribed false alarm rate using coherence difference between two pre-seismic interferograms. Comparison of the results with the urban damage map showed that the coherence difference reflects the degree of urban damage and can be used to detect damaged areas by using an appropriate threshold value.