A GIS-based approach for earthquake loss estimation based on the immediate extraction of damaged buildings

With the remote sensing technology is possible to predict estimations of the expected number of killed or injured people. In this study, a loss estimation method is proposed by combining data from remote sensing technology and geographic information system (GIS). For the image processing, we assume the damage area with a rougher texture when compared with undamaged areas. Extracted textures were later considered as the decision-making basis for the building damage level determination. We prepared the GIS database with information on the land use, structural material and building occupancy. Considering the influence of time in the building occupancy, two periods were considered (activity and inactivity) for each land use. The model estimates casualties based on the population residing in each building and according to the time of the earthquake, structure material of each building and destruction percentage. The approach was tested on Ahar and Varzaghan cities of Iran using 0.5 m resolution pan-sharpened Geo-Eye 1 imagery. The root-mean-square error (RMSE) for the number of injured and killed people was determined, considering field teams' data and predicted data. RMSE for injured population was estimated in 0.040 and RMSE for fatal casualties was estimated in 0.025.