Primary Quantitative Study on Earthquake Damage Extracted from Remote Sensing Imagery——A Case Study of Seismic Damage in the Urban Area of Dujiangyan due to the M_S8.0 Wenchuan Earthquake

Primary Quantitative Study on Earthquake Damage Extracted from Remote Sensing Imagery-A Case Study of Seismic Damage in the Urban Area of Dujiangyan due to the Ms8.0 Wenchuan Earthquake

The fast developing remote sensing techniques play an increasingly important role in earthquake emergency response, disaster survey and loss estimation. As there is a lack of quantitative studies on seismic damage based on remote sensing, its practicality in seismic disaster management has usually been questioned. The paper introduces the essential quantitative study idea, the concept of the remote sensing seismic damage index (DRS_I RS) and analysis models, demonstrates the seismic damage indices (DG_IC) of buildings obtained from ground surveying and its quantitative relation to DRS_I RS in Dujiangyan city, Sichuan Province, which was destroyed by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake with M_S8.0. The primary results show that an obvious relationship exists between the DRS_I RS of buildings obtained from the high resolution satellite or aerial remote sensing images and DG_I C or the building collapse ratio obtained through ground survey, which suggests that the quantitative study on seismic damage based on remote sensing will provide an effective method for seismic damage survey and loss estimation.