Ronald T. EguchiPaul AmyxCharles K. HuyckImageCat, Inc.

www.virtualdisasterviewer.com

DHS – S&T Workshop on Emergency Management: Incident, Resource, and Supply Chain Management

5-6, November 2009, UCI, Irvine, CA

Presentation Outline

• The Problem

• VDV interface for damage assessment

• Outreach

• Future activities

• Summary

There is a post-disaster need…… for expert analysis to provide rapid and accurate commentary after

significant events… to harness the skills of experts from a wide variety of industries,

affiliations, and locations… for a central repository for experts’ interpretations to improve

dissemination and discussion of data from current and past disasters

After major disasters, it is not always feasible to deploy field teams due to damage and/or access restrictions

Multiple field deployments can result in duplication of effort and costs

Data is not shared from multiple field teams

KoreaJapan

Philippines

Hong Kong

Beijing

Tibetan Plateau

Shanghai

Wenchuan Earthquake

Chengdu

2008 Wenchuan Earthquake

Details (known):May 12, 2008, 2:28pm (Local time)Magnitude: 7.9 (USGS)Location: 30.986°N, 103.364°E Depth: 19kmFault length: approx. 250km

Details (unknown):Number of ? dead (missing)

? injured? buildings collapsed

? buildings damaged ? homeless ? evacuated ? people affected ? Economic loss

Damage Estimates:69,200 dead (20,000 missing)374,200 injured5.4 million buildings collapsed21 million buildings damaged5 million homeless15 million evacuated46 million people affectedEconomic loss US$80 billion?UNDMT Situation Report No. 8, 14 June 2008

VDV Interface for Damage Assessment

• The login procedure

• Accepting an assignment

• Scope of evaluation

• The notion of a damage scale based on remote-sensed images

• Damage assessment procedure

• Results from 2008 Sichuan, China earthquake

Figure 1. Virtual Disaster Viewer homepage

Virtual Earth

navigation controls

Virtual Earth

navigation controls

Virtual Earth base

data and imagery

Virtual Earth base

data and imagery

Details of project sponsors and participating

organizations

Details of project sponsors and participating

organizations

Pre- and post-

disaster satellite imagery

Pre- and post-

disaster satellite imagery

Derived layers

Derived layers

Field dataField data

Legend for expert interpretation results

Legend for expert interpretation results

Major sponsors and

affiliations

Major sponsors and

affiliations

www.virtualdisasterviewer.com

Grid Cells for Analysis

Remote sensing

damage scale

Damage level

DescriptionExample pre - earthquake

Example post - earthquake

RSE - 0 Indistinguishable

a) Pre disaster shows building, post-disaster is homogenous cleared area with no evidence of debris, suggesting demolition prior to earthquake. b) Partially built building; (under construction site at the time of the earthquake). c) Building is under cloud cover, or is otherwise obscured by another imagery artefact.

RSE - 1Non / Slight

a) No damage seen within image. Pre- and post-event images same shape, size, colour (.b) Slight damage (i.e. tiles from roof small amount of debris)c) Equated to EMS98 level 1 or 2

RSE - 2 Extensive

a) Extensive damage seen. b) Possible changes include: Change in building footprint shape. Roof collapsed. Heterogeneous roof colour/texture Substantial rubble. c) New builds that are extensively damagedd) Equated to EMS98 level 3 or 4

RSE - 3 Collapse

a) Building collapsedb) Copious rubble evidentc) New build which is completely collapsedd) Equated to EMS98 level 5.

Remote Sensing for Earthquake Scale (RSE) Damage Scale Descriptions

Assigning Damage Level

Pre

Post

Results

BUILDING

DAMAGE

Results

LANDSLIDE

EXTENT

Initial funding from EPSRC (UK), EERI, MCEER (USA)

Tool developed by ImageCat Currently being developed for inclusion in EEFIT

missions to Indonesia & South Pacific 84 expert volunteers from 8 countries

• Conferences & Workshops• Wired Magazine article: April 2009• Imaging Notes Magazine article:

Fall 2009

• Flagship project for Community Remote Sensing theme: IEEE International Geoscience & Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) 2010

• Sumatra & Samoa currently being developed• Validation of expert analysis & assessing

experts’ skills – “superusers”• Extend functionality may include

– Video field blogs & text summaries of professional findings

– Greater use of commenting facilities– Develop analytical tools for automatic

interpretation of results

• VDV developed to fill technological need for a post-disaster data portal

• Multiple functions developed according to needs of field teams on per-event basis

• Currently broadening VDV’s outreach for future funding and data partnerships

• A growing community of expert users and contributors are realizing VDV’s potential