Damage Assessment of the 2003 Bam, Iran, Earthquake Using Ikonos Imagery

Abstract

Photo-interpretation analysis could be a reliable technique for earthquake damage assessment, depending on the objectives and the image resolution. The very high-resolution data, such as 1 m imagery supplied by the Ikonos satellite, enable interpretation of the damage and could offer a first estimation of the event consequences. In this research, damaged zones in Bam, Iran, were detected and mapped using visual analysis of multispectral 1 m Ikonos imagery. In a second step, a simple procedure to obtain a preliminary estimation of casualties based on GIS mapping and casualty ratio, was applied to the image. The loss estimation was next compared with the official statistics.