Geoinformation for Disaster and Risk Management - ISPRS

Earthquake damage assessment
using remote sensing imagery.
The Haiti case study.
AIntroduction
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Andrea Ajmar , Piero Boccardo ,
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Fabio Giulio Tonolo and Carlos Veloso
1:ITHACA, Via P.C. Boggio, 61 10138 Torino - Italy
2: Politecnico di Torino DITAG, C.so Duca degli Abruzzi, 24
10129 Torino Italy
3: UN WFP, Via C.G.Viola 68 - Parco dei Medici - 00148 -
Rome - Italy
At 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12
January 2010 a devastating magnitude 7.0Mw
earthquake occurred in Haiti. The epicentre was
approximately 25 km (16 miles) west of Port-au-
Prince, Haiti's capital, near Léogâne. The Haitian
Government reports that between 217,000 and
230,000 people have died, an estimated 300,000
were injured, and an estimated 1,000,000 made
homeless. Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA)
findings reveal that the total value of damage and
losses is estimated at US$7.8 billion: US$4.3 billion
represents physical damage and US$3.5 billion are
economic losses (OCHA SitRep No.31).
Damage to infrastructure in the 2010 Haiti
earthquake was extensive: the main affected areas
(Figure 1) included Port-au-Prince, Petit-Goâve,
Léogâne, Jacmel and other settlements in southwest
part of Haiti.
As of February, an estimated 250,000 residences and
30,000 commercial buildings had collapsed or were
severely damaged.
Photo by “WFP/Marcus Prior/Haiti”
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