Integrating Global Open and Satellite-based Information for Major Disaster Damage Assessment

Major disasters usually impact large area and cause massive damages to variety physical elements resulting into heavy economic losses. Timely and accurate assessment of disaster damages is critical for better understanding the situation and further supporting the emergency response activities. Geo-information and satellite remote sensing imagery from various sources with multi spatial temporal scales has been widely used for charting the disaster and assessing the caused damage. With increased global open datasets, earth observation satellites and international cooperation initiatives, more information are available for disaster damages assessment through appropriate integrating, especially for rapid estimation just after the disaster. The main exposure elements impacted by the flood in Myanmar in 2015 has been estimated based on the integration of open dataset GL30 and imageries from 3 Chinese satellites as study case. The challenges and prospects considering the past and current development are discussed.