Lallemant, D., Kiremidjian, A.
11th International Conference on Structural Safety & Reliability, June 16-20, 2013. Columbia University New York, NY. (2013)
Publication year: 2013

This study proposes a new approach for rapid post-disaster damage assessment, based on the integration of remote-sensing and limited field-based damage assessment data. Data from the 2010 earthquake in Haiti is used to investigate geostatistical tools for effective damage estimation. Spatial auto-correlation and cross-correlation of limited field-based and extensive remote sensing-based data are used to obtain an estimate of the mean damage state at every location of the disaster area. These estimates are then used to define beta distributions representing the complete distributions of every damage state. Results show close agreement to true damage data from field surveys, and demonstrate the relevance of such analysis for response and recovery planning following earthquake disasters.