SAR-Based Seismic Damage Assessment in Urban Areas: Scaling Down Resolution, Scaling Up Computational Performance

Earth Observation (EO) is becoming increasingly important in the support operations after a destructive event, as an earthquake can be. Remote sensing is proving to be very useful for identifying damage and planning support activities. Although the use of optical data because of easier visual interpretation is preferred-where possible-radar sensors can be a valuable tool for damage detection due to their extreme versatility and operability under all-weather conditions. The previous work of our research group has found a link between some selected texture measures computed on radar maps over single blocks of an urban area and the damage found in these neighborhoods. The study was conducted on 1-m resolution Spotlight images at high resolution (VHR) produced by COSMO-SkyMed, a valuable yet scarce resource. This paper reports on research aimed at probing whether and to what extent the method developed on 1-m resolution data can be transferred to more widely available, lower resolution ENVISAT ASAR data acquired in stripmap mode.