Damage Detection using High-Resolution SAR Imagery in the 2009 L'Aquila, Italy, Earthquake

Satellite remote sensing is being used to monitor disaster-affected areas for postdisaster reconnaissance and recovery. Building damage detection from satellite images is one of the main interests, but optical satellite images can be used only in daytime without cloud cover. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) overcomes this problem and hence it is used widely in emergency situations. Building damage detection for the April 6, 2009 L’Aquila, Italy, earthquake was conducted using high-resolution TerraSAR-X images, obtained before and after the event. The correlation coefficient and the difference of backscatter coefficients of the pre- and post-event images were used to identify the affected area, together with high-resolution optical images. The results were compared with ground truth data and the post-event optical image.