Change detection techniques for urban area disaster assessment using high resolution satellite data

Abstract

Unfortunately, the year 2023 began with a devastating earthquakes unprecedented in recent years, spreading over the territories of two neighboring countries (Turkey and Syria) located on the same tectonic plate. On the night of February 6, 2023, Turkey and Syria were hit by a powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake. The earthquake was one of the strongest in the region in more than a century. Even more devastation was caused by aftershocks that hit both countries hours later. A few days later, weaker earthquakes were reported in two other countries (Romania and Croatia) located on different with respect to first one, but neighboring, tectonic plate. This paper represents an approach for using change detection techniques based on free access high resolution Earth observation satellite data (Sentinel, Landsat) for assessment of the consequences caused by earthquakes in an urban area. Known change detection techniques have been investigated such as: image differencing, image rationing, change detection based on indexes calculation and comparison, etc.As a result, a comparative analysis of the investigated change detection techniques with respect to an urban area adequacy is presented.