2000 Volume 2 Pages 69-78
In this paper, the validity of the method to estimate damaged area using DMSP/OLS (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program/ Optical Linescan System night-time imagery developed by our research group (Hayashi et al, 2000). OLS mounted on the DMSP satellites captures city lights distribution reflecting extent of human activity. The area shows significant decrease of light intensity after the earthquake compared with before the event is estimated as impacted area in the DMSP method. We compared the actual damage with estimated damaged area of Marmara earthquake in Turkey(1999) and of Hanshin-Awaji earthquake(1995) based on the DMSP method. As a result, it is clarified the DMSP method can detect various kinds of damages rather than only severe housing damages.
