Virtual Disaster Viewer: Advancing Earthquake Reconnaissance in MS Virtual Earth
Long Beach, CA. - Aug. 1, 2008. ImageCat announces the launch of an online Virtual Disaster Viewer (VDV) with MS Virtual Earth, for the Sichuan China Earthquake. Incorporating damage and situation assessments by an international team of expert engineers' interpretation of satellite imagery, with GPS referenced ground photographs and videos recently collected by field teams, VDV represents a new way of generating preliminary estimates of earthquake damage, when access to the affected area is restricted.
Chinese media and aid agency reports suggest that the enormity of the tragedy associated with the M7.9 earthquake in Eastern Sichuan, China on May 12, 2008 is staggering. However, in the two and a half months that have passed since the earthquake struck, little detailed information has been made publicly available on the extent and type of damage.
With limited access to the disaster zone, earthquake experts and reconnaissance teams around the World have been unable to help in the response, by providing a detailed assessment of the unfolding scene. VDV is the earthquake engineering community's answer, offering an alternative method of rapid and robust damage assessment, based on expert interpretation of satellite imagery, validated later against field observations.
VDV is the brainchild of an international consortium of earthquake experts from Europe and the USA, whose mission is to advance earthquake response, and ultimately improve engineering standards around the World. Led by ImageCat as VDV developer and data integrator, the consortium includes structural engineers, geotechnical experts and social scientists from the UK-based Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation Team (EEFIT), the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER), and UCL Earthquake and People Interaction Centre (EPICentre) and the UK Government's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
VDV is a first-of-its-kind "social networking tool" for earthquake impact and damage assessment. Working within a specially designed online tool developed in MS Virtual Earth, dozens, if not hundreds, of earthquake experts will be assigned specific areas or "tiles" of the affected areas to review and provide their assessment by comparing before and after high-resolution satellite images acquired by DigitalGlobe and Geoeye imagery companies. Initial information gathered provided by the engineers will include the number of collapsed, heavily damaged and intact buildings, the number of collapsed bridges, the area affected by landslides, the length of roads obstructed by landslides and the location and scale of humanitarian relief operations.
As they are collected, EEFIT and EERI field teams will also feed in photographs and video, to provide a complete picture of the unfolding situation, and validate the expert satellite interpretations. These GPS-referenced datasets will span affected regions of Sichuan, including YingXiu, Shifang, Dujiangyan and Mianyang.
VDV represents a milestone in earthquake reconnaissance, providing the global earthquake and humanitarian communities with an assessment of damage and human loss for an event that otherwise may never be well-understood.
For additional information contact:
Charles Huyck, Executive Vice President, ImageCat, Inc
Office +1 (562) 628-1675 ext. 224
Mobile +1 (562) 556-2805
ckh@imagecatinc.com
Dr. Beverley Adams, Managing Director, ImageCat Europe, London, UK.
Office +44 (0)1372 278777
Mobile +44 (0)7941287313
bja@imagecatinc.com
About ImageCat, Inc.
ImageCat, Inc. is a Long Beach, Calif.-based risk management innovation company, whose mission is to support the global risk and disaster management needs of today, using the technologies of tomorrow. The company is highly regarded for its cutting-edge research, with the remote sensing division focusing on designing tools that better quantify the built environment, together with the risks and impacts associated with terrorist attacks, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and other disasters. More information can be found at www.imagecatinc.com.