Earthquake damage assessment using C-Band PolSAR measurements and ground surveys

In this study, dual-polarization (DP) C-band Sentinel-1 SAR imagery are processed to generate a damage map related to an earthquake damaged area. A DP change detection scheme, which uses a pair of SAR imagery collected before and after the earthquake, is used. Finally, to quantify the levels of damage a decision tree procedure is exploited. The damaged area refers to the city of Amatrice and its surroundings that were devastated by the earthquake that hit central Italy on 24 August 2016. To generate the damage map and to verify it, ground information provided by Istituto Nazionale di Ge-ofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) is processed to generate a new index, termed as Weighted Damage Index (WDI). Numerical results show that an accuracy of about 60% can be obtained that confirms the soundness of the proposed approach.