Abstract
At 13:46 on March 11, 2011 (Bei**g time), a great earthquake of magnitude of 9.0 occurred off the Pacific coast of northeastern Japan (Tohoku Region). After the earthquake, the Center for Earth Observation and Digital Earth (CEODE), Chinese Academy of Sciences, quickly launched a major disaster emergency response to assess the disaster. In this paper, we have extracted buildings and farms in the heavily devastated area that includes Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima Prefectures, based on multi-spectral remote sensing data. We have assessed building damage by overlaying seismic intensity and building distributions. In addition, we have assessed the extent of building and farm damage caused by the tsunami through the establishment of a tsunami impact assessment model that is based on terrain and distance from the coastline. The results were partially verified by high-resolution images obtained after the disaster. The results show that about 76% of buildings in Miyagi Prefecture were affected by seismic intensity 6 and above, with 24% of the buildings and 12% of the farms destroyed by the tsunami. These huge losses were echoes at lesser amounts in Fukushima and Iwate. The results provide the support of basic data, which can be further developed by economic and social aspects of the disaster assessment.
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Guo, H., Chen, Y., Feng, Q. et al. Assessment of damage to buildings and farms during the 2011 M 9.0 earthquake and tsunami in Japan from remote sensing data. Chin. Sci. Bull. 56, 2138–2144 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-011-4544-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-011-4544-6