Evaluation of Tsunami Damage in the Eastern Part of Sri Lanka Due to the 2004 Sumatra Earthquake Using High-Resolution Satellite Images

In order to evaluate emergency response and rehabilitation planning after a disaster, it is important to grasp the distribution of the damaged buildings as soon as possible. Images remotely sensed from satellites are quite useful to widely capture the condition of the surface ground. Visual detection method of the building damage has been applied to the high-resolution satellite images observed before and after recent large earthquakes [Chiroiu et al. (2002) and Kouchi et al. (2004)]. However, characteristics of the image in the building damage area due to other disasters such as tsunami have not been examined in detail.

The Sumatra earthquake on 26th December 2004 (Mw9.3) brought great tsunami damage to the countries in the Indian Ocean. Sri Lanka is one of the countries that are severely damaged due to the tsunami. In order to evaluate the damage distribution in the eastern part of Sri Lanka, the visual detection method of the damage is applied to the high-resolution satellite IKONOS images observed before and after the tsunami hit.