A Comprehensive Analysis of Building Damage in the 12 January 2010 MW7 Haiti Earthquake Using High-Resolution Satellite- and Aerial Imagery

The paper provides an account of how three key relief organizations worked together after the devastating Haiti earthquake to produce the first damage assessment based mainly on the use of remotely-sensed imagery. This assessment was jointly conducted by the World Bank (WB), the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT), and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC). This paper discusses the data sources used for the assessment, the methodologies employed to evaluate building damage, and a set of independent studies to validate the final damage results. Finally, a vision of the role of remote sensing technologies in future disasters is presented that serves as a road map for methodological improvements.