Satellite-based emergency mapping using optical imagery: experience and reflections from the 2015 Nepal earthquakes

Williams, Jack G.; Rosser, Nick J.; Kincey, Mark E.; Benjamin, Jessica; Oven, Katie J.; Densmore, Alexander L.; Milledge, David G.; Robinson, Tom R.; Jordan, Colm A.; Dijkstra, Tom A.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-18-185-2018

Articles | Volume 18, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-18-185-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-18-185-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 1

Research article

|

16 Jan 2018

Research article |

| 16 Jan 2018

Satellite-based emergency mapping using optical imagery: experience and reflections from the 2015 Nepal earthquakes

Jack G. Williams, Nick J. Rosser, Mark E. Kincey, Jessica Benjamin, Katie J. Oven, Alexander L. Densmore, David G. Milledge, Tom R. Robinson, Colm A. Jordan, and Tom A. Dijkstra

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-18-185-2018-supplement

Data sets

Nepal earthquake landslide locations, 30 June 2015 Durham University and British Geological Survey https://data.humdata.org/dataset/nepal-earthquake-landslide-locations-30-june-2015

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Short summary

There is currently no protocol for rapid humanitarian-facing landslide assessment and no published recognition of what is possible and useful to compile immediately after a triggering event. Drawing on the 2015 Gorkha earthquake (Nepal), we consider how quickly a landslide assessment based upon manual satellite-based emergency mapping (SEM) can be realistically achieved and review the decisions taken by analysts to ascertain the timeliness and type of useful information that can be generated.