The Spatial and Temporal Influence of Cloud Cover on Satellite-Based Emergency Mapping of Earthquake Disasters (2019)

View/ Open
Type of Content
Journal ArticlePublisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLCISSN
2045-2322Language
engCollections
- Science: Journal Articles [1178]
Abstract
The ability to rapidly access optical satellite imagery is now an intrinsic component of managing the disaster response that follows a major earthquake. These images provide synoptic data on the impacts, extent, and intensity of damage, which is essential for mitigating further losses by feeding into the response coordination. However, whilst the efficiency of the response can be hampered when cloud cover limits image availability, spatio-temporal variations in cloud cover have never been considered as part of the design of effective disaster mapping. Here we show how annual variations in cloud cover may affect our capacity to respond rapidly throughout the year and consequently contribute to overall earthquake risk. We find that on a global scale when accounting for cloud, the worst time of year for an earthquake disaster is between June and August. During these months, 40% of the global population at risk from earthquakes are obscured from optical satellite view for >3 consecutive days. Southeastern Asia is particularly strongly affected, accounting for the majority of the population at risk from earthquakes that could be obscured by cloud in every month. Our results demonstrate the importance of the timing of earthquakes in terms of our capacity to respond effectively, highlighting the need for more intelligent design of disaster response that is not overly reliant on optical satellite imagery.
Citation
Robinson TR, Rosser N, Walters RJ (2019). The Spatial and Temporal Influence of Cloud Cover on Satellite-Based Emergency Mapping of Earthquake Disasters. Scientific Reports. 9(1). 12455-.This citation is automatically generated and may be unreliable. Use as a guide only.
ANZSRC Fields of Research
40 - Engineering::4010 - Engineering practice and education::401005 - Risk engineering40 - Engineering::4005 - Civil engineering::400506 - Earthquake engineering
40 - Engineering::4013 - Geomatic engineering::401304 - Photogrammetry and remote sensing
40 - Engineering::4013 - Geomatic engineering::401302 - Geospatial information systems and geospatial data modelling
Rights
© The Author(s) 2019. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Editorial: Quantitative Geomorphology with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for Evolving Societies and Science
Gomez, C.; Oguchi, T.; Evans, I. (University of Canterbury. Geography, 2016) -
Safety does not take a holiday: Towards real-time indicators of population exposure for disaster risk assessments
Darling, Mathew; Wilson, Thomas; Orchiston, Caroline; Adams, Benjamin; Bradley, Brendon (2020) -
Ground-level Unmanned Aerial System Imagery Coupled with Spatially Balanced Sampling and Route Optimization to Monitor Rangeland Vegetation
Curran M; Hodza P; Cox S; Lanning S; Robertson B; Robinson T; Stahl P (2020)Rangeland ecosystems cover 3.6 billion hectares globally with 239 million hectares located in the United States. These ecosystems are critical for maintaining global ecosystem services. Monitoring vegetation in these ...