Collapsed Buildings

The Wenchuan earthquake and the secondary disasters induced by the earthquake caused massive collapses of buildings, enormous losses of property, and tens of thousands of casualties. This chapter looks at collapsed houses and buildings based on airborne optical images. Airborne radar and optical remote sensing images of the region most severely affected by the earthquake were acquired during May 15-May 28. These images cover 14 counties, including Wenchuan, Beichuan, Mianyang, Shifang, Qingchuan, Maoxian, Anxian, Dujiangyan, Pingwu, Pengzhou, Lixian, Jiangyou, and Guangyuan. To estimate the rates of building collapse, high-spatial satellite data from sources such as IKONOS, QuickBird, World View, and SPOT .5 before and after the earthquake were studied, and high-spatial airborne SAR images were used for interpretation.