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Newly available optical satellite images with 1‐m ground resolution such as IKONOS mean that rapid postdisaster damage assessment might be made over large areas. Such surveys could be of great value to emergency management and post‐event recovery operations and have particular promise for earthquake areas, where damage distribution is often very uneven. In this paper three satellite images taken before and after the 26 January 2001 Gujarat earthquake were studied for damage assessment purposes. The images comprised a post‐earthquake cover of the city of Bhuj, which was close to the epicenter, and pre‐ and post‐earthquake cover of the city Ahmedabad. The assessment data was then compared with damage surveys actually made on‐site. Three separate experiments were conducted. In the first, the satellite image of Bhuj was compared with detailed ground photos of 28 severely damaged buildings taken at about the same time as the satellite image, to investigate the levels and types of damage that can and cannot be identified. In the second experiment, the whole city center of Bhuj was damage mapped using only the satellite image. This was subsequently compared with a map produced from a building‐by‐building damage survey. In the third experiment, pre‐ and post‐earthquake images for a large area of Ahmedabad were compared and totally collapsed buildings were identified. These sites were subsequently visited to confirm the accuracy of the observations. The experiment results indicate that rapid visual screening can identify areas of heavy damage and individual collapsed buildings, even when comparative cover does not exist. The need to develop a tool with direct application to support emergency response is discussed.
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