SAR remote sensing monitoring of the Yushu Earthquake disaster situation and the information service system
玉树地震灾情SAR遥感监测与信息服务系统

The SAR system with its all-weather and all-time imaging capabilities emerged as a very important remote sensing data source for earthquake monitoring and disaster relief. After the recently occurred earthquake in Yushu county, Qinghai province, an airborne SAR system equipped with X-band dual antenna interferometric sensor and P-band fully polarized sensor has been successfully used in disaster monitoring and relief actions. The system is the first airborne SAR system with full intellectual property owned by China. This paper summarizes the Yushu Earthquake remote sensing monitoring and information service system, including the data, processing methodologies and information service. The emphasis is put on the application of airborne SAR images to disaster information extraction and assessment. First, the parameters characterizing the content of earthquake disaster remote sensing monitoring are determined, which include the information of urban and rural residence, infrastrcucture, geological disasters and farmland damage. The processing methodologies of optical and SAR data for earthquake disaster information interpretation, mapping and risk evaluation are presented. The process chain consists of quick geometric processing, change detection, quick target interpretation and quick spatial risk assessment for disaster. On the basis of the earthquake information including those extracted from remotely sensed images and other existing social and geospatial data, a system of Yushu Earthquake disaster situation geographic information service has been developed, to facilitate the management, visu-alization, and statistical analysis of the earthquake disaster information.