Geometry based estimation of trapped victims after earthquakes

For the large majority of earthquakes, especially for those in urban areas, casualties are primarily caused by building collapse. An early and reliable estimation of the victims trapped in the collapsed buildings would help those responsible to respond in an optimised way to earthquake disasters. In the framework of the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) 461 “Strong Earthquakes: A Challenge for Geosciences and Civil Engineering” at the University Karlsruhe a casualty estimation method was developed, which uses as input the fast determination of collapsed buildings in large urban areas based on laserscanning data and offers thus the possibility to fulfil this task.
By using airborne laser scanning measurements the location of collapsed buildings and the dimension and characteristic of their damage can be determined by a damage analysis. To interpret the found damage, the knowledge about typical damage types of collapsed buildings is necessary. Existing building damage classifications didn’t meet the requirements of this novel technique. For this reason, observations and reports of building collapses were analysed leading to a new classification of collapsed buildings and the definition of the so-called damage catalogue. ... mehrThis provided the basis for the development of a novel casualty estimation method, which allows to assess the trapped victims for each individual collapsed building of a stricken area and to support in this way the work of the emergency operation centres after earthquakes.
In this paper, first the above described reconnaissance technique will be briefly delineated. Then the conception and the implementation of the damage catalogue and its role for this reconnaissance technique as well as its use for the casualty estimation will be discussed. Subsequently, the developed casualty estimation method and its application possibilities will be presented in detail.