Thanks Robert for sharing this preliminary report. While this may not be part of your study, I wonder how is our damage assessment comparable to what others (with more expertise) have done like those provided by UNOSAT: http://www.unitar.org/unosat/node/44/1876
Maybe we can learn from them. On Thu, Feb 13, 2014 at 10:23 AM, Pierre Béland <pierz...@yahoo.fr> wrote: > Hi Robert, > > In the early days after Typhoon Haiyan, there were estimations of 10,000 > dead, severe damages and no communications with various remote areas. The > humanitarian community as a whole needed even rough estimates of the extent > and the distribution of the damages. > > The Coordination group where OCHA , US Red Cross and HOT participated right > from the beginning of this intervention thought that OpenStreetMap should > contribute to make Damage assesments. The objective was to make these > assesments from Satellite imagery as soon as these would be available. > > The Red Cross study makes the assumption that the objective of the > OpenStreetMap crowdsourcing was to make detailed assesments. But you can > only make rough assesments from Satellite imagery especially when > atmospheric conditions restrict the quality of the images provided. And a > simple classification was used (ie. damaged or destroyed). UAV's (drones) > or Aerial oblique imageries could have been used to make detailed > assesments. But this was not part of the established workflow of the > humanitarian community before Haiyan and such images were not available to > make detailed assesments. > > Once such crisis are ended, we should surely analyze our actions and plan > collectively for better interventions in the future. But we should avoid to > have wrong conclusions about actions taken during this crisis. > > The way the report is written, it gives the impression that imprecision in > evaluation of assesment is due to the use of the OpenStreetMap community. > The humanitarian community as a whole did not build before this event the > capacity to react rapidly, deploy teams and provide detailed post-disaster > imagery in other ways then through Satellite. > > In the context of this emergency and with the imagery provided, would > professionnals specialized in damage assesment have scored significantly > better? Due to the limits of such assesments in the operational context of > this operation, analysis should be based on the capacity to identify zones > of high damages and not focus on individual houses. To my point of view, the > objective of that operation following the severed damages after Typhoon > Haiyan was to give an early warning to identify zones and not individual > houses. This would need oblique imagery. > > Thinking about a better workflow in the context of such disasters, the > capacity to have more flexibility and deploy rapidly teams when necessary to > obtain either UAV imagery (drone) or aerial oblique imagery would surely > give a different response, this either with the OpenStreetMap community or > professionnals of damage assesment. > > We surely have a workflow to build and establish the role and limits of > assesments done with aerial imagery in the context of such emergency > operations. > > We should be careful to make the appropriate analysis and not demotivate the > OpenStreetMap community who made such a huge effort for this activation. > > The Red Cross study points to the fact that in most cases the limitation in > damage assesment was the imagery that seemed to show undamaged buildings > when in reality they had sustained damage. But this is not reflected in the > Executive summary and in the Conclusion of the study. This study should be > completed with a better analysis of the type of imagery necessary to make > better asssesment studies. > > > Pierre > > ________________________________ > De : "Banick, Robert" <robert.ban...@redcross.org> > À : "hot@openstreetmap.org" <hot@openstreetmap.org> > Cc : Clay impact <clay.westr...@impact-initiatives.org>; "Kunce, Dale" > <dale.ku...@redcross.org> > Envoyé le : Mercredi 12 février 2014 9h22 > Objet : [HOT] Interim Report: Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) Damage Assessment > > Dear HOT Communuity, > > The American Red Cross and the REACH Initiative are pleased to present an > interim assessment report on the validity of the building damages assessed > through OpenStreetMap in the weeks following Typhoon Haiyan. You can find a > print copy attached and a more interactive website version at the above > link. > > The results were unfortunately negative and underline real limitations in > OpenStreetMap’s ability to capture these results in the present. > Neverthless, this report identifies strong promise in the OSM model of > crowdsourcing and highlights the investments needed to make that potential > possible. It’s our sincere hope that funders, NGO partners and most > especially the OpenStreetMap community will rally around these investments > so that OSM can play an even stronger and more operationally useful role in > future disaster responses. > > We are indebted to the US Agency for International Development’s Office of > Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) for funding this assessment and look > forward to future partnerships to improve the utility of open data and > OpenStreetMap in particular for disaster response. > > With all the best, > Robert Banick, Dale Kunce and Clay Westrope > American Red Cross & REACH Initiative > > Robert Banick | Field GIS Coordinator | International Services | Ì American > Red Cross > 2025 E Street NW, Washington, DC 20006\ > > _______________________________________________ > HOT mailing list > HOT@openstreetmap.org > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/hot > > > > _______________________________________________ > HOT mailing list > HOT@openstreetmap.org > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/hot > -- cheers, maning ------------------------------------------------------ "Freedom is still the most radical idea of all" -N.Branden wiki: http://esambale.wikispaces.com/ blog: http://epsg4253.wordpress.com/ ------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ HOT mailing list HOT@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/hot
