Mapping earthquake damage in VHR radar images of human settlements: preliminary results on the 6th April 2009, Italy case

Automated earthquake damage assessment from post-event only remotely sensed data is highly desirable, especially when new generation, Very High Resolution (VHR) spaceborne data is concerned, lacking extensive pre-event archives. Though, most damage assessment method either rely on human interpretation or on pre-post-event comparison. In this paper we illustrate some possible tracks for investigating damage assessment on post-event only data, focusing on the 6th April 2009 Abruzzi, Italy earthquake and on related COSMO/SkyMed acquisitions.