A Rapid Public Health Needs Assessment Framework for after Major Earthquakes Using High-Resolution Satellite Imagery

Abstract

Background: Earthquakes causing significant damage have occurred frequently in China, producing enormous health losses, damage to the environment and public health issues. Timely public health response is crucial to reduce mortality and morbidity and promote overall effectiveness of rescue efforts after a major earthquake. Methods: A rapid assessment framework was established based on GIS technology and high-resolution remote sensing images. A two-step casualties and injures estimation method was developed to evaluate health loss with great rapidity. Historical data and health resources information was reviewed to evaluate the damage condition of medical resources and public health issues. Results: The casualties and injures are estimated within a few hours after an earthquake. For the Wenchuan earthquake, which killed about 96,000 people and injured about 288,000, the estimation accuracy is about 77%. 242/294 (82.3%) of the medical existing institutions were severely damaged. About 40,000 tons of safe drinking water was needed every day to ensure basic living needs. The risk of water-borne and foodborne disease, respiratory and close contact transmission disease is high. For natural foci diseases, the high-risk area of schistosomiasis was mapped in Lushan County as an example. Finally, temporary settlements for victims of earthquake were mapped. Conclusions: High resolution Earth observation technology can provide a scientific basis for public health emergency management in the major disasters field, which will be of great significance in helping policy makers effectively improve health service ability and public health emergency management in prevention and control of infectious diseases and risk assessment.

Safety or Travel: Which Is More Important? The Impact of Disaster Events on Tourism

“…Among various natural disasters, earthquakes are one of the most severe and unpreventable catastrophic events [27]. They can lead to incalculable environmental damage, building damage, loss of life, population displacement, and epidemics that threaten human health [43]. Taking the 9•21 earthquake in Taiwan in 1999 as an example, 2400 people died, 8000 people were injured and 100,000 people became homeless in this earthquake (TBT, 2000).…”

Computational Socioeconomics

“…For some isolated earthquake areas with uneven damage distribution, RS-based damage assessment can promote the effectiveness of rescue efforts. By leveraging GIS technology and high-resolution satellite images, Zhao et al [798] developed an assessment framework to rapidly evaluate health loss. Their method can estimate casualties and injuries with an accuracy 0.77 within a few hours for the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake.…”

Earthquake-hit Population Spatial Evaluation Based on Correlation Characteristics and BP Neural Network

“…Strong earthquakes have continued to appear worldwide in the past two decades (Rossetto et al, 2007;Lara et al, 2016;Shimada, 2016). People injured or killed by the earthquake could range from a few to tens of thousands of people, distributed in different spatial locations (Zhao et al, 2018). Although the concerns of seismic problem continue to deepen and the seismic awareness of human is constantly enhanced, within the past decades, the active activities of geological structures are still affecting the environment of anthroposphere (Sun et al, 2016;Wu et al, 2020;Santos-Reyes and Gouzeva, 2020;Luo et al, 2021).…”