[HOT] Map4Haiti Matthew Hurricane - A premiere - 15km2 of UAV images for damage evaluation

[Pierre Béland]

Two weeks after the Hurricane Matthew landing in Haiti, more then 1.4 million people need help and the situation is still very precarious. Many villages have not yet received aid. The already precarious health services prior to the earthquake were severly hit. MSF reports that 23 health centers were damaged or partially destroyed. The cholera epidemic risk worries health organizations. New tropical depressions arrived on Haiti still causing flooding and increasing landslide risks.

Reconstructio Programs are planned by International organiztions. The first step is to assess the extent of damages and estimate the necessary financial effort.

UAV Images covering 15km2

A Premiere with humanitarian responses, high precision UAV images covering over 15km2 and ten sites are available. They are hosted on the OSM-fr WMS and TMS servers. These images are targeting localities highly affected by the hurricane. They complete the information provided by the post-disaster satellite images. Since yesterday, the UAVCompare online map shows the Before / After panels that let observe the magnitude of the disaster. Pre-disaster images taken by plane are made available by the CNIGS Haitian geospatial agency. See
http://pierzen.dev.openstreetmap.org/swipe/UAVCompare-Haiti-Matthews-before-after.php

UAV images are often up to 10 times more accurate than the satellite images. Zoom in on these UAV images and see what details they provide on the  building structures in the various communities. You can judge by yourself how they can be used for damage assessment. Remember, experienced contributors are invited to contact us to contribute to the assessment of damages.
See http://taches.francophonelibre.org/

UAV's field missions were carried out by two teams, working in difficult conditions and reduced material means. Our colleagues Fred Moine and Presler Jean of the Haitian NGO Potentiel3.0 and Nicolas Clarens, a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank, organized the field missions.

Flight plans, field image collection missions, processing and transfer of data are essential tasks for the success of such operations. Despite the material difficulties, problems with electrical power and internet transfer, Fred, Presler and Xavier have treatment from personal computers, and makes the transfer of data to the OSM server-France. Jean-Guilhem Cailton then took the baton, converted these images when necessary, and incorporated them to servers WMS and TMS OSM-Fr.

With heavy rain and the damaged bridge on the main road to the south peninsula, Fred and Presler have difficulty to reach the affected areas. Nevertheless, they continue their efforts and will organize UAV flight missions over areas at risk of landslides.

Hats off to all those colleagues who have managed to work just in time with very few resources and deliver stunning images. 
 
Pierre twitter pierzen
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