When an earthquake happens, one of the most important tasks of disaster managers is to conduct damage assessment; this is mostly done from remotely sensed data. This study presents a new method for building detection and damage assessment using high-resolution satellite images and LiDAR data from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. A graph-cut method is used for building detection due to its advantages compared to traditional methods such as the Hough transform. Results of two methods are compared to understand how much our proposed technique is effective. Afterwards, sensitivity analysis is performed to show the effect of image resolution on the efficiency of our method. Results are in four groups. First: based on two criteria for sensitivity analysis, completeness and correctness, the more efficient method is graph-cut, and the final building mask layer is used for damage assessment. Next, building damage assessment is done using change detection technique from two images from period of before and after the earthquake. Third, to integrate LiDAR data and damage assessment, we showed there is a strong relationship between terrain roughness variables that are calculated using digital surface models. Finally, open street map and normalized digital surface model are used to detect possible road blockages. Results of detecting road blockages showed positive values of normalized digital surface model on the road centerline can represent blockages if we exclude other objects such as cars.

The process of modeling earthquake hazard risk and vulnerability is a prime component of mitigation planning, but is rife with epistemic, aleatory and factual uncertainty. Reducing uncertainty in such models yields significant benefits, both in terms of extending knowledge and increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of mitigation planning. An accurate description of the built environment as an input into loss estimation would reduce factual uncertainty in the modeling process. Building attributes for earthquake loss estimation and risk assessment modeling were identified. Three modules for developing the building attributes were proposed, including structure classification, building footprint recognition and building valuation. Data from primary sources and field surveys were collected from Shelby County, Tennessee, for calibration and validation of the structure type models and for estimation of various components of building value. Building footprint libraries were generated for implementation of algorithms to programmatically recognize two-dimensional building configurations. The modules were implemented to produce a building inventory for Shelby County, Tennessee that may be used effectively in loss estimation modeling. Validation of the building inventory demonstrates effectively that advanced technologies and methods may be effectively and innovatively applied on combinations of primary and derived data and replicated in order to produce a bottom-up, reliable, accurate and cost-effective building inventory.

Este trabalho tem como objeto o estudo do efeito da rigidez de pilar parede no comportamento estrutural de edifícios de concreto armado submetidos a sismos. Foram consideradas as premissas da norma brasileira ABNT NBR15421:2006, que apresenta os critérios para projeto de estruturas resistentes a sismo. A análise linear com emprego dos métodos da norma - método das forças horizontais equivalentes, método espectral e histórico de aceleração no tempo - foi aplicada em edifícios com dois tipos de sistemas estruturais, sendo eles pórtico de concreto e sistema dual pórtico de concreto e pilar parede. Os resultados foram analisados nos pórticos de extremidade das estruturas nos sentidos longitudinal (x) e transversal (y), comparando-se os deslocamentos de cada pavimento e esforços cortantes, momento fletor e normal nas bases dos pilares. A comparação foi realizada entre os três métodos aplicados e os sistemas estruturais analisados. / The aim of this work is to study the stiffness effect of wall columns on structural behavior of reinforced concrete buildings subjected to seismic action. The premises of the Brazilian standard ABNT NBR14521:2006 were considered, which presents criteria for earthquake resistant design of structures. The linear analysis employed the methods of the Brazilian standard - equivalent static load method, response spectrum analysis and time history method - were applied to buildings with two types of structural systems, namely concrete frame and dual system concrete frame and wall columns. The results were analyzed in edge frames structures in the longitudinal and transverse directions, comparing the displacement of each floor and shear, bending moment and axial forces on the bases of the columns. A comparison was made between the three methods applied and the structural systems analyzed.