UAV remote sensing hazard assessment in Zhouqu debris flow disaster

On August 8, 2010 morning, a large debris flow occurred in Zhouqu County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province, China, which has damaged Zhouqu County and its surrounding area seriously. An UAV and airplane were sent there the day after to acquire images of disaster area; UAV image of 0.2 meter resolution and aerial remote sensing image of 1 meter resolution were acquired. NDRCC compared pre-disaster and post-disaster remote sensing images of disaster area, preliminary analyzed and judged the damage condition and disaster trend. We partitioned the coverage and affected area of debris flow into 2457 girds in high resolution remote sensing images, hazard assessment expert group were sent to implement field investigation according to each grid. The disaster scope and extent of loss were defined again combined with field investigation data. Then we assessed the physical quantity of housing, infrastructure, land resource in detail and assessed the direct economic losses. It is for the first time that remote sensing images are integrated into the national catastrophe assessment flow of China as a major data source.