The role of national and international geospatial data sources in the management of natural disasters

Abstract. An earthquake occurred at Van City on 23 October 2011 at 13:41 local time. The magnitude, moment magnitude and depth of earthquake were respectively MI:6.7, Mw:7.0 and 19.07 km. Van city centre and its surrounding villages were affected from this destructive earthquake. Many buildings were ruined and approximately 600 people died. Acquisition and use of geospatial data is very important and crucial for the management of such kind of natural disasters. In this paper, the role of national and international geospatial data in the management of Van earthquake is investigated.. With an international collaboration with Charter, pre and post-earthquake satellite images were acquired in 24 hours following the Earthquake. Also General Command of Mapping (GCM), the national mapping agency of Turkey, produced the high resolution multispectral orthophotos of the region. Charter presented the orthophotos through 26–28 October 2012. Just after the earthquake with a quick reaction, GCM made the flight planning of the 1296 km² disaster area to acquire aerial photos. The aerial photos were acquired on 24 October 2012 (one day after the earthquake) by UltraCamX large format digital aerial camera. 152 images were taken with 30 cm ground sample distance (GSD) by %30 sidelap and %60 overlap. In the evening of same flight day, orthophotos were produced without ground control points by direct georeferencing and GCM supplied the orthophotos to the disaster management authorities. Also 45 cm GSD archive orthophotos, acquired in 2010, were used as a reference in order to find out the effects of the disaster. The subjects written here do not represent the ideas of Turkish Armed Forces.