Inventory Data Capture Tools to Assess Risk from Natural Disasters

The Global Earthquake Model (GEM) represents an open initiative to develop software and tools for assessment of global seismic risk.  This talk will describe an open-source software suite and protocols for populating a Global Exposure Database of structural information being developed by GEM’s Inventory Data Capture Tools (IDCT) risk global component.  Several data collection methods are used: remote sensing, direct field observations, and statistically-inferred mapping schemes.  Data are collected on pre-earthquake inventory, as well as post-event damage: rudimentary building information from optical satellite or aerial sensors, including building footprints and heights.  Field-based observations collected on digital and paper tools by survey teams allow expert users to generate detailed structural information, including structural type, year built, and occupancy. Mapping schemes allow the generation of exposure information for user-defined areas of homogenous urban land use, using sampled field observations.  These methods converge to feed GEM's Global Exposure Database and the Earthquake Consequences Database.