Displaying earthquake damage an urban area using a Vegetation-Impervious-Soil model and remotely sensed data

The aim of this study was to use remotely sensed data to record earthquake-induced land cover change. On 17 August 1999, an earthquake struck northwestern Turkey, at 3:01:17 a.m. local time and lasted about 40 seconds. The most heavily damaged area was around the Gulf of Izmit and the city of Adapazari. The towns of Golcuk and Yalova, along the southern shore of the Gulf, the harbour city of Izmit at the eastern end of the Gulf, the town of Sapanca about 40 km east of Izmit and the city of Adapazari 50 km east of Izmit were sites of massive structural damage and extensive ground failure. The pre-earthquake and post-earthquake SPOT HRV images of the city of Adapazari were geometrically corrected and classified and revealed that 7.1 % of the post-earthquake area comprised collapsed buildings. The trend and relative magnitude of earthquake-induced land cover change were displayed using the Vegetation, Impervious, Soil (V-I-S) model.