Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for geospatial mapping of damage assessment: A study case of the 2021 Mw 6.2 Mamuju-Majene, Indonesia, earthquake during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic

Remote Sens Appl. 2022 Nov:28:100830. doi: 10.1016/j.rsase.2022.100830. Epub 2022 Aug 28.

Abstract

There is an increase in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) after disasters to assess impacts, including damage and losses worldwide in poorer and more prosperous countries. In Indonesia, there is a substantial increase in the use of UAVs to assess post-disaster damages. Unfortunately, there is still a lack of documentation on the lessons on the effectiveness and efficiency of UAVs in post-disaster mappings from Indonesia. This case study research offers lessons and insights from the uses of UAVs to fly above the affected areas of the 2021 Mamuju-Majene earthquake that caused severe damage to buildings in the Mamuju and Majene regencies in the West Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. First, we used a fixed-wing UAV to fly above Simboro district and Mamuju district, and two multirotor UAVs to fly above Simboro district, Mamuju district, Tapalang district and Malunda district. Our result of 2D-UAV maps on the north coast of Simboro district and Mamuju district have been used by the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management (BNPB) for assessment on search and rescue (SAR) and recovery planning in the field.

Keywords: Building damage; COVID-19 pandemic; Field investigation; The 2021 mamuju-majene earthquake; UAV.