Assessment of Advanced Technologies for Loss Estimation, by David Tralli (MCEER -00-SP02), describes the current state of advanced airborne and space borne remote sensing and ground-based technologies applicable to earthquake hazard mitigation. The report reviews three advanced technologies in detail: seismological systems, the Global Positioning System (GPS) and remote sensing.

The emergence of airborne and space borne remote sensing systems, from optical to microwave spectral bands, has created arguably the most significant opportunity for improving loss estimation methodologies. When fully operational for natural hazards risk management applications sometime in the next decade, these systems and attendant data visualization technologies will provide enhanced measurement accuracy, near-real-time capability, greater geographic coverage and hold the promise of reduced operational cost.

This 80-plus page report, produced on CD-ROM, contains many links to Internet sites, numerous references to additional resources on the topic, two examples of the resolution provided by LiDAR (fly-through files of a 1-m digital elevation model (DEM) collected over Baltimore, Maryland, using the Optech ALTM airborne laser terrain mapping system flown by Airborne-1 Corp), as well as recommendations for future research. The report is in PDF format, and requires Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 4.05 to view. It is available from MCEER Publications for $25.00.

For more information, visit the Special Publications section of our web site at http://mceer.buffalo.edu/publications/default.asp.