High Resolution Imagery Collection Utilizing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for Post-Disaster Studies

Published

October 24, 2012

Author(s)

Stuart M. Adams, Marc Levitan, Friedland J. Carol

Abstract

This paper examines the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as platforms to capture imagery at the neighborhood and individual building level for use in post-disaster field studies. Applications of UAVs in recent disasters as described in the literature are reviewed, and a case study investigating UAV capabilities for imagery collection following the EF-3 tornado impacting northern Alabama on March 2, 2012 is presented. Topics addressed include the multi-rotor UAV equipment and setup, imagery devices, flight considerations and capabilities, and imagery and metadata collection capabilities of the unmanned aerial system (UAS). Sample post-tornado imagery of building damage is shown, demonstrating the order of magnitude improvement in imagery resolution compared to typical post-disaster aerial photography.

Proceedings Title

Advances in Hurricane Engineering, Learning from Our Past: Proceedings of the 2012 ATC & SEI Conference on Advances in
Hurricane Engineering

Conference Dates

October 24-26, 2012

Conference Location

Miami, FL, US

Conference Title

ATC-SEI Advances in Hurricane Engineering Conference

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

UAVs, unmanned aerial vehicles, disaster investigation, disaster assessment, multi-hazards, data collection, imagery collection, unmanned aerial systems, UASs

Citation

Adams, S. , Levitan, M. and Carol, F. (2012), High Resolution Imagery Collection Utilizing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for Post-Disaster Studies, Advances in Hurricane Engineering, Learning from Our Past: Proceedings of the 2012 ATC & SEI Conference on Advances in Hurricane Engineering , Miami, FL, US, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=911420 (Accessed October 13, 2025)