Indirect seismic economic loss assessment and  recovery evaluation using nighttime light images  – application for Wenchuan earthquake

Wang, Jianfei; Zhang, Jingfa; Gong, Lixia; Li, Qiang; Zhou, Dan

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-18-3253-2018

Articles | Volume 18, issue 12

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-18-3253-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-18-3253-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 12

Research article

|

10 Dec 2018

Research article |

| 10 Dec 2018

Indirect seismic economic loss assessment and recovery evaluation using nighttime light images – application for Wenchuan earthquake

Jianfei Wang, Jingfa Zhang, Lixia Gong, Qiang Li, and Dan Zhou

Data sets

Version 4 DMSP-OLS nighttime lights time series [EB/OL] National oceanic and atmospheric administration https://ngdc.noaa.gov/eog/dmsp/downloadV4composites.html

Statistical yearbook of Sichuan province [EB/OL] Sichuan provincial bureau of statistics http://www.sc.stats.gov.cn/tjcbw/tjnj/

Short summary

This paper focused on the indirect economic losses caused by the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008 and evaluated the progress of restoration and reconstruction based on nighttime light images. Results show that the GDP has a quadratic function relationship with the total nighttime lights under normal conditions, and the economy of the disaster area after the earthquake showed unstable and turbulent development. This research provides a basis for macro-control of earthquake recovery and reconstruction.