The Map Room

Google:

It’s been one year since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, and governments and NGOs are continuing to respond, many using high-resolution images of the area. To support these efforts, we’ve updated our aerial imagery in Google Earth of the Port-au-Prince area to include images from before and after the earthquake, as well as made updates throughout 2010. These pictures provide an evolving view of the movement of people, supplies and rubble.

The imagery is available through Google Earth’s historical imagery feature. In addition, the New York Times has taken that imagery and produced an interactive map that allows you to see, very quickly, the differences at several key sites around Port-au-Prince before and after the earthquake as well as one year on (via @HodderGeography).

The USGS released two satellite maps of the post-earthquake situation in Port-au-Prince last week: one in infrared, one in natural colour. Each is a 200-megabyte PDF. The maps are based on imagery we saw in raw form shortly after the quake; it’s since been “geo-corrected, mosaicked, and reproduced onto a cartographic 1:24,000-scale base map.” I can’t help but note that the quake was two months ago. Via USGS.

The mapping of post-earthquake Haiti continues. ReliefWeb has a collection of useful maps, including this OCHA map of population movements out of Port-au-Prince as of last Wednesday. Via geoparadigm.

This video is a visualization of the OpenStreetMap community’s response to the Haitian earthquake. Christopher Osborne explains: “In the video, each flash represents a new edit into OpenStreetMap, and this visualisation is a vivid picture of how much work was contributed by volunteers, following the quake. First the primary and secondary roads (green and red) are added and then smaller residential streets and then many other features such as the blue glowing camps of displaced people that emerge.” Via Mapperz.

NASA has released a post-earthquake radar image of the Port-au-Prince region: “JPL’s Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) captured this false-color composite image of the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and the surrounding region on Jan. 27, 2010. Port-au-Prince is visible near the center of the image. The large dark line running east-west near the city is the main airport. … The large linear east-west valley in the mountains south of the city is the location of the major active fault zone responsible for the earthquake: the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault.”

For previous entries on the Haitian earthquake, see the Haitan Earthquake category archive.

A series of maps based on satellite imagery, including maps of damaged building density and oil spillage, from SERTIT. In English and French. Via Dave Smith. Gaia GPS has released a free iPhone app that is intended to help disaster…  •  Continue reading this entry.

This false-colour image of Haiti was taken by the ASTER instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite yesterday. The 15-cm-resolution imagery I mentioned in an earlier entry is available for download from Google; the very large files are intended for GIS…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Satellite and Aerial Imagery Last night, Google released imagery of Port-au-Prince at even higher resolutions (15 cm) than before (above). The images were taken on Sunday, January 17, and will be available in Google Maps, in Google Earth by some…  •  Continue reading this entry.

NASA’s Earth Observatory on the above image: “While not detailed enough to reveal earthquake damage to houses and buildings, this regional view of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, on January 15, 2010, illustrates some of the physical obstacles that have complicated the…  •  Continue reading this entry.

SERVIR produces maps and data for Central America and the Caribbean, including maps for disaster support. Maps of the Haitian earthquake produced to date include damage assessments from satellite imagery, including damage to Port-au-Prince’s seaport, and a map showing…  •  Continue reading this entry.

The European Space Agency says that new satellite maps of Port-au-Prince are being produced. Data are being collected by various satellites including Japan’s ALOS, CNES’s Spot-5, the U.S.’s WorldView and QuickBird, Canada’s RADARSAT-2, China’s HJ-1-A/B and ESA’s ERS-2 and…  •  Continue reading this entry.

The New York Times has produced an extremely effective interactive map showing satellite imagery of Port-au-Prince before and after the earthquake in Haiti. The trouble with looking at the GeoEye-1 satellite’s post-earthquake imagery in its raw form is that it…  •  Continue reading this entry.

This post will be updated as needed. Earthquake maps of Haiti and the surrounding area from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Earthquake Hazards Program; these include the ShakeMap (above), which maps the intensity of the quake. Google reports that they’re…  •  Continue reading this entry.