First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest sympathies to everyone affected by the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake. I sincerely pray for your safety and the swift recovery of the affected areas.
I am pleased to announce the publication of my single-authored paper, "Report on the Drone Survey of the Fire Sites in the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake," in the Journal of Japan Association for Fire Science and Engineering (JAFSE) Fire Vol. 74 No. 4 (2024. 8).
This paper reports the findings of aerial photography and photogrammetry surveys utilizing small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones), which I conducted on February 10-11, 2024, as part of the field investigation by the JAFSE Earthquake Fire Specialist Committee.
The surveys were conducted at four fire sites: the large-scale urban fire near Asaichi-dori in Kawai-cho, Wajima City; the tsunami-inundated areas of Shiromaru in Noto Town and Ukai in Suzu City; and the landslide-affected area of Nafune-machi in Wajima City.
In addition to "aerial photo and video shooting" from high altitudes, the paper details the results of "mass continuous aerial photogrammetry," which enabled comprehensive understanding of both the overall picture and fine details of the damage. This process generated highly accurate electronic data, including "orthorectified visible images," "Digital Surface Models (DSM)," and "3D models". These 3D datasets allow for the quantitative measurement and analysis of building collapse conditions and the height of explosion marks.
Furthermore, toward the development of guidelines for drone utilization in future post-earthquake fire investigations, this paper outlines and proposes solutions for several key challenges: flight applications within Emergency Operation Airspaces, privacy protection regarding high-resolution imagery, the intellectualization of analytical data, and collaboration with affected municipalities and fire departments.
I hope this research will contribute to future disaster prevention and mitigation efforts, as well as the establishment of safer and more effective survey methods at fire sites.
You can read the full paper (in Japanese) at the link below.
