In February this year, a devastating earthquake occurred in the border zone of Turkey and Syria. This earthquake caused enormous damage in both countries and according to media reports, more than 50,000 people have died (JP, ENG). Even now (as of March of 2023) the aftershocks continue, and millions of people are evacuated due to collapsed buildings. In the event of such a large-scale disaster, it is important to quickly identify the affected areas, which have destroyed buildings or infrastructure. Earth observation satellites enable us to capture images of large regions, even when local infrastructure does not exist or is no longer usable. Therefore, we investigated whether the affected areas can be detected from high-resolution satellite images using machine learning algorithms.

日本は国土の約3分の2が森林である、世界有数の森林大国です。樹木は地球温暖化の防止だけでなく、生物多様性の保全など、私たちの生活に無くてはならない働きをする重要な資源です。今回は群馬県の森林率を、衛星画像から推定できるか評価しました。

9月にパリで開催された国際学会IAC2022に参加してきました。当日の学会の様子と得た知見を紹介します。