The uses of Remote

Sensing in the
studying of Natural
Hazards.
Baptiste Meignan
22 October 2018
In the context of a remote sensing report.

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Summary
Introduction....................................................................................................... 3
Part I: Lightnings ................................................................................................ 4
Definition......................................................................................................... 4
Remote Sensing involvement........................................................................... 5
Part II: Liquefaction ........................................................................................... 5
Definition......................................................................................................... 6
Remote Sensing involvement........................................................................... 6
Part III: Submarine Slides ............................................................................... 7
Definition......................................................................................................... 7
Remote Sensing involvement........................................................................... 8
Part IV: Desertification ................................................................................... 8
Definition......................................................................................................... 8
Remote Sensing involvement........................................................................... 9
Part V: Pyroclastic Flows ...............................................................................10
Definition....................................................................................................... 10
Remote Sensing involvement......................................................................... 11
Conclusion ....................................................................................................11
Sources .........................................................................................................13

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Introduction
Remote sensing is the process of detecting and monitoring the physical
characteristics of an area by measuring its reflected and emitted radiation at a
distance from the targeted area (USGS, What is remote sensing and what it is
used for?). There are numerous ways to achieve a remote sensing activity, such
as satellites, cameras attached to an airplane (or a drone) or sonar systems.
These are used in very different sectors, from urbanism to oceanography or
meteorology or, and it is what our interest is in, preventing natural hazards.

What is a natural hazard?

Natural hazards can be defined as “those elements of the physical environment,
harmful to man and caused by forces extraneous to him” (Burton I. and al.,
1979). But the definition of what is a natural hazard is not the same according to
different sources. For the OAS (Organisation of American States), natural
hazards don’t include biological hazards (diseases or plagues), or they are not
treated in their analysis (Disasters, planning and development. Managing
natural hazards to reduce loss., 1990). But the definition of the IFRC
(International Federation of the Red Cross), which include the biological
hazards, no details are developed.
What will we do?
The goal of this work is to study the uses of the remote sensing technics in the
prevention and managing of the natural hazards. But, according to the OAS
study, there is 33 different hazards possible (without any biological hazards
counting). Quickly, we understand that it will be impossible for us to treat all of
them here, so we will take one of them for each category, allowing us to treat
not 33 hazards, but 5. All of them are listed beyond:
- Atmospheric: Lightning
- Seismic: Liquefaction
- Geologic/Hydrologic: Submarine Slides
- Hydrologic: Desertification
- Volcanic: Pyroclastic flows

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Part I: Lightnings

A barrage of Lightning flashes near a mesocyclone in Weston, Missouri, Jason Weingart.

Definition

Basically, lightning is a giant spark of electricity in the atmosphere between

clouds, the air, or the ground (NSSL, Severe weather 101, Lightnings basics).
To go further, lightnings happen when the electric charge in a cloud build up to
a point where the air between it and the ground (or another cloud) is not enough
insulating, provoking a “crack”. There are two phases during a lightning event:
- The crack himself, which free tiny and almost invisible bolts known as
“trackers”, or “Stepped leader” (which have been exposed by the
Lichtenberg figures in 1777). Their job is to find a way to the nearest
point where the main current can discharge by travelling “randomly”
through the air (in fact, they travel through the easiest way at a given time
electrically talking).
- The lightning, when a tracker hit a point on the ground or in another
cloud, is the massive discharge of electricity. This phenomenon can be
compared to a capacitor discharge: all the energy in the capacitor is
released when it is used. The only difference is the amount of energy and
the fact that you can control a capacitor.

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Finally, lightnings events always happen with more great hazards, like tornadoes
or hurricanes, but they also occur in more common storms, or less common in
hailstorms, and during volcanic eruptions.

Remote Sensing involvement.

To study the lightning events, the NSSL describe his material in his site:
- Instrumented balloons that can be launched from a specific vehicle.
- Aircrafts
- Ground based instruments (such as mapping arrays)
- The GOES-R (satellite) equipped with geostationary lightning mapper.
- PGLM (Pseudo-Geostationary Lightning Mapper), using data from
mapping arrays.
All the data from these is used by models to determine weather events, like
thunderstorms or associated severe weathers.
Indeed, there is no way of fully prevent these events, but using statistics data and
models permit to accomplish forecasting work. Also, organisms that study
lightnings are involved in the security campaigns to inform people about what to
do in case of lightning events.

Part II: Liquefaction

Soil liquefaction during an earthquake, 1964, Niigata, Japan

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Definition

The soil liquefaction was first described by A. Hazen in 1918 in the Engineering
News-Report, and in another article the same year in the same paper (Hazen and
L. Metcalf, 1918). Hazen gave us the following description of the phenomenon:
A phenomenon whereby a saturated or partially saturated soil substantially loses
strength and stiffness in response to an applied stress […] causing it to behave
like a liquid. (Hazen, 1918)
The change of stress is commonly an earthquake, but every sudden change of
the stress conditions on water saturated soils can cause a liquefaction.

Remote Sensing involvement.

To illustrate the methods used to prevent and forecast liquefication events, we’ll
take the example of the liquefactions induced by the Bhuj earthquake in 2001,
and describe the remote sensing methods used in the following study:
Mapping the liquefaction induced soil moisture changes using remote sensing
technique: an attempt to map the earthquake induced liquefaction around Bhuj,
Gujarat, India, D. Ramakrishnan and al, Geotechnical and Geological
Engineering (2006) 24: 1581–1602.
The basic concept they used is simple: near and shortwave infrareds are highly
absorbed by the moisture saturated soils. So, the reflectance of the soils is
inversely related to the soil saturation. Knowing that, they used three different
sensors embarked on the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (or IRS-1C):
- The Wide Field Sensor (WiFS): NIR and Red bands, resolution of 188m.
- Linear Imaging Self-scanning Sensor (LISS-III): from Green to SWIR,
resolution of 23.5m.
- Panchromatic (PAN): Visible, resolution of 5.8m.
Field data are also used, adapting them to GIS using ARCInfo.
All this result in a GIS database about liquefaction criteria.

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Part III: Submarine Slides

Definition Photo taken from MBARI News - Researchers report on submarine landslide hazards (2000).

A submarine landslide is just like a regular landslide. The real difference is the
environment. In fact, in water the sediments of a landslide can create devastative
consequences such as turbidity currents, known for being strong enough to cut
submarine cables. In some case, it can also generate tsunamis. They also can
cover more distance (up to 100 km according to J. Locat and H.J. Lee, 2000).
The factors that can trigger a submarine slide are various, like gas liberation,
earthquakes, import of sediments, etc. These events provoke a detachment of the
sea bed of the continental shelf, resulting in rock falls, debris flows and
sediment transportation. Nowadays, most of the diffusion process is still
ununderstood.

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Remote Sensing involvement.

Today, to study the submarines landslides, the most effective way is to use
multibeam echo sounder. That’s why studying these formations were hard
before the 21st century: most of the data was obtained by side-scan sonar and
sparsely spaced single beam echo-sounders lines. The resemblance between the
resulting map and the actual sea floor was insufficient to perform quality
researches, especially on large landslides. (Moore and Normark 1994, Schwab et
al.1991)
The multibeam, contrary to the insufficient old methods, provide an aerial
photo-like quality. The only default that it shares with the single beam echo
sounder is that we’re unable to determine the sea floor nature with these
instruments. To do so, you must use seismic survey instruments, such as bolters
or the different types of guns. (note that the use of them is limited due to their
impact on the environment)
For mapping the sea floor, LIDAR technologies are also used, even using drones
on low depth zones.
To conclude this part, we would say that the mapping of the seabed cannot be
used to prevent properly these events. Most of the useful data is obtained by
seismic and surveys.

Part IV: Desertification

Definition

Desertification is a phenomenon that was at first described by popular science,

which induced a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding. The results of this
was suggested solutions to this hazards that didn’t relied on any scientific basis,
and often intensified the initial problem rather than stop it.
Even in the scientific world, the definition given depend on the source, the
intentions of the author, and the places studied. Cause the desertification hazards
can be seen in both arid and semi-arid climates, and the processes, causes, and
consequences differ widely depending on it.

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A global definition is given by the OAS, but they precise that this definition is
not a hundred percent true (depending on the factors cited below):
“Desertification will be looked at through the phenomena of waterlogging,
salinization, increased soil temperature and aridity, increased dune formation
decreased soil organic matter, and increased albedo.” (OAS, Primer on Naturel
Hazard Management in Integrated Regional Development Planning, 1991)

Remote Sensing involvement.

As well as the part II, we will take a specific study as example of what can be
done using remote sensing.
In that case, we will look at the following study: Assessment of land cover
change and desertification using remote sensing technology in a local region of
Mongolia, L. Munkhnasan and al., Advances in Space Research, vol. 57, issue 1,
2016.
In this paper, the point is to study the evolution of the Hogno Khaan protected
area. To achieve this, the authors used Landsat TM/ETM+ data on a local scale.
The Landsat data is data recorded by two satellites (Landsat 7 and 8) using
electromagnetic radiation from the earth (the same type of data used in the part
II), under the direction of the USGS (United States Geological Survey). All the
data in the USGS archive is free to use.
In this case, the data was interpreted in three different ways:
- The NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index)
- The TGSI (Topsoil Grain Size Index)
- The Albedo (reflectance of the surfaces studied)
The goal was to compare the different values of theses indexes between 1990
and 2011 to determine correlations between them and evaluates the rate of
desertification of the land cover.

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Part V: Pyroclastic Flows

Pyroclastic flow during August 7, 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption.

Definition

According to the USGS Volcano hazards website, a pyroclastic flow has two
defined parts: the basal flow, constituted of the coarse fragments like rocks and
lava blocks, and a turbulent cloud composed of ashes and volcanic gas. The
ensemble move downside the side of the volcano, following the valleys, at very
high speed. The wind can also disperse the ashes on a wide area downwind the
flow.
The formation in the pyroclastic flow can form in three different ways:
- The collapse of the eruption column of an explosive eruption
- A “Boiling over” during an explosive eruption (the formation of a low
altitude column that quickly collapse to run down slope)
- The collapse of the steep front a lava dome or flow due to the gravity
(For the humoristic quote, the USGS give us this advice: “If you witness a
pyroclastic flow, run in the opposite direction”. Seriously? I thought it was safer
inside.)
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Remote Sensing involvement.

The example taken will be the following study:

Mapping Pyroclastic Flow Inundation Using Radar and Optical Satellite
Images and Lahar Modeling, C. Lee and al, Journal of sensors, Volume 2018,
ID 8217565.
This study’s objective is to forecast the damage done by a pyroclastic flow by
studying the morphologic changes of the Sinabung volcano before and during
the eruption (inflation and deflation) between 2007 and 2011 (eruption in 2010).
Using that, the idea was to prevent the damage of a potential flow for the 2018
eruption.
To achieve this, the used data are the Landsat 7 ETM+ data from the 30 Jul.
2012 for the optical component, ALOS/PALSAR (also satellites, but Japanese)
for the radar dataset. The authors used 20 radar images from 20 Feb. 2007 to 16
Jan. 2011.
In addition, they used a flow inundation model: LAHARZ. This model is based
on statistical and physical equation on the comportment of the pyroclastic flows
and is used worldwide to forecast the phenomenon’s impacts.
The article was made and sent to the journal in 2017. The “irony” is that the
article was published in March of 2018, that mean one month after the dramatic
eruption that devastated villages with a pyroclastic flow.

Conclusion

All the hazards that we looked at could have been considered as “side-effects”
of greater phenomenon, such as earthquakes, flooding, drought, hurricanes, …
So why did we didn’t treat them instead of the presents hazards? Because even
if they are “dependants” of other disasters, they still have their own behaviour
that are independents and can’t be treated the same way. Furthermore
Finally, what can we say after all this?

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The more used remote sensing methods are the satellites data, and particularly
the free access data from the governmental organisms around the world. The
only “problem” with this data is that it often need correction to be applied, like
atmospheric influence correction.
Still, in some case, the field data obtained by surveying campaigns is preferred,
mostly because of the more precise and, for the radar data used by C. Lee and al
for example, way cheaper. But as they say themselves, commanding a campaign
in such conditions as an active volcano is too dangerous.
Most of the studies cited before use flowchart to describe the methods that they
must convert the raw data to a usable data, mostly raster data.
That’s why the on-land remote sensing is performed mostly by satellites and
aircraft (and sometime drones at a smaller scale) when it comes to hazards
study. Furthermore, this kind of data is really adapted to a raster use, which is
the more adapted format to compare environmental events in most cases.

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Sources
- What is remote sensing and what it is used for?, USGS
(https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-remote-sensing-and-what-it-used?qt-
news_science_products=7#qt-news_science_products)
- The Environment as Hazards, Burton I. and al, Geographical Journal,
March 1979
- Disasters, planning and development. Managing natural hazards to
reduce loss., Department of Regional Development and Environment
Executive Secretariat for Economic and Social Affairs Organization of
American States, 1990
- Severe weather 101, Lightnings basics, NSSL
(https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/lightning/)
- NSSL Research: Lightning, NSSL,
(https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/research/lightning/)
- Middle Section of Upstream Side of Calaveras Dam Slips Into Reservoir,
A. Hazen and L. Metcalf, Engineering News-Report, volume 80, 1874
(archive at: https://archive.org/details/engineeringnewsr80newy/page/678)
- Mapping the liquefaction induced soil moisture changes using remote
sensing technique: an attempt to map the earthquake induced liquefaction
around Bhuj, Gujarat, India, D. Ramakrishnan and al, Geotechnical and
Geological Engineering (2006) 24: 1581–1602.
- Submarine Landslides: Advances and Challenges, J. Locat and H.J. Lee,
Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Landslides, Cardiff,
U.K., June 2000
- Giant Hawaiian landslides. Moore, J.G., and Normark, W.R, Annual
Reviews in Earth and Planetary Sciences 22: 119-144, 1994
- Primer on Naturel Hazard Management in Integrated Regional
Development Planning, Department of Regional Development and
Environment Executive Secretariat for Economic and Social Affairs
Organization of American States, 1991
- Assessment of land cover change and desertification using remote sensing
technology in a local region of Mongolia, L. Munkhnasan and al.,
Advances in Space Research, vol. 57, issue 1, 2016
- USGS Volcano Hazards Program, USGS
(https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vhp/pyroclastic_flows.html)

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- Mapping Pyroclastic Flow Inundation Using Radar and Optical Satellite
Images and Lahar Modelling, C. Lee and al, Journal of sensors, Volume
2018, ID 8217565.

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