A geospatial intelligence application to support post-disaster inspections based on local exposure information and on co-seismic DInSAR results: the case of the Durres (Albania) earthquake on November 26, 2019

The current study analyzes how a geospatial intelligence application can turn into a useful operational tool in the immediate post-earthquake phase of infrastructure inspection that may have been affected by the co-seismic ground deformation due to very strong earthquake event. As a case study, the Durres (Central Albania) earthquake on November 26, 2019, has been investigated. In order to achieve this goal, free SAR images of the Sentinel-1 Copernicus satellite in both geometry of acquisition were used to create the differential interferograms and in the next step to convert them into deformation maps through phase unwrapping and convert phase to meters. Interferometric processing steps were carried out by the open and free ESA's SNAP software. Then, from open sources, data were used to identify and localize the exposure in the affected area. By combining (overlapping) the above two datasets of knowledge, a geospatial intelligence tool has been created in which for every element of the exposure that was identified, the ground deformation that the area had suffered due to the strong earthquake was also known.