Citation

Xu Z, Lu X, Cheng Q, Guan H, Deng L, Zhang Z. Int. J. Disaster Risk Reduct. 2018; 27: 214-222.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ijdrr.2017.10.008

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Current post-earthquake investigations of building damage are mainly conducted manually, making the collection and management of the investigation data inefficient. To overcome this shortcoming, a professional system for post-earthquake investigations of building damage is proposed herein using smart phones. This system adopts a framework which uses smart phones for distributed data collection and a web browser for centralized data management. A building-oriented database is designed to satisfy the requirements of data organization in the investigations. In addition, a data exchange mechanism between smart phones and the web server is created, demonstrating a satisfactory level of fault-tolerance for various use cases of the system. Further, an algorithm of reverse address retrieval of photos based on multi-threads is designed to conveniently index photos by their addresses. The proposed system is used in a virtual investigation of Tsinghua University campus and a practical investigation of the Tibet area during the 2015 Nepal earthquake. These case studies demonstrate that the proposed system offers an intelligentized, efficient and networked tool for post-earthquake investigations of building damage.

Language: en

Keywords

Building damage; Building-oriented database; Data exchange; Post-earthquake investigation; Reverse address retrieval of photos; Smart phones