Abstract
Abstract. Rapid and accurate assessment of the state of buildings in the aftermath of a disaster event is critical for an effective and timely response. For rapid damage assessment of buildings, the utility of remote sensing (RS) technology has been widely researched, with focus on a range of platforms and sensors. However, RS-based approaches still have limitations to assess structural integrity and the specific damage status of individual buildings. Structural integrity refers to the ability of a building to hold the entire structure. Consequently, ground-based assessment conducted by structural engineers and first responders is still required. This paper demonstrates the concept of mobile augmented reality (mAR) to improve performance of building damage and safety assessment in situ. Mobile AR provides a means to superimpose various types of reference or pre-disaster information (virtual data) on actual post-disaster building data (real buildings). To adopt mobile AR, this study defines a conceptual framework based on the level of complexity (LOC). The framework consists of four LOCs, and for each of these, the data types, required processing steps, AR implementation and use for damage assessment are described. Based on this conceptualization we demonstrate prototypes of mAR for both indoor and outdoor purposes. Finally, we conduct a user evaluation of the prototypes to validate the mAR approach for building damage and safety assessment.
Highlights
Natural disasters bring about economic damage and victims, and despite signs of a decline in the number of events in recent years, between about 300 and 500 events are recorded worldwide annually, with total damage frequently exceedingUSD 100 billion (Kerle and Alkema, 2012)
The rapidly growing use of mobile devices means that mobile augmented reality (mAR) can be adopted at a lower cost but with higher usability than traditional Augmented reality (AR)
With the development of new technologies such as wearable devices and 3-D mobile scanners, and improvements in the mobile devices themselves, it is expected that mAR will play a major role in comprehensive and rapid building assessment
Summary
Natural disasters bring about economic damage and victims, and despite signs of a decline in the number of events in recent years, between about 300 and 500 events are recorded worldwide annually, with total damage frequently exceedingUSD 100 billion (Kerle and Alkema, 2012). After the occurrence of a disaster event, in particular in urban areas, rapid and accurate building damage and safety evaluation is critical. The former only provides information on the physical level of impairment of a structure, while the latter assesses to what extent buildings can be safely entered, which takes the state of adjacent buildings into account. Building safety inspection is related to building usage after disaster events; time delays before buildings can be declared safe again translate into economic losses (Dai et al, 2011). A comprehensive and rapid assessment of building stock following disaster events is a prerequisite for effective rehabilitation and reconstruction
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
