The 2011 tsunami caused by the Tohoku Region Pacific Offshore Earthquake caused severe damage. In particular, the city of Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, a coastal city in the Tohoku district, sustained enormous damage, and long-term revitalization process is in progress. For this disaster, several satellite observations and remote disaster investigations by aerial photography were conducted, and various damage situations were reported. Although there are many interpretations of images, few continuously evaluate the recovery process after the disaster. Here, land cover was investigated using image information observed time-sequentially by high-resolution satellite remote sensing. In addition, the re-urbanization process of the disaster area was evaluated from evaluation index values obtained from several types of filtering analysis. The distribution of debris caused by the tsunami, the change in the characteristics of the bare ground due to debris removal, and the characteristics of the land cover shape were quantitatively evaluated from the regularity and identity of the land cover distribution. In addition, the early stages of re-urbanization, which is still in progress, were effectively evaluated.
The Mw 9.0 earthquake that struck Japan in 2011 was followed by a large-scale tsunami in the Tohoku region. The damage in the coastal plane was extensively displayed through many satellite images. Furthermore, satellite imaging is requested for the ongoing evaluation of the restoration process. The reconstruction of the urban structure, farmlands, grassland, and coastal forest that collapsed under the large tsunami requires effective long-term monitoring. Moreover, the post-tsunami land cover dynamics can be effectively modeled using time-constrained satellite data to establish a prognosis method for the mitigation of future tsunami impact. However, the remote satellite capture of a long-term restoration process is compromised by accumulating spatial resolution effects and seasonal influences. Therefore, it is necessary to devise a method for data selection and dataset structure. In the present study, the restoration processes were investigated in four years following the disaster in a part of the Sendai plain, northeast Japan, from same-season satellite images acquired by different optical sensors. Coastal plains struck by the tsunami are evaluated through land-cover classification processing using the clustering method. The changes in land cover are analyzed from time-series optical images acquired by Landsat-5/TM, 7/ETM+, 8/OLI, EO-1/ALI, and ALOS-1/AVNIR-2. The study reveals several characteristics of the change in the inundation area and signs of artificial and natural restoration.
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