Haiti earthquake January 2010: damage assessment

A comprehensive atlas of all damage caused in Haiti by the magnitude 7.0 earthquake on 12 January 2010 is now available to help planning recovery and reconstruction measures. The atlas, based on the comparison between pre-disaster satellite imagery and post-disaster aerial photos, provides an overview of building damage in the main affected cities in Haiti showing that almost 60,000 buildings were either destroyed or very heavily damaged. A number of critical infrastructures such as government buildings, educational structures and hospitals have collapsed or are severely damaged.

These findings follow the preliminary rapid damage assessment carried out by the JRC's Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen (IPSC) based on the analysis of very high resolution satellite imagery acquired before and after the disaster.