User image mining for natural hazards

Natural hazards such as floods, avalanches, volcanic eruptions or earthquakes inflict losses to human settlements and manmade infrastructure and have negative impact on the local economy and environment. The growing number of satellite missions and space services facilitates the access to information for researches and decision makers. Space imagery offers the necessary support for risk prevention and mitigation, but requires human visual inspection which can be subjective, time consuming and ineffective. This paper aims to prove the efficiency of an intelligent knowledge driven EO information mining system in supporting natural hazards' management, by combining large database systems with visual capabilities. Two scenarios are envisaged both considering damage assessment for natural hazards like earthquakes and tsunami.