Rapid Damage Mapping in Areas of Conflict by Means of Sentinel-1 Time Series: The Kyiv Test Case

The all-weather capabilities of SAR satellite sensors make them a powerful tool for the regular and consistent monitoring of large areas of interest. In particular, they could be used to gather information that would be otherwise difficult to obtain with in-situ campaigns, as for instance when it comes to assess the extent of damages in the aftermath of disastrous events. In this paper we show how the PELT change point detection algorithm can be used to analyze time series of Sentinel-1 images for rapid damage mapping in areas of conflict. Despite the sensor’s limited spatial resolution, the results show that, even with relatively short time series and using both polarizations, it is possible to achieve satisfactory detection rates.