Liquefaction identification using class-based sensor independent approach based on single pixel classification after 2001 Bhuj, India earthquake

A strong earthquake with magnitude 7.7 that shook the Indian Province of Gujarat on the morning of January 26, 2001 caused wide spread destruction and casualties. Earthquake-induced ground failures, including liquefaction and lateral spreading, were observed in many areas. Optical remote sensing offers an excellent opportunity to understand the post-earthquake effects both qualitatively and quantitatively. The impact of using conventional indices from Landsat-7 temporal images for the liquefaction is empirically investigated and compared with class-based sensor independent (CBSI) indices, while applying possibilistic fuzzy classification as a soft computing approach via supervised classification. Five spectral indices, namely simple ratio (SR), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), transformed normalized difference vegetation index (TNDVI), soil-adjusted vegetation index (SAVI), and modified normalized difference water index (MNDWI) are investigated to identify liquefaction using temporal multi-spectral images. A soft-computing based fuzzy algorithm, which is independent of statistical distribution data assumption, is used to extract a single land cover class from remote sensing multi-spectral images. The result indicates that appropriately used indices can incorporate temporal variations, while extracting liquefaction with soft computing techniques for coarser spatial resolution with temporal remote sensing data. It is found that CBSI-NDVI with temporal data was good for extraction liquefaction while CBSI-TNDVI with temporal data was good for extraction water bodies. (C) 2012 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). [DOI: 10.1117/1.JRS.6.063531]