| dc.description.abstract | Natural disasters have always been and still are a handicap to economic and social development and are characterized by their great destructive power on lives and properties worldwide especially in developing countries. Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world, is characterized by an uncontrolled urbanization and a lack of policies for urban planning and space management that have sharpened the population vulnerability to natural disasters. Recent advancements in remote sensing and its application technologies made it possible to use remotely sensed imagery data for assessing vulnerability of urban areas, for capturing damage distribution due to natural disasters and for determining some relationships between damage levels and certain other factors. In the case of January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti, remotely sensed information have been used by international organizations like the United Nations for determining different damage levels and the preparation of the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment which are being used currently for reconstruction efforts. This thesis allowed giving information about the trends of damage grades and build-up land ages obtained by change detection methods and visual interpretation from 1979 to 2009. With an adequate scientific literature, the methodology followed 3 main steps: 1) change detection analysis and change types classification, 2) determination of build-up land ages and 3) determination of relationships between build-up land ages and building damages levels caused by the earthquake. Actually, this study has revealed the following facts:
remotely sensed information shows, in some specific periods, notably from 1984 to 1989, there is evidence of destruction of forest lands for subsistence farming and wood energy production paving the way for unplanned construction activities;it is demonstrated as well a significant urbanization in the capital city, Port-au-Prince, and in its metropolitan region. In fact, in 2009, 20.19% of the area of Port-au-Prince is detected as build-up land, Cité Soleil and Delmas have respectively 11.02% and 6.75% of their areas assigned to build-up land. In the other municipalities the percentage is lower;build-up areas in the capital city are the oldest, their average age is 28.83 years old followed by Delmas whose buildup lands average age is 25.67 years old. Moreover, in Carrefour, build-up areas are 21.5 years old; in Pétion-Ville they are 20.25 years old and in Cité Soleil they are 19.65 years old; damage grades are scattered oddly inside each municipality, information about damage localization is not available.further studies will show that most of the heaviest damages are undergone by the oldest buildings and most of the youngest buildings undergo the lightest damages.
Based on these results, it is recommended that:
an efficient use of GIS and remote sensing information by authorities to monitor, assess and mitigate natural disasters in the country, and to study risk and vulnerability of the population for a better preparation;
for a better management of the livable space, governmental authorities should apply an integrated plan of management aiming mitigation of disasters impacts on human lives and properties which consists in:
Forecasting, prediction and prevention information
The proper planning of land use
The adoption of protective measures and rules of construction
Development of contingency plans and crisis management.
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