Spatial Sciences Laboratory

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAG-FOR), Nicaragua contacted the Spatial Sciences Laboratory (SSL) to assist them in estimating the areas impacted by Hurricane Mitch shortly after November 1998. The objective was to identify the location of mudslides and landslides off of satellite imagery and estimate the land area impacted by hurricane Mitch in Nicaragua. Data obtained by RADARSAT and LANDSAT TM were used for this purpose. RADAR data was obtained shortly after the hurricane event, two sets of TM scenes were obtained, one prior to the hurricane and one immediately after. This enabled us to compare the land cover before and after the hurricane.