EDAM: Earthquake damage assessment communication system using smartphones

On May 20th and 29th, 2012 two earthquakes of 5.9Mw and 5.8Mw respectively have struck the Emilia Romagna region in Italy, causing 27 deaths and widespread damage. The epicenters were between Finale Emilia and Medolla. The damage assessment after the earthquake was managed from the Italian Emergency Authority, using printed forms (AeDES) which were filled by specialists on site. Since the use of smartphones is becoming more and more spread among the population, its utilization within the field reconnaissance has been proposed in this paper. An application that can be run by normal citizens on smartphones was developed, to give an initial damage evaluation of the area, which is going to be very useful when resources (e.g. the number of specialist is limited). A simplified version of the application was tested for the first time during 2012 Emilia earthquake to enhance the emergency response, showing the efficiency of the proposed method.