Advanced Research on Potential of Remote Sensing - A Review Based on Natural Disasters Occurred during the Last Decade in Chile

Over the past decade, Chile has suffered from a series of natural disasters. Through natural disasters
that have occurred during the past ten years in Chile, it is exemplified how observations acquired by
different Remote Sensing sensors nowadays available, have been used successfully on several
occasions. The examples presented in this article are based on the earthquake and tsunami in
February 2010, and volcanic eruptions in 2008 and 2011, forest fires in 2012 and droughts since
2010. Furthermore, those remote sensing platforms are presented that are most relevant for modern
disaster management. Although damage registration is the most known application in public, Remote
Sensing can also be used in all the other phases in a modern disaster management cycle: Mitigation,
Preparedness, Response and Recovery. Therefore, this article also shows how and in which situation
remotely sensed data can be useful. As Remote Sensing can be considered as one of the most
important tools in the field of natural disaster management we conclude that in a country like Chile, its
usage must be intensified to overcome any type of natural disaster and its destructive impacts. In the
future it is expected that remote sensing will be an even stronger and more useful tool in the
management of natural disasters due to the availability of continuously taken images and the
improvement of spatial and spectral resolution of satellite observations.