Image Source: U.S. Geological Survey
On February 6, 2023, Turkey and Syria were hit with a record-breaking 7.8 magnitude earthquake, followed by nearly 1600 aftershocks. The epicenter was located near Gaziantep, a city located in south-central Turkey. The earthquake has caused catastrophic damages to the area. It is a human crisis that deserves action to help the people in need get the basic necessities, find their loved ones, and rebuild the city and home that they love. Approximately 51,000 people have died and rescue efforts remain ongoing over a month after the earthquake. However, it is a complicated rescue effort due to the region being “burdened by war and refugee crisis”. An uprising started in Syria in 2011 against the regime of Bashar al-Assad and led to conflict between rebels and government forces, but has died down since 2019. Since the region has already been facing a humanitarian crisis, they now have to deal with one of the worst earthquakes that has severely affected the livelihoods of its people. On top of that, Turkey`s economy has also been weakening with inflation between 50-90%.
To address how quality of life was affected by the earthquake, we used night light and Landsat data in order to compare pre-earthquake images to post-earthquake images to best analyze the damage. The damage from the civil war was taken into account when analyzing the satellite images, however it may not be as prevalent as conflict has been decreasing in recent years. We believe that quality of life in these regions have greatly been affected by the earthquakes and are able to be seen using satellite imagery.
