In the wake of the earthquake that devastated Haiti, UB geography students participated in a global effort to enhance the international response and recovery effort by helping to assess damage, using images hosted by Google Earth and the Virtual Disaster Viewer, which shares on the Internet imagery of disasters from various sources.

Eight graduate and undergraduate students conducted the research under the director of Chris Renschler, associate professor of geography, in his Landscape-based Environmental Systems Analysis and Modeling Laboratory.  Within two weeks, more than 10,000 buildings were identified as either totally destroyed or heavily damaged.  The Internet-based images were used by the World Bank to help create a picture of reconstruction and recovery needs.
 

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