Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis: Damage Assessment in Urban Areas of Ukraine Using Sentinel-1 SAR Data

Cultural property includes immovable assets that are part of a nation’s cultural heritage and reflect the cultural identity of a people. Hence, information about armed conflict’s impact on historical buildings’ structures and heritage sites is extremely important. The study aims to demonstrate the application of Earth observation (EO) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology, and in particular Sentinel-1 SAR coherence time-series analysis, to monitor spatial and temporal changes related to the recent Russian–Ukrainian war in the urban areas of Mariupol and Kharkiv, Ukraine. The study considers key events during the siege of Mariupol and the battle of Kharkiv from February to May 2022. Built-up areas and cultural property were identified using freely available OpenStreetMap (OSM) data. Semi-automated coherent change-detection technique (CCD) that utilize difference analysis of pre- and co-conflict coherences were capable of highlighting areas of major impact on the urban structures. The study applied a logistic regression model (LRM) for the discrimination of damaged and undamaged buildings based on an estimated likelihood of damage occurrence. A good agreement was observed with the reference data provided by the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) in terms of the overall extent of damage. Damage maps enable the localization of buildings and cultural assets in areas with a high probability of damage and can serve as the basis for a high-resolution follow-up investigation. The study reveals the benefits of Sentinel-1 SAR CCD in the sense of unsupervised delineation of areas affected by armed conflict. However, limitations arise in the detection of local and single-building damage compared to regions with large-scale destruction. The proposed semi-automated multi-temporal Sentinel-1 data analysis using CCD methodology shows its applicability for the timely investigation of damage to buildings and cultural heritage, which can support the response to crises.