Evaluating the damage of collapsed bridges using remote sensing technologies: Case study: Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge

Bridges are vital for linking communities and facilitating economic activity. However, in the face of disaster, like ship collisions pose a significant threat to bridge infrastructure, causing structural damage and potential safety hazards. Rapid and precise assessment of the damage is essential for effective emergency response and recovery operations. Remote sensing with near-real-time satellite imagery provides the disaster scenario. This paper presents a change detection using pre- and post-disaster satellite data for Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge to identify structural damage due to the collision of the ship with support pillars on 26 March 2024. Both optical and microwave satellite data were used from open data sources and analyzed based on geospatial techniques such as change detection and surface profiling. It is estimated that an 1100-meter span of bridge was affected due to this collision, which helped to estimate the damage and mobilize the rescue operations. It may need further validation from ground truth information. Hence, the current study emphasizes the potential of remote sensing satellite data to provide near-real-time impact on disaster analysis.