Night-time lights time series of tsunami damage, recovery, and economic metrics in Sumatra, Indonesia

Abstract

On 26 December 2004, a magnitude 9.2 earthquake off the west coast of the northern Sumatra, Indonesia, resulted in 160,000 Indonesians killed. We examine the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program-Operational Linescan System night-time light imagery brightness values for 307 communities in the Study of the Tsunami Aftermath and Recovery (STAR), a household survey in Sumatra from 2004 to 2008. We examined nightlight time series between the annual brightness and extent of damage, economic metrics collected from STAR households and aggregated to the community level. There were significant changes in brightness values from 2004 to 2008 with a significant drop in brightness values in 2005 due to the tsunami and pre-tsunami night-time light values returning in 2006 for all damage zones. There were significant relationships between the night-time imagery brightness and per capita expenditures, and spending on energy and on food. Results suggest that Defense Meteorological Satellite Program night-time light imagery can be used to capture the impacts and recovery from the tsunami and other natural disasters and estimate time series economic metrics at the community level in developing countries.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Timothy Warner, Craig Cassells, Chris Small, and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments and suggestions that greatly improve the manuscript.

Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge funding for this research from the MacArthur Foundation, National Science Foundation’s Dynamics of Human Behavior Decision-Making NICHD:R01HD052762, and National Institute of Aging NIA:R01AG031266.