Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU), NHERI 2023: Street View Imagery as a Disaster Impact Survey Method: A Case Study of Seattle, WA During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic

Street view imagery is useful in a variety of fields beyond navigation and exploration, including the capture of perishable data for natural hazards research. In this study, street view images of Seattle, WA were used to characterize community impact and recovery throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of countable pedestrians in each image was used to quantify human presence in various areas of Seattle as a way to quantify COVID-19 impact and recovery in those places. These pedestrian counts were then manually extracted in a few key locations to investigate differences in recovery among demographics and neighborhoods of Seattle. Data in this project can be used to further explore how communities in Seattle recovered and what factors may have affected recovery rate and quality. This project is unique in that it provides a long-term imagery survey of a broad cross section of Seattle, offering data on gradual and sudden changes in landscape and activity. This study is for anyone interested in how the pandemic affected Seattle communities and those who are interested in the use of street view imagery as an approach to disaster impact surveying and analysis.