Lessons from Haiti: applying innovative, affordable, and replicable solutions using drones and spatial data
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FRANCESCO VAROTTO, GIOVANNI MICHELE TOGLIA & CLAUDIA SOTO
In 2016, Category 4 Hurricane Matthew made landfall in the south of Haiti, causing destruction unseen in more than a decade during the hurricane season, with winds as high as 230 kilometers per hour and 600 millimeters of rain in less than 24 hours. The toll was very high, with a total of 546 victims, 128 missing, 439 injured, and 2.1 million people affected.
Following the disaster, the Government of Haiti (GoH) was confronted with the challenge of determining the overall economic impact in order to gauge the magnitude of the event, identify priority sectors for reconstruction, understand different geographic impacts, and comprehend relative public versus private damages. Therefore, the Government performed a rapid damage and loss assessment with technical support from the World Bank and the Inter-American Dev