Spatiotemporal Assessment of Infrastructure Destruction in the Gaza Strip from 2023 to 2026 Using Satellite Imagery and GIS

Abstract

The Gaza Strip has suffered significant damage to buildings, infrastructure, agriculture, and urban land since October 2023. This study evaluates the spatial and temporal pattern of infrastructure destruction in the Gaza Strip since October 2023 until 2026 using satellite imagery and geographic information system (GIS) techniques. The changes in the urban land cover and agricultural areas were evaluated utilizing the Landsat and Sentinel-2 satellite imagery. In turn, the changes in surface and infrastructure were assessed using the pre- and post-conflict Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery. The published UNOSAT damage assessments were integrated with GIS infrastructure data to ascertain the damage to buildings, roads, health facilities, educational institutions, water facilities, energy infrastructure, and transportation. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was employed to assess changes in the vegetation and agricultural lands. The study combined the various damage indicators to monitor the infrastructure destruction using the infrastructure damage index (IDI). The findings revealed a significant increase in damage to buildings as of the study period with damage concentration in the heavily urbanized areas. The study also revealed that the war resulted in extensive damage to road networks and infrastructures which affected services and accessibility of the region. The changes in the urban land cover and vegetation indicate additional environmental and agricultural disturbance. The study concludes that the combination of the temporal satellite imagery and GIS techniques offer a viable approach for assessing the destruction of infrastructure in large and inaccessible geographical areas and offers valuable insights for humanitarian assessments, emergency response, and reconstruction planning.