Disaster recovery

Versatile, high-speed equipment when you need it most.

A vital component of any disaster recovery situation is time and versatility. Capturing detailed information, such as damage to large structures, like bridges and houses, is essential in helping to prevent loss of life and analyse what occurred.

Leica Geosystem measurement solutions are an integral part of the overall response strategy to recover from disasters. The ability to set up and operate quickly, capturing the scene of an incident in minutes, is a key requirement for response teams.

Case Study

Assessing earthquake damages with wearable reality capture.

On September 19, 2017, a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake shook Mexico City and the surrounding states causing the collapse of 38 buildings. To aid in the recovery, national and local emergency management authorities asked Mexico City-based Leica Geosystems staff to safely document the damage using remote sensing, reality capture technologies.

The Leica Pegasus:Backpack and ScanStation P40 were deployed to scan every collapsed building to document damage and capture up-to-date maps, photos and plans of existing building and infrastructure. The Pegasus backpack could safely, quickly and easily capture the inaccessible disaster area in 3D and document entire block by foot, taking two employees under two hours.

All information captured by Leica Geosystems staff was shared and made available to the National Civil Protection Agency and local Mexico City government officials via the Leica Pegasus Web Viewer.

Data was captured before debris and rubble were removed and is now a permanent record in the form of ArcGIS-compatible point clouds and panoramic images.

All georeferenced panoramic imagery taken with the Pegasus Backpack is on record and will aid future forensics investigations.