[keiko.saito@carltd.com]
Dr. Keiko Saito is a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing specialist. Her area of interest is in the application of GIS and remote sensing to quantify and visualise the risk from natural disasters on the built environment.
After finishing her MPhil in Geographical Information Systems and Remote Sensing at the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, she worked as GIS specialist at CAR. Tasks involved plotting the distribution of UXO (unexploded ordnance) using a stereo-plotter and photogrammetric principles on historic aerial photographs from the 1940s.
Following the Gujarat earthquake in India (2001), she began investigating the use of the new generation high-resolution optical satellite images for post-earthquake damage assessment, exploring both visual interpretation and semi-automated methods. She received her PhD on this topic from The Martin Centre, Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge.
She is also experienced in post-disaster reconnaissance missions, of which the latest was a mission to Haiti in April 2010 as a member of the British Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation Team (EEFIT). Her work contributed to the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment carried out by the UN, World Bank and the EU (JRC) after the Haiti earthquake to estimate the reconstruction cost for Port-au-Prince.
As Willis Research Network Fellow, her focus is on the use of remote sensing to improve collection of exposure data and post-disaster damage assessment.
She is also a member of the team that will be developing open source tools for the extraction of building inventory data using remote sensing for the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) as well as the team that will develop an earthquake consequence database for GEM. Other experience includes volcanic risk assessment, tsunami survivor surveys and monitoring and evaluating recovery after natural disasters using remote sensing.
She became a director of CAR in 2010. She is also Deputy Director of the Cambridge University Centre for Risk in the Built Environment based at The Martin Centre.