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The International Disasters Charter has been activated by the Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC) for flooding in Japan in July 2020. Per the Charter Activation, heavy rainfall has caused flooding and landslides on the Island of Kyushu, Japan. At least 16 people are reported to have been killed and 12 reported missing. The prefectures of Kumamoto and Kagoshima have been worst hit, with rivers breaking their banks and washing away homes, bridges, cars and trees. Local authorities evacuated over 200,000 people from their homes and deployed 10,000 soldiers to assist in relief efforts. Japan's Meteorological Agency said such rainfall had never been seen before in the region.

ARIA damage proxy map showing damage from July 2020 flooding in Japan
The Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, in collaboration with the Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS), created this Damage Proxy Map (DPM) depicting areas that are likely damaged in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, from the heavy rains and flooding in early July. The map was derived from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) ALOS-2 satellite acquired before (March 2nd & June 8th, 2020) and after (July 6th, 2020) the event. Damage is shown by colored pixels of 30 meters in size, where yellow to red indicates increasingly significant ground surface change before and after the event. The data was analyzed by the ARIA-SG team at the Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS) in collaboration with NASA-JPL and Caltech. This damage proxy map should be used as guidance to identify damaged areas, and may be less reliable over vegetated areas.

The NASA Earth Applied Sciences Disasters Program has activated to Tier 1 in support of the floods in Japan, and is monitoring the situation to determine what NASA resources and capabilities may be available to support risk management for this event. The Disasters Program is currently working with stakeholders from Sentinel Asia and the ADRC through the International Disasters Charter, to quantify flood depth, flood extent, and to identify areas damaged by the flooding.