Geography Colloquium: Dr. Sergiy Kostrikov speaks on 'Urban Remote Sensing with LiDAR for the Post-war Damage Assessment in Ukraine'

Geography Colloquium: Dr. Sergiy Kostrikov speaks on 'Urban Remote Sensing with LiDAR for the Post-war Damage Assessment in Ukraine' This talk presents an applied, web-based approach to assessing war damage in cities using LiDAR, online modeling technique, and GIS tools. Within this case study we examined Northern Saltivka, a densely populated residential district in Kharkiv, Ukraine, which suffered the most from the hostilities during the first months of the full-scale aggression. By comparing LiDAR surveys from 2019 and 2022, we detected recent changes in urban morphology. Our workflow combines OpenStreetMap data, Mapbox Studio tolls for 3D styling, and CodePen technique for interactive visualization. This allows us to move beyond usual static maps and create a live, accessible damage assessment tool. While broader satellite-based assessments like UNOSAT show city-wide patterns, our approach reveals micro-level variability - intact buildings next to destroyed ones. The lower damage estimate in our study (20%) compared to UNOSAT (60%) reflects differences in sampling, scale, and methodology, not a contradiction. We conclude that web-based GIS and LiDAR can provide planners with precise, actionable data for post-war recovery - not just for Kharkiv, but for any city facing disaster.