Observing the power restoration trend in Camarines Sur's coastal communities using Black Marble nighttime light data in the 2020 typhoon season

Abstract

Nighttime lights (NTL) have been proven to be a tool to observe human activities and a viable proxy for the economic activity of the Philippines at a sub-national level. With storms and weather disturbances frequenting the country, this paper introduces the use of NASA's Black Marble project to observe the recovery patterns and gain insight in the economic activity of Camarines Sur's coastal communities in hazard-prone locations during five consecutive typhoons in 2020: Ofel, Quinta, Rolly, Ulysses, and Vicky. On observed locations, a map showing the impact of the super typhoon illustrates the effects of extreme weather disturbances. A timeseries of NTL has shown that while all locations were affected, some rural locations have shown faster recovery rates in comparison to coastal cities. We demonstrate that Black Marble's high spatiotemporal resolution gives granular information about the recovery of dimly-lit rural communities after consecutive series natural disasters in three month's time.