Google Uses Street View Technology to Document Japan’s Tsunami Damage and Reconstruction Read more: Google Uses Street View Technology to Document Japan's Tsunami Damage and Reconstruction | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World

The camera-clad vehicle will not only help to document the damage from the disaster, but also track reconstruction in the streets of the seaside town, Kesennuma. The system is the same as Google’s Street View, which is a feature in Google Maps. Before the disaster, Japanese citizens did not look on Street View favorably. They found the cameras to be intrusive, and a violation of their privacy. In fact, Google even opted to refilm their Japan footage for Street View with less sensitive cameras to assuage citizens.
But Street View’s new use has been welcomed with open arms, with other cities signing up to have their streets photographed and documented. They feel that it will not only show future generations a firsthand account of the extent of the damage, but also, by making the reconstruction images publically attainable, it could keep momentum for the progress going.
The new use for Street View complements Google’s other disaster efforts. Immediately after the tsunami struck, Google implemented Person Finder, which tagged 616,300 missing persons reports. By contacting everyone from local authorities to radio stations to newspapers and the National Police Agency, Person Finder brought together all of the information provided by each organization and shared it, creating a giant searchable database of information on missing persons from hospitals, shelters, and even from hand written posters.
Using Street View as a disaster documentation service, Google will not only help Japan’s recovery effort, but also make Google a household name associated with help in Japanese homes.