Automated Hurricane Damage Classification for Sustainable Disaster Recovery Using 3D LiDAR and Machine Learning: A Post-Hurricane Michael Case Study

Accurate mapping of hurricane-induced damage is essential for guiding rapid disaster response and long-term recovery planning. This study evaluates the Three-Dimensional Multi-Attributes, Multiscale, Multi-Cloud (3DMASC) framework for semantic classification of pre- and post-hurricane Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data, using Mexico Beach, Florida, as a case study following Hurricane Michael. The goal was to assess the framework’s ability to classify stable landscape features and detect damage-specific classes in a highly complex post-disaster environment. Bitemporal topo-bathymetric LiDAR datasets from 2017 (pre-event) and 2018 (post-event) were processed to extract more than 80 geometric, radiometric, and echo-based features at multiple spatial scales. A Random Forest classifier was trained on a 2.37 km² pre-hurricane area (Zone A) and evaluated on an independent 0.95 km² post-hurricane area (Zone B). Pre-hurricane classification achieved an overall accuracy of 0.9711, with stable classes such as ground, water, and buildings achieving precision and recall exceeding 0.95. Post-hurricane classification maintained similar accuracy; however, damage-related classes exhibited lower performance, with debris reaching an F1-score of 0.77, damaged buildings 0.58, and vehicles recording a recall of only 0.13. These results indicate that the workflow is effective for rapid mapping of persistent structures, with additional refinements needed for detailed damage classification. Misclassifications were concentrated along class boundaries and in structurally ambiguous areas, consistent with known LiDAR limitations in disaster contexts. These results demonstrate the robustness and spatial transferability of the 3DMASC–Random Forest approach for disaster mapping. Integrating multispectral data, improving small-object representation, and incorporating automated debris volume estimation could further enhance classification reliability, enabling faster, more informed post-disaster decision-making. By enabling rapid, accurate damage mapping, this approach supports sustainable disaster recovery, resource-efficient debris management, and resilience planning in hurricane-prone regions.