Counting the Cost of War Under Satellite Embargo: Zero-Shot Estimation of Impacted Infrastructure
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Abstract (arXiv)
Rapid estimation of impacted structures - critical for conflict-zone humanitarian response - is frequently hindered by post-strike satellite data embargoes and imagery blackouts. We bypass this operational bottleneck by reframing impacted building mapping as a zero-shot geometric projection task on archival, pre-strike maps. Using coordinate and incident text from LiveUAMap and ArcGIS, Large Language Models extract weapon payloads (W) to project kinetic blast perimeters via Hopkinson-Cranz scaling (R_base = Z * W^(1/3)). To count exposed structures within these zones without post-strike imagery, we introduce two technical innovations: Adaptive Field-of-View to eliminate resolution (zoom) bias in 2D segmentation (SAMGeo), and 2.5D pseudo-height depth maps combined with segmentation masks to help Large Vision-Language Models (LVLMs) resolve overlapping, dense rooftops. Evaluated on 2026 Middle East conflict data, depth-augmented LVLMs dramatically outperform traditional segmentation in congested urban centers. This establishes a powerful hybrid paradigm for zero-shot crisis mapping: ultra-fast 2D segmentation for sparse rural zones, and depth-augmented LVLMs for dense urban environments.
Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 10 of its 38 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 31 Jul 2026.
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10 of 38 references.
References · 10
- 2023Segment Anythingcited by 8,234
- 2024SAM 2: Segment Anything in Images and Videoscited by 2,863
- 2019Towards Robust Monocular Depth Estimation: Mixing Datasets for Zero-shot Cross-dataset Transfercited by 1,495
- 2024Depth Anything: Unleashing the Power of Large-Scale Unlabeled Datacited by 1,360
- 2025SAM 3: Segment Anything with Conceptscited by 906
- 2025Depth Anything 3: Recovering the Visual Space from Any Viewscited by 692
- 2023Segment Everything Everywhere All at Oncecited by 548
- 2024Depth Pro: Sharp Monocular Metric Depth in Less Than a Secondcited by 404
- 2024LVLM-COUNT: Enhancing the Counting Ability of Large Vision-Language Modelscited by 20
- 2026Seeing but Not Thinking: Routing Distraction in Multimodal Mixture-of-Expertscited by 9
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