iSARS - interactive Search and Rescue System: Integrating Geospatial Data for Coastal and Marine Search and Rescue
David R.Green, Stephen D. King
Centre for Marine and Coastal Zone Management - Department of Geography and Environment, University of Aberdeen (UK)
In coastal search and rescue operations, access to geographical data and information is vital. Such information may be required during both the search and the rescue stages. Whilst some relevant data and information may be available e.g. in the form of paper maps and hydrographic charts, much of the baseline data and information required is currently not available at a scale that is useful to an operational rescue. Increasingly it has been recognised that such information should ideally (a) be available in a digital format, (b) take advantage of the digital communications networks, (c) embrace the Internet and online Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology, and (d) comprise sources of information at many different scales, the most important of which is local knowledge.
There is currently available, a wide range of computer-based and mobile technology. Much of it is inherently geospatial in nature. For example, remote sensing, GIS, digital mapping, Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS), mobile WAP-enabled phones PDAs, and voice activated spatial databases. Together with other geospatial software such as Relational Database Management System (RDBMS), Object Oriented Database Management System (OODBMS) and communications and networking technology (Internet, Intranet, Extranet), they offer a framework for a geospatial-based Information Technology (IT) communications network to gather, input, store, access, process, display, and communicate, multiple disparate data and information resources required by the emergency search and rescue services; in effect, providing the capability to develop location and user-aware (personalised) mobile clients within a client-server system architecture.
In search and rescue, the acquisition of local geographical knowledge and information is very important and can be greatly enhanced through the use of the mobile geospatial technologies that are now available. These technologies can be integrated and can subsequently be developed into a decision support system (DSS) framework using the Internet for coastal and marine search and rescue operations. For example, a wide range of mobile technologies can be brought together to provide a basis for gathering, processing, displaying and communicating, in real-time, geospatial data and information. Hardware might include a PDA with the PocketGIS software for detailed mapping of an access footpath to a beach; a mobile phone to upload the datafile to an online GIS e.g. ESRI ArcIMS; an on-shipboard PC with wireless access to the Internet accessing the ArcIMS-based online decision support system; a digital camera that sends photographs by email on a mobile phone e.g. a picture of the coast from the seaward side to the local Coastguard either onboard a ship or to a rescue team on the cliff top; sonar information that can be uploaded to an ArcIMS system and combined with e.g. an Ordnance Survey digital coastline; a video clip, panoramic photograph or fieldsketch of a section of the cliffline that can be zipped and sent as an attachment by email.
The hardware and software technology can be used in almost any combination to capture, display, visualise, and communicate data and information. Using a colour screen PDA and a mobile phone it is possible to get access to the Internet and information displayed on websites using online mapping, which may also provide rapid access to photographs, video clips, animations, and text documents. Fast connections permit the browsing of both maps and images, e.g. remotely sensed imagery, and if required a download facility in the form of zipped files that can be used in a desktop PC. Using GIS it is possible to integrate many layers of information providing that they have been geocorrected. The possibilities to access and use data and information are almost endless, limited only by screen size, communication speeds, phone connections, and the local processing power of the mobile computer technology. Additional components of the system may also include digital or paper fax machines, which could, for example, be used to communicate an annotated sketch map or photograph to someone on land, at an RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) or Coastguard station, or on board a boat or inflatable.
The key advantage is that the mobile technologies, many of which are now becoming standard off-the-shelf items e.g. PDAs or Mobile Phones (Nokia Communicator) provide the means by which we can capture and communicate data and information to anywhere on land or offshore. They provide a multimedia communications network that can be used to pull together data and information into a working environment to form the basis for a decision support system. With both hardware and software becoming increasingly functional there are now even greater opportunities to both capture and work with geographical data in the field, information that can either be archival and /or real-time. Data collected in the field and assembled into the form of a decision support system can also be used in the context of education and training exercises.
This paper discusses the conceptual development of the iSARS - interactive Search and Rescue System by the University of Aberdeen and MRI (Maritime Research International) designed to integrate the geospatial technologies into an operational online Internet-based marine and coastal information system. The paper is illustrated using data and information for an area of coastline - Stonehaven near Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.
References
Green, D.R., and King, S.D., 2002.
interactive Search and Rescue System (iSARS). University of Aberdeen, Scotland.
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