GEOG 596A Capstone Peer Review
Loren Pfau, MGIS Candidate
Justine Blanford, Faculty Advisor
22 September 2011

Introduction

Objective

Methodology

Timeline

Acknowledgements

Questions
“I have never been lost, but I
will admit to being confused for
several weeks.” – Daniel Boone
Locating people/objects in

Urban settings (e.g. EMS, law enforcement)

Water (e.g. lost boats/ person USCG)

Land (e.g. lost aircraft (Civil Air Patrol, DND))

Confined space (e.g. collapsed buildings, mines)

Wilderness – focus of my study
Search
Search –looking for lost person.
Rescue – extricating a person.
Recovery – location and
transport of a deceased.
Primary
SAR
Activities
Rescue
Recovery

National Park Service – paid professionals

VOLUNTEER based – Everywhere else
 In most Western States SAR is responsibility of the
County Sheriff
 Many SAR teams are members of the Mountain Rescue
Association and are funded by donations and
fundraising, not tax dollars
Fatality
3%
Ill or
Injured
31%
Not Ill or
Injured
66%
USA National Parks
• Approximately 65,439 SAR
missions
• Approximately 4,090 per
year
Source: Heggie, 2009
Colorado between 1995-2009
• Approximately 20,672 SAR
Missions
• Approximately 1,378 per year
Source: CSRB, 2009
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
CSRB, 2009
Initial
Trigger
•
•
•
•
•
E911 call
SPOT/PLB
Friend/Family
Employer
Other
Search
Decision
• Fact Finding
• Information
Gathering
• Wait or Go
Decision
Conduct
Search
• Initial Strategy
• Deploy
Resources
• Continue
Information
Gathering
• Adjust Search
Strategy
Completion
• Successful
• Not Successful
• Lessons
Learned
SEARCH – RESCUE - RECOVERY
Variety of sources, formats
Paper:
USGS 7.5" topo maps, 1:24,000 scale, various publication dates
Smaller-scale topo maps, 1:50,000 and 1:100,000, various publication dates
Park/NFS trail maps, scale varies by source, various publication dates
Digital:
Electronic topo maps (e.g. US National Map, Delorme Topo North
America),variable scale and publication dates
Aerial/Satellite Imagery, variable scale and publication dates
Digital Elevation Models, National Elevation Dataset at 30, 10 and 3 meters
GPS units with topo maps (e.g. Garmin MapSource)
Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI). (e.g. OpenStreetMaps, 14ers.com)

Two step process
◦ Hasty Search and containment
- Landscape (e.g. vegetation, terrain)
- Activity (e.g. hiking, running)
- Local knowledge of area (SAR Team)
A
unsuccessful
◦ Detailed Search
- Search Theory (originally developed during WWII)
- Lost Person Behaviour (Koester, 2008)
- Survival rates over time (Koester, 2008)
B
POS
Probability of
Success
(chance of finding
the person)
=
POA
x
Probability of Area
(chance the person
is in the search area)
From Ferguson, 2008
POD
Probability of Detection
(chance the person will
be detected if in the
search area)
ISRID (International search and rescue incidents database)
- SAR mission data from around the world (e.g. Australia, USA, UK)
- information on subject type (e.g. age, mental state), search time (i.e.
time it took to find the person), distance traveled, weather conditions
etc.
Used to determine survival rate in different settings
120%
100%
80%
Hikers (all weather,
terrain, N=3013)
60%
40%
20%
4-6 year old child (all
weather, terrain, N=205)
0%
<24 hours >24 hours >48 hours >72 hours >96 hours
Source: Koester, 2008

Documentation for training and analysis
purposes
Need to Visualize, Analyze, Model, Manage and
Document mission

Fundamentally a Geospatial Activity

Time-sensitive



50% searches completed < 3
hours
81% are over within 12 hours
93% are complete within 24
hours
Source: Koester, 2008







US Coast Guard
Civil Air Patrol
Urban Fire and EMS
Wildland Firefighting
Natural Disasters
Avalanche Forecasting &
Mitigation
Social Media (Facebook,
Twitter)

MapSAR (Not released and is currently under
development) – extension for ESRI ArcGIS

National Park Service GIS tools

Mountaineer Area Rescue Group



SAR teams mainly volunteer
Lack of GIS expertise within SAR teams to use
GIS and maintain databases
Lack of Funding – training, cost software
Traditionally: a telephone call and a topo map
Now: e911 Phase II, social media, smartphone apps,
mapping GPS units, GIS, etc.
A wealth of geospatial data becoming available but
understanding of how to access and use this data is
in early stages of development

Moving from “Search For” to “Go To”
environment in real-time at the click of a
button


AccuTerra
OnDemand
Geotagged iPhone
photo


APRS tracking
Google
Latitude

SPOT Satellite
Messenger


OpenStreetMap trails
Avalanche paths near
Loveland Ski Area, CO


14ers.com route and trip
reports
Wireless e911 Call
Challenges facing SAR teams is understanding
-
what information is available and how to access
how reliable is the data/information
how the data may be utilized, managed and
integrated during time-sensitive missions.
Purpose: To evaluate what data and technology
may be effectively used in wilderness SAR
missions


Data Gathering
Assessment of Data and Technology
Study Area: Colorado
Mission Data Gathering and Analysis
Current mission data is logged in paper format
- Data for 2-5 years of mission will be digitalized
- Data will be used for part II: Assessment of Data
and Technology
-
-
Interviews and short survey
Data Needs:
Critically assess data needs within current SAR
group Alpine Rescue Team and two external SAR
groups
Technology Assessment:
Critically assess a variety of Geospatial tools
- Identity a wide variety of Geospatial
technologies that will include: full GIS, online mapping tools, smartphone apps
- Develop assessment criteria
Test technology (1-3 apps (1 Full GIS, 1 online
mapping, 1 Smartphone App)) during real SAR
mission








Easy to learn
Ease of use
Ability to integrate data
Analytical capabilities
Accuracy
For smartphones – coverage (is coverage reliable)
For smartphone apps – accuracy of tracks,
coordinates
How useful was the application during a mission?
(e.g. quick to get information)




Summary of data needs (type of data and scale,
human expert knowledge, historical missions)
Summary of data sources and strengths and
weaknesses
Summary of Geospatial Software strengths and
weaknesses and how rated/ranked based on
criteria
Summary of how each of the 1-3 selected
software apps performed in a real SAR operations

Mission Data
◦ Compile – 2 Months
◦ Analyze – 1 Month

Survey of SAR Team Use of Geospatial Data and
Technology – 4 Months
◦ Create
◦ Compile
◦ Analyze



Assess Technologies – 4 Months
Test Technologies – 2 Months
Target Presentation: Mountain Rescue
Association Spring Meeting – June/July 2012
• Justine Blanford
• Members of the Alpine Rescue Team and Rocky
Mountain Rescue Group