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

Primary SAR Activities Search Recovery Rescue Search –looking for lost person. Rescue – extricating a person. Recovery – location and transport of a deceased.

 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

Source: Heggie, 2009 USA National Parks Approximately 65,439 SAR missions Approximately 4,090 per year Colorado between Approximately 20,672 SAR Missions Approximately 1,378 per year Source: CSRB, 2009

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) ◦ Detailed Search -Search Theory (originally developed during WWII) -Lost Person Behaviour (Koester, 2008) -Survival rates over time (Koester, 2008) unsuccessful

POA Probability of Area (chance the person is in the search area) POD Probability of Detection (chance the person will be detected if in the search area) POS Probability of Success (chance of finding the person) = x From Ferguson, 2008

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 4-6 year old child (all weather, terrain, N=205) Source: Koester, 2008 Hikers (all weather, terrain, N=3013)

 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, on- line 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