Georeferencing in SAR and Catastrophic Incidents

Transcription

1 Georeferencing in SAR and Catastrophic Incidents CDR Aurora Fleming United States Coast Guard National SAR Committee (

2 U.S. SAR System

3 National SAR Committee Homeland Security Defense State Commerce Interior Transportation FCC NASA NSARC Observers: Civil Air Patrol National Transportation Safety Board National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR) State SAR Coordinators National Center for Missing and Exploited Children All SAR: Land Sea Air

4 National, interagency committee focused on matters relating to: SAR policy, processes, organization Other areas of interest to promote SAR cooperation and coordination

5 Page Plan:...coordinating search and rescue (SAR) services to meet domestic needs and international commitments.

6 National SAR Plan Identifies NSARC member agency SAR responsibilities Assigns U.S. SAR Coordinators Overview of general SAR coordination, & national/international SAR responsibilities Serves as the basis for the U.S. SAR system

7 National SAR Plan U.S. Federal SAR Coordinators (SCs) U.S. Northern Command Continental U.S. and Alaska U.S. Coast Guard All U.S. maritime SAR regions, Hawaii and U.S. navigable waters and waters under U.S. jurisdiction

8 National SAR Plan U.S. Federal SAR Coordinators (SCs) State Local SAR and volunteer Coordinators SAR U.S. Northern Command Continental U.S. and Alaska professionals U.S. Coast Guard All U.S. maritime SAR regions, Hawaii and U.S. navigable waters and waters under U.S. jurisdiction

9 Georeferencing and SAR

10 Framing the Issue: Georeferencing through the lens of Hurricane Katrina

11 SAR Responders: Three georeferencing challenges in disasters and for any SAR response

12 1. How do SAR responders, planners and support personnel navigate when landmarks, such as street signs, are destroyed??? or SAR responders can t find the location of persons needing help?

13 SAR responders may not have local/on scene knowledge Can cause delays in getting critical lifesaving resources on scene

14 2. How do SAR responders, planners & support personnel communicate position information in a common language & format?

15 What coordinate system should be used? What format should the information be relayed?

16 3. SAR resource deconfliction: Multiple SAR responders/resources working in a common operating area

17 The challenge: Use position information to ensure SAR resources are effectively managed in a large area search/disaster

18 Communicating Location

19 Communicating Location 1. Local knowledge It s great if you have it! If you don t, you can easily get lost in a response o Critical SAR resources can be delayed in arriving on scene

20 Communicating Location 2. Latitude & Longitude can be communicated three different ways: DD-MM-SS.S ( N W) DD-MM.mm ( N W) DD.dd (43.64 N W)

21 Communicating Location 2. Latitude & Longitude can be communicated three different ways: DD-MM-SS.S ( N W) o Most common format used to mark maps o Most cumbersome to work with DD-MM.mm ( N W) DD.dd (43.64 N W)

22 Communicating Location 2. Latitude & Longitude can be communicated three different ways: DD-MM-SS.S ( N W) DD-MM.mm ( N W) o Most common format used when working with electronic navigation equipment DD.dd (43.64 N W)

23 Communicating Location 2. Latitude & Longitude can be communicated three different ways: DD.dd (43.64 N W) o Displayed by most computer based mapping systems

24 Catastrophic Incident Georeferencing Matrix (

25 Georeference System User USNG Latitude/Longitude DD-MM.mmm(1) GARS Land SAR Responder(2) Primary Secondary N/A Aeronautical SAR Responders (3) Secondary Primary Tertiary Air Space Deconfliction (4) N/A Primary N/A Land SAR Responder/ Aeronautical SAR Responder Interface (5) Primary Secondary N/A Incident Command: Air SAR Coordination Land SAR Coordination Area organization and accountability (6) Secondary Primary N/A Primary Secondary N/A Secondary Tertiary Primary

26 1. During SAR operations, Lat/Long will be in one standard format: DD-MM.mmm NSARC Georeferencing Matrix: Footnotes 2. Land SAR Responders use USNG; however, a good familiarity with lat/long is necessary for effective interface between Land & Air SAR Responders

27 NSARC Georeferencing Matrix: Footnotes 3. Air SAR responders will use lat/long 4. Air space deconfliction: only in Lat/Long 5. Air SAR Responders working with Land SAR Responders have primary responsibility of coordinating SAR using USNG (Both need to know USNG and Lat/Long) 6. GARS (Global Area Reference System): Used for CISAR response leadership situational awareness

28 Bottom Line

29 Bottom Line 1. No single map/chart projection or coordinate/grid system will be perfect for all SAR applications (Urban, Land, Aeronautical and Maritime) Georeferencing matrix is a bridge to help SAR responders work together

30 Bottom Line 2. Matrix is for NSARC Federal SAR Responders NSARC won t impose georeferencing standards on volunteer/local/state SAR responders But it does work

31 Bottom Line 3. Effective interface between the Incident Command, and Land (or maritime)/air SAR responders is vital to successful SAR coordination and response

32 4. Standardized georeferencing guidance will break down comms and cultural barriers that can impede a SAR response

33 Questions? NSARC:

34 Background Slides

35 Lat/Long, USNG and GARS

36 Lat/Long Keeping it simple ~ The commonly described Latitude and Longitude describes what a SAR responder will use on a standard chart/map and what is displayed in a GPS receiver

37 U.S. National Grid (USNG): Ground-based gridded coordinate system based on Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) System Basic unit of measure: meter; positions reported as distance north from equator and distance from the zone central meridian Purpose: provide a seamless, standardized reference system for nationwide use during times of crisis (Talbot Brooks, US National Grid [article online];

38 U.S. National Grid (USNG): Functionally equivalent to the Military Grid Reference System (MGRS)

39 Global Area Reference System (GARS): Worldwide area reference system Used for unit deconfliction; can be used for large-area SAR efforts;

40 Global Area Reference System (GARS): GARS divides world into 30-min by 30-min cells and further subdivides those cells into 15-min by 15-min quadrants that are further subdivided into 5- min by 5-min cells. GARS is an overlay area reference system based on standard Latitude/Longitude. Proposal to further subdivide GARS into 1- min by 1-min quadrants to further facilitate SAR ops.