Search Methods (SARTOPO)
Please provide a lost hiker heat map for search and rescue. Design as follows:
1. The heat map should account for terrain near the hikers last point seen. I.e. subjects move slower uphill than downhill
2. Subtract heat, for places already searched for by teams. As time passes since an area has been searched, that area can become hot again. This distance searched by a team is a function of terrain steepness and vegetation cover. These multipliers can be adjusted in the layer settings based upon local knowledge. However, eventually it should be determined based upon general location.
3. The total amount of heat should always be equal to “1”. This way I should able to quickly understand my probably of finding my subject at a given location. i.e. the value is 0.05. Thus the probability the subject is at my location is 5%. I should be able to explorer the map and look at different values at way point etc.
4. The heat map should widen with time especially in the down hill direction.
Comments
4 comments
I have experimented travel-affinity modeling in the past, which is part of what you're asking for, and the bottom line is that there is not sufficient data to do so accurately. How much more likely is a subject to go downhill, vs uphill? How likely are they to leave a linear feature once they reach one? To what extent should the search area widen with time, especially over the course of days as a subject's mobility drops?
Building a layer like this using assumptions that sound reasonable but aren't actually correct, is worse than not building it all since it would be misleading.
We are finding that many times hikers are going uphill in an attempt to get cell service. It's one more factor that plays into search planning.
Sure (regarding unknowns), but the time of travel uphill is more than time of travel downhill. The probability distribution should widen faster downhill along trails. And off trail even slower, but radially from pls. Destinations that the subject might prefer could be added as heat attraction points. But if the subject is not capable of reaching the those points given the lapse of time (assume subject is on foot) they should only pull probability of find towards it. Like a magnet. Regarding comment about difficulty. Make this program open source and let the community mod this enhance which is then compiled monthly for CalTopo integration?
Also the probability of a subject of making decisions such as taking a trail or not. Is beyond the scope of what I am thinking of. My thoughts are that time is the only element of consideration. IE can the subject have made it this far (assume one foot) if not probability zero. So in some ways this is like the rings. But just an enhanced version
Please sign in to leave a comment.