Using Drone In Emergency Response

Interviewees for this report described using UAVs in this manner for multiple purposes and settings, such as searching for safe access routes to disaster areas, getting an idea of the general scope of flooding events, and conducting an initial reconnaissance of areas of possible detonation. Using drones for mapping disaster areas provides major advantages in terms of costs and speed of response when compared with conventional methods.

For these reasons and others, drones are being used more frequently in emergencies and disaster-response situations. Emergency services in California have implemented the use of drones to help identify wildfires, which can give an understanding of the types of resources needed at a site. The use of aerial cameras can help with rapid assessments and improve prompt response times. Emergency personnel can use the live-streamed footage of the UAVs to detect any injuries, violence, or crushes in real-time, and to inform response depending on the severity of the event.

When roads are inundated with floodwaters and conditions are too hazardous, drones can also help to drop life vests and cables for rescues to relocate residents trapped by the rising waters. Disaster-response drones are also used as key tools for disaster response and management.66 In these events, drones can be used for providing emergency surveillance, telecommunication services, SAR operations, and delivery of emergency supplies and assistance in areas where healthcare workers cannot reach safely. Drones are also being studied and are being used heavily in the response of emergencies for search and rescue operations, and for natural disasters and mass casualty events. Remotely controlled and programmed drones are being used effectively in the investigation before and after disasters, flood-prone areas surveys, supply deliveries, accessing unreachable areas, and providing surveillance.

Areas that are subjected to widespread disasters like earthquakes and flooding have greatly benefitted from visual imagery and 3-D mapping. The problem is, after a natural disaster like a hurricane, flood, or wildfire, it is usually hard for first responders to evaluate damage and deliver relief in the worst-hit areas. Pre- and post-disaster responses, as well as disaster operations related to construction and maintenance of roads and roadway infrastructure in areas affected by flooding, are covered. Highway engineers are bound to be fighting a flood-related disaster on multiple fronts, across an array of issues related to planning, designing, building, maintaining, protecting, and protecting roads and road infrastructure.

Very few methodologies exist which seek to utilize UAV data in a systematic manner for activities like damage assessment after disasters, resiliency mapping before a disaster, etc. With the help of drone data, organizations are able to determine better locations for internally displaced persons camps, evaluate flooding risks within a given region, anticipate and plan for the impacts of climate change, and much more. Drones could remove risks faced by airmen, and could improve battlefield firefighting efficiency.

Byrne lists a number of potential areas in which these strategies could avert the sudden chaos and catastrophes of an unmanaged withdrawal, ranging from emergencies, costly disaster assistance, and flood insurance, to financing for mortgages, to declining property values and tax revenues. While emergency operations were completed this winter to reroute the river into its primary channel and address ice jam flooding, it was just the first response to reducing flood risks in an isolated area where the river was breached.