Custom Python Tool using UAS to aid in Search and Rescue

in Hays County Texas

Aaron Schroeder

Geographical Traditions

• Spatial Tradition

• Utilizing distance, space, and direction

• Modern computer technology allows for this analysis

Relevant Literature

• Zeiler : Modeling our World

• Allowed for key Python Scripting examples

• Best : Geospatial web services within a scientific workflow: Predicting marine mammal habitats in a dynamic environment

• Relatable workflow using a custom tool

Data source & problems

• National Land Cover Data - USGS

• National Elevation Dataset – USGS

• 30m elevation data is not the most accurate but it is the only publicly available data for the whole US.

• Aeiral Imagery – RP Flight Systems

Background in Search & Rescue

• Search and Rescue teams have just recently implemented UAS

• Past searches have relied solely on ground search teams

• Helicopters are expensive to use

• There is a lot of waiting time for searchers due to lack of terrain intel

Study area• The tool will allow an input of a polygon feature class which

will be the AOI

• This allows for the study area to be anywhere

• Specifically we are practicing on a location in Hays County Texas

Data flow model

Data flow model

Data flow model

Data flow model

Methods

• Custom tool interface

• Extract by mask tool

• Reclassify tool

• Path Distance tool

Results

• The resulting output raster from the custom python script will display locations a person is most likely to traverse from a last known location

• We are also working on implementing a time factor into the equation which will allow us to split the area into different zones representing the likely distance traveled in a certain amount of time

References

• Zeiler, M., Murphy, J. Modeling Our World: The ESRI Guide to Geodatabase Concepts. 2nd ed. Redlands, CA: ESRI, 2010. Print.