GRAPHICAL TOOLS TO THE RESCUE. HIGH RESOLUTION AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY FOR THE LOCATION OF MISSING PERSONS

Abstract

Since the COVID-19 pandemic changed the rules of the game in many work envi-ronments, adaptation has been a key factor. Restrictions such as social distance or confinement made searches for missing persons more difficult. Although mo-bility limitations led to a decrease in the number of disappearances, they did not stop completely and search teams had to adapt to the new scenario that prevent-ed, for example, the participation of volunteers. For these reasons, it was decided to implement a tool that has been in development for years, based on the Collab-oration Agreement signed in 2015 between the Servicio de Prevención y Extinción de Incendios de la Diputación Provincial de Zaragoza (SPEI-DPZ) and the Uni-versity of Zaragoza. The tool is called Virtual Cloud Search and Rescue (VC-SAR) and is still under development by the authors of this communication. The following is a basic description of the tool and how it was applied in a real case, in which a missing person was being searched. The device used made it possible to obtain about 5000 images of 44.7 megapixels, covering an area of over 2000 hectares. Thanks to the searches carried out, more than 100 pieces of evidence were found over the course of four days, which could be collected for on-site in-vestigation by the Navarra Fire Service. All this was possible thanks to the collab-oration of 5 different fire departments, belonging to three provinces, making pos-sible the participation of a total of 52 searchers from different locations. Keywords: Graphical tools; Aerial images; Search and rescue; Drones.