[GRASS-user] Search and Rescue Volunteer Groups

[Dylan Beaudette]

On Monday 04 February 2008, Tom Russo wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 04, 2008 at 09:24:58AM -0500, we recorded a bogon-computron 
collision of the <dsampson at NRCan.gc.ca> flavor, containing:
> > Hey Folks,
> >
> > I'm looking for people that either use GRASS or would like to use GRASS
> > as a part of a mapping solution for volunteer search and rescue groups.
>
> What a timely request.  I'm just such a person, and have *just* this week
> started a mailing list for local SAR volunteers to explore using GRASS for
> SAR planning, but it's pretty much a case of the one-eyed guy with
> cataracts leading the blind.  I am very much interested.
>
> > Any links to case articles would be great too.
>
> Here's a trivial one I cooked up a couple weeks ago (unfortunately) *after*
> a multi-day search for stranded snowboarders in extreme weather conditions:
> http://www.swcp.com/~russo/080103/
>
> A textbook toy GIS problem that highlighted how well a GIS could have been
> used had a volunteer knowledgeable enough to use it been in the command
> post. The set of such volunteers is microscopic, though, and I hope to
> change that in this area.

Nice example application- very impressive use of basic GIS and location data. 
I can see tools like this fitting in with the r.cost / r.walk modules nicely.

Dylan

-- 
Dylan Beaudette
Soil Resource Laboratory
http://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/
University of California at Davis
530.754.7341