Apply the COPIED Heuristic to Determine the UAS Strategy for Emergency Response Missions, including Infrastructure Assessment.
Use Cases and Best Practices for UAS Deployment for Hurricane and Flooding Emergency Response in the United States.
Nationwide, United States
Texas, United States
Use of Small Unmanned Aerial Systems for Emergency Management of Flooding
Summary Information
In response to flooding events, some emergency response agencies have used unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for preliminary assessments, search and rescue operations, and post-flooding infrastructure evaluation. Since 2005, UAS have been used during hurricanes and other flooding related events in multiple states across the United States, including Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, North Carolina and Washington. UAS were used during these events for post-flooding infrastructure inspections, drainage mitigation investigation, missing person search and rescue missions, risk assessments, inundation predictions, and other surveying applications. UAS are used due to the advantages of their large-scale sight and broadcasting abilities and low risk to human life during flight.
- Consider extent of coverage and types of missions needed before deciding on using a UAS over a manned asset. It may be more effective to use manned aircraft if there is a significant area to be covered. In theory, a UAS should be able to completely cover an entire area by flying a portion, then moving, flying, etc., there may not be take-off and landing zones, especially for fixed-wing UAS, for all sub-areas, or it may take hours to drive (or boat) from one sub-area to another.
- Apply the COPIED heuristic to select the UAS platform for a mission. COPIED stands for Constraints, Operator factors, Penetration or distance (e.g., visual line of sight), Information the UAS provides to whom and when (e.g., video imagery streaming over FirstNet), the Envelope in which the robot works (e.g., altitude, weather, expected range, density of manned assets), and Duration of mission.
- Expect to use rotorcraft rather than fixed-wing UAS. Fixed-wing UAS often have restrictive takeoff and landing zone requirements (e.g., an open, unflooded space the size of a soccer field). Rotorcraft can more reliably fly at lower altitudes and can hover and stare, which is helpful in estimating flow rate of flood waters.
- Fly before the flood crest to establish accurate “before” conditions. This can help update any data needed to project flooding and identify potential vulnerabilities.
- Deploy UAS from a boat or airboat with care. Boats are often the fastest way into a flooding disaster area. With Hurricane Harvey in 2017, this was extremely helpful in assessing the flooding impacts in the suburban megadevelopments.
- Send agency experts (and social workers) with the UAS team or prepare them to answer general questions and expect to send out experts with the UAS team for time-sensitive missions during the initial portion of the response phase. UAS may draw attention of people in the population. It may be appropriate to have a county or agency representative and social worker with each UAS team conducting surveys to answer questions and concerns from citizens and diffuse any emotional responses to the flooding disaster, or the use of UAS. In general, wearing vests and identification tags and driving in an agency vehicle diffuse fears of privacy violations, and the public is generally supportive of seeing their state or local government use technology for a disaster.
- Prioritize vulnerable locations. It may take multiple hours to reach locations, so prioritizing the most vulnerable locations is ideal in immediate response phase.
