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Drone Applications for Supporting Disaster Management

Article in World Journal of Engineering and Technology · January 2015

DOI: 10.4236/wjet.2015.33C047

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World Journal of Engineering and Technology, 2015, 3, 316-321
Published Online October 2015 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/wjet
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/wjet.2015.33C047

Drone Applications for Supporting Disaster

Management
Agoston Restas
Institute of Disaster Management, National University of Public Service, Budapest, Hungary
Email: [email protected]

Received 8 September 2015; accepted 15 October 2015; published 22 October 2015

Abstract
Introduction: Besides the military and commercial applications of drones, there is no doubt in
their efficiency in case of supporting emergency management. This paper evaluates some expe-
riences and describes some initiatives using drones to support disaster management. Method:
This paper focuses mainly on operational and tactical drone application in disaster management
using a time-scaled separation of the application, like pre-disaster activity, activity immediately
after the occurrence of a disaster and the activity after the primary disaster elimination. Paper
faces to 5 disasters, like nuclear accidents, dangerous material releases, floods, earthquakes and
forest fires. Author gathered international examples and used own experiences in this field. Re-
sults and discussion: An earthquake is a rapid escalating disaster, where, many times, there is no
other way for a rapid damage assessment than aerial reconnaissance. For special rescue teams,
the drone application can help much in a rapid location selection, where enough place remained
to survive for victims. Floods are typical for a slow onset disaster. In contrast, managing floods is a
very complex and difficult task. It requires continuous monitoring of dykes, flooded and threat-
ened areas. Drone can help managers largely keeping an area under observation. Forest fires are
disasters, where the tactical application of drone is already well developed. Drone can be used for
fire detection, intervention monitoring and also for post-fire monitoring. In case of nuclear acci-
dent or hazardous material leakage drone is also a very effective or can be the only one tool for
supporting disaster management.

Keywords
Disaster Management, Flood, Earthquake, Nuclear Accident, Hazardous Material, Forest Fire, UAV,
UAS, RPAS, Drone

1. Introduction
A disaster is a natural or man-made (or technological) hazard resulting in an event of substantial extent causing
significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life, or drastic change to the environment. A disaster can be
defined as any tragic event stemming from events such as earthquakes, floods, accidents, fires, or explosions. It
is a phenomenon that can cause damage to life and property and destroy the economic, social or cultural life of
people.

How to cite this paper: Restas, A. (2015) Drone Applications for Supporting Disaster Management. World Journal of Engi-
neering and Technology, 3, 316-321. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/wjet.2015.33C047
 A. Restas

The name, “drone” is—more or less—common name of the unmanned aerial systems; its abbreviation is UAS.
In many cases we can find other appearance such as UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) but in Europe the Re-
motely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) is also commonly used name [1]. Author is sure, the name “drone” un-
derstandable for everybody however many experts wish to express it more sophisticated with UAV, UAS or
RPAS.
There are many way to scale different disasters. Disasters can be scaled from limited to escalated, by the ef-
fected area or population, from the eruption to slowly spreading by the time it develops, or in many other ways
depending on the condition we take into account. This paper uses namely some disasters such as floods, earth-
quakes, nuclear accidents and forest fires, however demonstratively expresses that topic is so huge, all presented
work is just touching the surface.
Stating the eruption in the center of the disaster’s time scale any activity, so logically also all drone applica-
tions supporting disaster management can be thematically separated like it can be seen in Figure 1. Before the
eruption as a pre-disaster activity drone application can support the prevention or be able to supply the early de-
tection. In case of man-made disasters like a chemical accident during illegal transport the drone road observa-
tion belongs to prevention, following a toxic smoke spreading belongs to early detection, while avoiding the an
escalated forest fire by drone flight patrol can belong to both prevention and early detection. After the eruption
drone can support the management with real time monitoring that means mostly the quick and relevant informa-
tion regarding the intervention or mitigation. Based on the by drone supplied information the effect of the disas-
ter can be mitigated more effectively and all of relevant information can support making better decision. Finish-
ing main interventions, commonly it means after disaster, drone can support the quick damage assessment and
also help recovery. This drone application is titled as post-disaster activity. This application is the closest to the
civil life.
Depending on the type of disaster, the affected area, severity, etc. the above activities can be totally different
from each other’s. The response at erupted nuclear accident requests different drone activity than the slowly es-
calated flood. Other side drone applications can depend also on the level of managing disaster. At the headquar-
ter management require strategical information but end-users needs information immediately about the situation.
Therefore drone applications in managing level can be divided into 3 groups such as strategical, operational and
tactical levels.

Figure 1. Drone (UAV/UAS/RPAS) activity in time scale of disaster erup-

tion. Source: author.

2. Spread of Hazardous Materials and Nuclear Accidents

At accidents involving hazardous materials, the primary task to be solved by drone flights is the early and accu-
rate identification of the direction of the spread of liquids or gaseous materials. This problem is partially solved
now with help of the advanced set of equipment disaster management (Disaster Management Mobile Lab). Its
features are the relative immobility and 2-dimensional imaging. Through drone flights, three-dimensional im-
ages (Figure 2), so-called rheological curves may be obtained in large areas, quickly and objectively. This is
obviously able to support the decisions of response controllers much better.
In the intervention phase, the takeoff and landing sites are certainly located farther away from the contami-
nated area, so the threat of drone pilots is negligible. Examining the human factors, the severity and duration of
disaster will be determinant; initially the effects of the rapid takeoff due to time pressure, caused by the hunger

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Figure 2. Fix wing drone equipped with chemical sensors (left) and the result of its fly: 3D model of the de-
tected nitrogen-monoxide [2].

for information, on the other hand, the impacts of possible enduring flights are ought be borne in mind. It may
be assumed that the search for trapped people may take place, so, drone flights may also become key factors in
saving human lives. There may be occasions that this burden is difficult to be withstood by drone pilots; howev-
er, the opposite may also occur when it becomes a motivating factor for a successful performance.
After the primary intervention and damage liquidation functions in accidents and disasters caused by hazard-
ous materials, drone flights, again, become well-plannable actions without involuntary commitments. Therefore,
they lose their disaster-specific character and are similar to other civilian applications.
In case of nuclear accidents some of the most important information are that what strong the radioactivity,
what is the affected area now and how fast spreading the radioactivity. In most cases we can assume the radioac-
tivity is higher than the limit allowed for human. Thus any man-on-board operation is not just dangerous but
even useless for human if there is alternative and similar effective solution. Observing and monitoring the ra-
dioactivity usually made by aerials which mean today not just man-on-board solution but also drone application.

3. Earthquakes
Earthquake is a typical disaster that is broken out without any pre-sign and causing not just seriously building
damages but also many human die. The chance for survive of the people trapped in collapsed buildings depends
mainly on the damage types of the affected buildings. Therefore, a rapid mapping of the affected area is very
important not just for assessing the damages but even more to optimize sharing our rescue sources. Since the li-
mited sources in disasters a small drone can be a good solution for rapid mapping.
After the rapid mapping injured buildings can be characterized by an international standard [3]. Based on the
scaled ruins special rescue teams can optimize their work depending on the rate of assumed (measured) surviv-
ing holes. Since the chance for survive is drastically reduces in time the rapid mapping can effectively raise the
rescued lives (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Mission planning above the affected area (left) [4], classification of collapsed building (middle) [3] and 3D mod-
eling of the ruined buildings (right) [5].

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 A. Restas

4. Floods
Floods are a typical for a slowly developing disaster. In many times authority or disaster management head-
quarter have enough information to predict the scale and serious of this disaster. Against the slowly developing
but in many times the country large affected area citizens can be trapped. Even if manned aerials can help in
these situations demonstratively, drone activity around a limited area also can help for the management.
As pre-disaster activity, drone following the stream of rivers can control the state of dams. In case of any un-
usual recognition the responsible authority can react in time for the problem. This activity is very flexible; the
flight patrol can be optimized depending on time or other work load. Since affected areas are usually oversized,
managing floods by aerials is always suffered from limited sources. It means drone can support disaster man-
agement at local level. This task requires tactical or operational drone.
The stability of dams hangs on many conditions like the time it suffer from water press, how structure of
dams built, what materials made of it. There is yet not enough information about it, however it can be supposed,
with a procedure what is able to analyze the state of dam as airborne is help for managers. Knowing the state of
dam managers can optimize the sources making the critic parts of dam stronger or in case of escalated problem
can order the evacuation in time.
In case of unaccepted dam broken citizens can trapped in the flooded area. Even if they can find higher point
in the area like sitting on the roof the evacuation is unavoidable. If the evacuation is possible by motorboats
small drone in the hand of local or regional management can help to find trapped citizens.
Since floods are a slowly developing disaster drone can help for the management in many ways. With drone
observation can predict how flooded the area, what buildings are in risk, where from and where to evacuate the
citizens, etc. The essence of this application is the gap of aerials what means the missing of manned aerials but
drone can offer as a satisfied solution (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Drone mission during flood at the Aggtelek National Park, Hungary (2010). Source: author.

5. Forest Fires
The drone application supporting forest fire management is surely the most developed and practically demon-
strated activity among all disasters [6]. Following the thematically separation of drone activity used above, logi-
cally drone can be used before fire for hot spot detection, during the intervention helping fire management with
real time information and after suppression for post fire monitoring. The method of prescribed fire can be also in
the focus of drone use as a special application for fire prevention [7].
Detecting hot spots by aerials earlier than reporting it by civilians is obviously helps fire managers limiting
the damages fires cause [8]. Unfortunately the main reason why this method is not always used is the huge costs
of aerials. If this procedure made by drone is cheaper solution than the traditional one (manned aircraft) means
option of drone use is the better solution. Naturally this case assumes the similar professional efficiency of dif-
ferent methods.
During this task drone makes a patrol following the pre-programmed flight path and based on the real time
video supply the staff in the control station can detect and check any hot spots (Figure 5). In case of real danger
staff reports it to the fire service.

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A. Restas

Figure 5. Fix wing drone with modelling its activity and a real hot spot detection in
Szendro, Hungary (2006). Source: author.

There is no doubt, aerial patrol by drone can detect hot spots very quickly and able to give the first fire report
to fire brigades. It can reduce the time of first attack but study says that based on economically this application
can be effective just in special condition such as at extremely high Fire Weather Index and at geographically
high articulated area. These criteria are explained detailed in other article [9].
In case of aerial reconnaissance before starting intervention is the situation totally different. Fire managers
require some basic information about fires immediately and for this task a high qualified drone service is not ap-
plicable. The quickness of the information is much more important than the quality (ex. resolution of the video,
photos) of that. Thus the simple but immediately ready for start drone is required for this type of task. Capability
of this type of drone is limited. Fire manager needs objective information about the fire characteristic, fire inten-
sity, speed of spreading fire, smoke emission, wind direction, etc. but very quickly. For this task a hand launch,
by electric engine powered drone is required as a best solution.
During intervention, where aerial reconnaissance is required but manned aircraft is above price, drone could
give also a cost effective solution. If the commander of fire-fighting operations is at the scene, he is too close to
the fire to be able to manage it along with its environment. Quite literally, he cannot see the forest for the trees!
As the extinction of forest fires is a protracted process in time, and since during that time the fire will continue
to spread, the ability to manage a fire together with its environment is an indispensable precondition for the effi-
cient extinguishing of a fire.
During intervention the drone use can be very effective because obtaining an overview of several hundred or
even thousand hectares of forest allows intervention measures to be coordinated. Without air reconnaissance,
coordination of measures can only be based on the information circulated between the commanders of individual
units at various locations. But the assessment of the gravity of their individual situations by commanders located
at various sites may be completely subjective and not made in relation to the other sites. Air reconnaissance
helps to eliminate subjectivity in such judgements and to rank the individual sites in relation to the others.
At huge fires using manned aircraft for bombing water or just for supporting with information the reconnais-
sance is a normal procedure. Other side, small fires don’t require aerial support; these are managed by traditional
equipment. Between these extremes logically there is a sector, where fire size is larger than management could
be suppress it successfully just with traditional equipment, but not enough large for asking manned aircraft for
help. In this case the manned aircraft is economically obviously not effective, but a solution such as drone-what
is cheaper than the use of manned aircraft—is already can (Figure 6).

Figure 6. Efficiency of drone (UAS) application depends on fire size. Source: author.

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References
[1] Blyenburgh, P. (Edit. 2009/2010) UAS Yearbook, UAS—The Global Perspective, Paris, France.
[2] Molnar, A. (2014) UAV alkalmazások fejlesztése az Óbudai Egyetemen (Development of UAV Applications at Óbuda
University), Presentation, AROP Project Conference, Szolnok, Hungary, 28. February 2014.
[3] Schweier, C. and Markus, M. (2006) Classification of Collapsed Buildings for Fast Damage and Loss Assessment.
Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering, 4, 177-192. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10518-006-9005-2
[4] Restas, A. (2012) Unmanned Aircraft System Applications: Firefighting. Introduction to Unmanned Systems: Air,
Ground, See & Space. In: LeMieux, J., Ed., Technologies and Commercial Applications, LCCN 2012954516.
[5] Rehor, M. (2007) Classification of Building Damage Based on Laser Scanning Data. The Photogrammetric Journal of
Finland, 20, 54-63. http://foto.hut.fi/seura/julkaisut/pjf/pjf_e/pjf_e.html
[6] Restas, A. (2015) Thematic Division and Tactical Analysis of the UAS Application Supporting Forest fire Manage-
ment. In: Viegas, X.D., Ed., Advances in Forest Fire Research, Coimbra, Portugal.
http://dx.doi.org/10.14195/978-989-26-0884-6_172
[7] Restas, A. (2011) UAS Applications: From Aerial Patrol to Prescribed Fires. Wildfire 2011, The 5th International
Wildland Fire Conference, Sun City, South Africa, 9-13 May 2011.
[8] Ambrosia, V., Hinkley, E., Brass, J.A., Buechel, S., Sullivan, D., Myers, J. and Schoenung, S. (2006) The Western
States UAV Fire Mission. Eleventh Biennial USDA Forest Service, Remote Sensing Applications Conference RS-2006,
New Remote Sensing Technologies for Resource Managers, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, 24-28 April 2006.
[9] Restas, A, Hinkley, E.A. and Ambrosia, V.G. (2014) An Approach for Measuring the Effectiveness of Fire Detection
Systems in Different Dimensions. Bolyai Szemle, 23, 283-296.

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