The development of increasingly affordable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), along with the slow loosening of government regulations covering the use of these UAVs in private settings, has given rise to a broad range of exciting new opportunities. Across many different industries, project leaders are rushing to take full advantage of the many different benefits this powerful technology has to offer.
Perhaps nowhere is this truer than in the field of disaster response and recovery. Just within the last several years, drones have gone from being a rarely used curiosity to playing an integral part in some of the most high-profile response efforts the world has seen.
So, what makes drones for disaster response and relief operations such a good choice? In this post, we’ll examine several of the potential benefits in detail.
Speed of Response
First and foremost, drones are a good fit for disaster recovery because of the speed at which they can arrive and survey the aftermath of a disaster. When it comes to disaster recovery, the speed of response is imperative because survivors found within 24 hours have a better chance of being rescued alive. The rate of survival drops quickly the longer the response takes. After five days, it drops to just 7 percent.
UAVs can help by proceeding directly to the scene of the disaster, even if rubble or debris is blocking the road. This is in sharp contrast to surveying teams based on land, who have to find their way to the site as best they can. Roadblocks or difficult terrain can cause serious delays in response.
Help Rescue Workers Focus Their Efforts
While UAVs do not replace human rescue workers, they can help rescuers make the best possible use of their time. After proceeding directly to the site of the disaster, and making a quick survey of the scene, drones can help rescue workers pick out exactly where survivors are located.
Instead of combing the entire area in a slow and labor-intensive process, rescue workers can know in advance where they need to go to find survivors. This allows them to help these survivors quickly, which greatly increases the likelihood that these survivors will ultimately receive the help they need. With the power of drones, rescue workers greatly increase their efficiency.
In addition, UAVs can provide mapping services to help rescue workers find the ideal route to reach the site with as little delay as possible. This can be especially helpful in the case of remote locations, and when the disaster may have made any existing routes unusable.
Safely Coordinate Rescue and Response Efforts
Another complicating factor in the field of disaster recovery and response is the fact that aid workers often have to cross difficult terrain in order to reach the people who need their help. In cases where the existing transportation infrastructure has been severely damaged by the disaster, sending workers blindly toward the scene of the disaster can cause even more human suffering and loss of life.
With UAVs, this need not be the case. UAVs can be used to identify potentially hazardous situations in advance so that rescue workers can create a strategy that allows them to bypass the problem, while still making their way toward the site as quickly as possible. When used properly, drones can play a pivotal role in ensuring that as many victims as possible receive the assistance they need, without putting the people providing the assistance at risk. ‹
Get Supplies Where They Need to Go
Once the immediate aftermath of the disaster has passed, and as many survivors as possible have been safely removed from the scene, there is still an important role for drones to play. The people living in the area will still be in desperate need of supplies, and the existing supply chain for getting those materials where they need to go will likely have been damaged or interrupted altogether by the disaster. When the disaster occurs in a very remote area, as in the case of the Nepal earthquake of 2015, then this can complicate issues even further.
Fortunately, drones can be used to plan new ways of delivering supplies. This could include mapping new routes for land vehicles to reach the people in need, or identify places where helicopters or other aircraft can safely land. In some cases, the drones can even carry certain small but crucial deliveries ”such as life-saving medicines ”directly to the scene on their own. ‹ ‹
Final Thoughts
Drones for disaster response and relief operations provide a variety of important benefits and all at a small fraction of the cost of traditional rescue helicopters. It should be no surprise to see drones playing an increasingly important role in the disaster response efforts of the future.
