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Ocean Savior From Above: Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) Operations During Near-Shore Ocean Rescues
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Shekari, Ali |
| Copyright Year | 2018 |
| Abstract | The United States possesses 12,383 miles of ocean shoreline across all territorial boarders, which includes the U.S. mainland, Alaska, Hawaii, and non-state possessions. The vast shorelines offer great opportunities for both recreational and commercial exploration. However, the shoreline environment also presents a challenging and ever-present public safety hazard: drowning in open water. To combat the drowning threat, the United States Coast Guard and local governments along the nation’s shorelines have developed protection measures to prevent drowning. These protection measures include beach lifeguards, rescue boats, and manned rescue aircraft. Yet 50-75% of the approximately 4,000 annual drowning deaths in the United States happen in oceans and other open waters (Branche & Stewart, 2001). This paper discusses the implementation of a new tool to protect visitors of the United States’ near-shore ocean waters: small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS). The contained study focuses on how sUAS can be used for near-shore ocean rescue, the legality of the proposed solution, and how the population of Volusia County, Florida views the government using the technology for public safety use, and more specifically ocean rescue. The study postulates that the sUAS can be used for a quicker aviation asset response than manned aircraft during rescues and fly in non-favorable conditions. The proposed solution also appears to be legal, and possess public favor. 2 McNair Scholars Research Journal, Vol. 5 [2018], Art. 1 https://commons.erau.edu/mcnair/vol5/iss1/1 Ocean Savior From Above 3 Introduction & Literature Review General Drowning is an emergency that is near impossible to completely prevent, and it causes two very large problems: loss of life and economic damage. The causes of drowning are diverse, but the proper usage and development of lifeguard capabilities over the years has brought overall fatalities down since the early twentieth century, which was as high as 9,000 people per year according to the American Red Cross (Branche & Stewart, 2001). However, history has shown that lifeguards are not always effective. Like any other system dependent on human detection, recognition, and intervention, lifeguards will occasionally fail. This paper proposes the utilization of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) technology to enhance drowning recognition and expedite emergency response to drowning events. The investigation leading up to this publication serves as the beginning of a feasibility study, which worked to define legality of the proposed solution, public perception of the use of sUAS technology by government agencies for ocean rescue and other public safety missions, and how sUAS can be a better solution than manned aircraft for ocean rescue within Volusia County, Florida. The Problem: Loss of Life and Economic Impacts Approximately 4,000 people lose their lives due to downing accidents in the U.S. annually, with 50-75% of deaths happening in oceans and other open waters (Branche & Stewart, 2001). During 2012 alone, Florida experienced 783 downing incidents, of which 440 were fatal. Open water drownings accounted for 111, approximately 25% of the drowning deaths in Florida during 2012, with roughly 7-14 drowning incidents in Volusia County per 100,000 residents (Florida Department of Health). Loss of life is not the only issue associated with drowning incidents; there is a steep economic cost involved with it as well. In 1997, the National Safety Council valued the economic cost of an unintentional injury death at $790,000 (Branche & Stewart, 2001). That is $1,205,800.19 in today’s currency according to the United States Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. This means 3 Shekari: Ocean Savior From Above: Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) O Published by Scholarly Commons, 2018 Ocean Savior From Above 4 that the economic cost of Florida’s open water drowning deaths in 2012 alone amount to $133,843,821. However, it has been noted that numbers this high are almost too big to be useful for policy-makers at the local level (Branche & Stewart, 2001). This can largely be attributed to speculation on many variables, such as loss of productivity from the individual. Yet there is another statistic that is more reasonable for decision-makers to look at involving the economic costs of drowning, the average cost of non-fatal hospitalizations caused by drowning. On average the cost of a non-fatal drowning is roughly $16,000 within the state of Florida (Florida Department of Health). Enormous amounts of the economic costs from these events are also passed along to various levels of government. Of the 343 non-fatal drowning hospitalizations in Florida during 2012, roughly 50% of patients were insured by Medicaid (Florida Department of Health), a health insurance program backed by state and federal governments. This means that the federal and state governments paid significant percentages of the medical bills for half of all non-fatal drowning hospitalizations in the state of Florida in 2012. However, local governments can be left with a large amount of financial exposure as well. In Florida, local governments have a discretionary power to operate designated swimming areas at beaches, but when they decide to operate a swimming area, they have a common-law duty to operate it safely. Florida courts look at previous knowledge of danger, presence of lifeguards, and adequate warnings to determine liability (Branche & Stewart, 2001). Volusia County does have an adequate hazard warning system in place and a robust lifeguard corps. However, the proposed solution would further reduce the county’s liability because of the presence of additional protective measures. Brief History of Lifeguarding Prior to the early 1900s, lifeguarding as we know it today was non-existent. Early attempts at preventing drowning included lifelines, which struggling swimmers were meant to hold. However, swimmers were not always capable of holding onto them. Some municipalities began using police officers for water rescue operations, but this took away resources from law enforcement duties. Eventually municipal 4 McNair Scholars Research Journal, Vol. 5 [2018], Art. 1 https://commons.erau.edu/mcnair/vol5/iss1/1 Ocean Savior From Above 5 governments began employing individuals who were specially trained and equipped for water rescue, whom we now know as “lifeguards” (Branche & Stewart, 2001). However, standardization of lifeguard training did not begin until 1912 when the YMCA established a national lifesaving service. Similarly, the American Red Cross established their own lifesaving division in 1914. Early training of lifeguards focused on prevention of emergencies and protecting oneself during an emergency. Non-swimming rescues like throwing a rope or life-preserver were encouraged and swimming rescues were viewed as a final resort in an emergency, largely because of the dangers posed by a panicking swimmer in the water (Branche & Stewart, 2001). These tactics had many shortcomings because swimming rescues were often impossible for beach lifeguards to avoid, which lead to the invention of technologies such as the rescue buoy, rescue tube, and rescue board (Branche & Stewart, 2001). Today lifeguards have other tools at their disposal as well, such as motorboats and personal water craft, otherwise known as “jet-skis,” to quickly reach swimmers in distress who are far from shore. However, lifeguards are commonly also required to complete other duties such as law enforcement and emergency medical services. This creates a need for a new tool to help enhance the overall situational awareness of lifeguards and decrease response times between becoming aware of an emergency and reaching the victim(s). Why Lifeguards Fail to Stop Drowning The number of people who perish due to drowning annually has fallen by more than half since the early 1900s. This in large-part can be attributed to the use of lifeguard services. However, with around 4,000 drowning deaths in the United States still happening annually, one can deduce that lifeguards are not a one-hundred percent effective solution. One of the main reasons is that municipalities cannot keep lifeguards on duty around the clock, it would be too expensive. In fact, three-quarters of drowning deaths 5 Shekari: Ocean Savior From Above: Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) O Published by Scholarly Commons, 2018 Ocean Savior From Above 6 that happen at beaches that are protected by lifeguards occur when the lifeguards are not on duty (Branche & Stewart, 2001). Even though most drownings at protected beaches happen when lifeguards are not on duty, there are still many instances where people still drown while lifeguards are on duty. In a study that analyzed drowning deaths at swimming pools protected by lifeguards during the 2000-2008 time period, the lifeguard realized the drowning was taking place only 22% of the time. The other 78% of cases were recognized by by-standers and reported to the lifeguard (Pelletier & Gilchrist, 2011). One might argue that these statistics are not valid when applied to the effectiveness of lifeguards at beaches because the environment is different. However, one must consider that the environmental conditions at a pool are generally more favorable than at the beach, which means that lifeguards could potentially notice an even smaller percentage of drownings on their own at beaches. The next question that one must ask is why lifeguards fail to notice drownings. Research conducted by Dr. Frank Pia in the 1980s introduced the concept of the RID factor, which stands for recognition, intrusion, and distraction. Today it is universally recognized as the formula for why swimmers drown when lifeguards are present (Katchmarchi, 2013). Recognition is being able to identify the signs of a drowning in progress, such as anxious expressions, lack of progress toward shore, head low in the water, low |
| Starting Page | 1 |
| Ending Page | 1 |
| Page Count | 1 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Volume Number | 5 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://commons.erau.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1030&context=mcnair |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
