By Allison G.S. Knox
EDM Digest
With new technology comes a variety of applications that can have tremendous benefits to organizations, society – and, of course, the way we handle emergency management. Technology gives emergency management a new way of handling the given crisis, and perhaps, a new perspective for how to use resources a bit more effectively. Drones have been in the news a lot lately with some of the policies that have come about about their uses in the federal government. President Obama used drones during his administration. Similar to other pieces of technology that are developed for the military, drones have an interesting application in emergency management and are giving emergency personnel new ways to manage a developing crisis.
Drones and Aerial Footage
Drones are similar to remote control toys – except they’re a bit more expensive. Designed like a remote control airplane, drones have a little camera mounted to them that will take video footage while someone is controlling it from the ground. They’re tremendously fun to work with, but have a variety of smart applications when it comes to emergency management. Further, they can relay aerial footage for an incident providing a very different perspective to emergency managers on the ground figuring out how to initially manage the crisis and what kind of resources they will need to get the incident under control.
Emergency Management Applications for Drones
Prior to the creation of drones, emergency managers would often figure out the overall scope of a crisis using information from emergency personnel on the ground, and through the chain of command created through the Incident Command System. Drones, however, allow for Emergency Managers to evaluate a serious situation with the use of a drone potentially complimenting the information they have from personnel. In other circumstances, the use of drones prevents personnel from entering a potentially hazardous scene before emergency managers understand exactly what they’re dealing with.
Read the full article at EDM Digest.
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