There are a number of mapping applications that I use day-to-day for SAR. Tools listed below are just those that I prefer to use. By no means am I trying to maintain a comprehensive list of potential and useful mapping tools. There are many sites out there that do that. I created this page as a wiki page so that it would be easy to update or add resources as needed. More importantly, so that it would be easy to share this information with others.Perhaps the most useful bit of information are links to Google Earth overlays below.
Here are the primary categories of mapping tools that I keep on my laptop:
Google Earth - Google Earth stands out in a class of it’s own. It’s a downloadable application for both Macintosh and PC platforms. It is still a beta product, so there are always new features being added. The most basic version is free… but if you are willing to spend $20 you’ll get a few more useful features such as gps and other data import and annotation. The enterprise client is the most interesting version, if your organization can afford it. With this version you can import GIS data, have more sophisticated annotation, layering and tools for sharing. Most interesting, to me, is that GE Enterprise can playback data through time. In the other versions, the only way to currently do this is with network links. If you have no other tool in your arsenal of digital tools, you ought to have Google Earth. Why? Because it supports network links that allow you to overlay recent imagery or other data supplied over the internet. So, for example, within 12 hours of hurricane Katrina, imagery was available over the internet such that you could view it in Google Earth. That’s an incredibly powerful capability lacking in any other readily available, inexpensive to free tool out there.
Here are some useful network links for Google Earth and SAR:
* UTM grids * Aerial and Topos -
download US data * Katrina and Rita Imagery - NGA overlays, NASA overlays * More to come….
Street Maps - There are many options… Garmin MapSource City Select is useful since you can also put MapSource maps on your Garmin device. We used MapPoint for recovery ops in New Orleans 9th Ward for this purpose. When a city undergoes so much destruction, street signs may be missing and a GPS with maps is the surest way to reference location. I also use Microsoft MapPoint and find that it is very helpful when planning trips or finding places to stop along the way. It’s easy to specify a portion of a route and request information such as hotels that accept dogs or restaurants. Are you a non-profit U.S. 501(c)(3)? You can get Microsoft MapPoint for virtually free at TechSoup.
Browser-based Maps - Though PC-based applications may require downloads and updates, browser-based applications are accessible to anyone via a web browser. This is particularly useful when working off of a laptop where you can’t update software without administrator support. The drawback, of course, is that you need network access. This is becoming less-and-less of a problem as more of the country is covered by high bandwidth digital access (e.g., Verizon EVDO). Even in remote areas, I’ve been able to maintain at least modem speed connections. There are a myriad of map resources available over the internet. Probably, the most useful, free resource is GpsVisualizer. Bookmark this, since there are many capabilities available from this site including:
* Upload and view GPS tracks against a wide variety of free maps * Conversion utilities * Create GE map overlays
There are so many online mapping sites, it’s hardly worth trying to sort through them here. One that I really like using because of the ability to “playback” tracks is Garmin’s MotionBased. It will also keep an online log or journal of your tracks as well as track performance in terms of distance, speed, etc. It’s a great free mapping / GPS tool that is particularly user-friendly and reliable.
PC-based Applications - There is no question that having maps pre-loaded onto the laptop that take into the field is desirable. This is one reason for the large popularity of MapTech Terrain Navigator in Search Operations. However, there are significant drawbacks to using this product. It is costly… you have to purchase maps for individual states. And if you want aerial maps, then you have to pay an annual fee. I find that the application frequently crashes, so it easy to lose your data. The interface is also not so inuitive and most people don’t have a good understanding of how to use this product for search management other than for printing maps. Nonetheless, this is a common and reliable tool for search operations so an essential tool in most SAR organizations. Another tool I suggest that most K9 handlers add to their pool of resources is TopoFusion. It supports aerial and topographic maps, as well as a blending of the two. I find it much easier to interface a GPS to this product than MapTech’s and, overall, the interface is cleaner and more intuitive. Most importantly, TopoFusion can be downloaded and used for free, and costs only $40 for unlimited updates. It is possible to pre-store maps for a given region… so if you are willing to take a few minutes before racing off to a search to cache maps for the area, you don’t need to spend a lot of money on Terrain Navigator. Finally, one of the most interesting features for K9 operations is multi-track playback. To see what this is like, see my blog entry on using a GPS on your dog.