By Bill Steer
If it can be used in your car or on your pets, Global Positioning Systems technology definitely has a place in the Canadian camp community.
Global Positioning System (GPS) technology is no longer just for hikers, the military and courier companies.
It is a user-friendly technology now being applied for multiple purposes in the “first response,” tourism, natural resource, education and utility sectors. It is a tool for safety preparedness, reducing risk with cost-effective solutions. Utilizing GPS should be part of every camp's training and emergency plans.
GPS is showing up in many places. It is in your car, within safety beacons, on the golf cart, on bracelets attached to felons, and available to parents for their children in wristwatch form. Police would like to have GPS bracelets attached to Alzheimer's patients, bringing relief to loved ones while saving time and money needed for searches.
Geocaching, an outdoor treasure hunt, is becoming very popular around the world. GPS is also used for gathering and reporting information on accident, incident and compliance forms. Scientists track animal behaviour through GPS collars, while a company is even developing a GPS collar with a phone for pets.
GPS, using satellite tracking, identifies a spatial location, a point of intersection from imaginary lines on the earth's surface. GPS satellites have atomic clocks built-in, so time, distance and location measurements become extremely accurate. Postal codes, addresses and telephone numbers are becoming "geo-referenced" with GPS co-ordinates.
The public needs to understand the relationship between the map, the compass and the GPS unit. They need to be aware of the standards associated with competent navigation in tandem with communication devices like satellite phones. Long ago, we learned latitude and longitude, but the teachers never told us what a degree, minute or second really meant. The Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid system is a better substitute when used with your GPS unit and a map. The handheld GPS unit can do so much with a little understanding of the basics of navigation.
Why use GPS?
GPS units work with satellite and VHF radios and various communication systems. It won't be long until the cell phone has GPS capabilities linked to the E-911 (Enhanced 911) program now being developed. The ability to identify and communicate a specific location is upon us.
The following scenarios are a few examples of what could happen and how the GPS unit could help when we plan for public and personal safety measures.
• You are a police constable, first on the scene, summoned to find a missing person in a remote rural section of an unorganized township. The rest of the hunting party does not know where their friend was last seen. You are about to radio your GPS location to the communication centre and make preparations to start a search…
• As a paramedic, a call comes in from a communications centre identifying the UTM and latitude/longitude location on your 1:50 000 topographical map with a NAD 27 map datum source. As you drive, your partner is determining the location of the backcountry road you will turn south on…
• As an experienced camp leader you have been on a canoe trip with a group of teenagers for five days, when one suffers a broken leg and has gone into shock. You are about to use the satellite phone to request assistance and identify your location on the NAD 83 map you have…
• As a volunteer fire fighter you receive a message from a provincial fire crew of a “pup” fire which is spreading in a remote section of the municipality. The location has been transmitted on your pager and you are now headed to the location to help. You occasionally check your GPS unit for location…
• As a lodge owner, one of your guides sends back an emergency call, with GPS location, regarding a personal injury (heart attack) to a guest. The guide cannot move the victim and has radioed for assistance from the fly-in lake…
• As a boater, on an inland waterway, you view a capsized boat in the distance. The visible shoreline is more than 1 km away and the wind is increasing the wave action. Using your VHF radio, you are about to contact an emergency contact number and transmit the location with your GPS unit…
• After a day of fishing, your truck won’t start. Although you are not far off the Trans Canada Highway on a tertiary logging road, it is on an isolated section between Longlac and Hearst. There are countless roads in the area. Luckily, the cell phone works, you packed your GPS unit, and you are just about to describe your location…
• As a company employee you have been called to a utility corridor. There has been an overnight “blow-down” crossing the wires, but you also notice the downed trees have been uprooted near the natural gas right-of-way. You are using the satellite phone to have the GPS location transmitted to others, a local evacuation may be in order…
• You are sailing off the coast and you hit an uncharted shoal. The damage is significant and the water coming through the hull is steady, faster than your pumps can handle. You reach for the handset to radio the latitude and longitude of your position, from the GPS unit, to the Coast Guard…
• You and your best friend have had a good day of snowmobiling (or ATVing). It is late in the day, you decide to go a little further when your friend goes off the trail and hits a tree. He is barely conscious and is unable to move his legs. Darkness is setting in, you push the power button of your GPS unit and unsnap the protective case of the satellite phone…
• The local emergency plan identified safe locations in case of a natural disaster. An ambulance needs to be dispatched to one of the safe locations but the main road is blocked. Your GPS unit has stored different routes to access the location. You are about to relay the series of new coordinates to the dispatcher…
• The coroner at the inquest for the recent tragedy asked if there were standards for communicating spatial information and if all personnel were trained with GPS…
Safety First
Were you "lost" when you left the retail store with your GPS unit, or, worse, when you received the one you ordered on-line? Most people are when they take the GPS unit out of the box. It is a too common occurrence, turning on the unit and wondering about those numbers displayed on the screen.
What was missing? What about directions, and information about the settings on your GPS unit? Do you have your map and compass? Yes, you'll need these too.
It is true, the on-board GPS unit in your car can bring you to your destination and the manufacturer's roadside assistance program knows where you are stranded. But what if you have to interact with the GPS?
There is more to basic navigation than relying on the unit. Organizations and individuals should be made aware and educated about the relationship between the map, the compass and the GPS unit.
An introductory or certified GPS course will help.
The course's expectations will help a participant to identify and communicate a location on a map, in tandem with a GPS unit. This will include the use of the map datum source, the coordinate system (UTM and latitude/longitude) and a compass for basic orientation. Additional navigation information, such as direction and distance (scale), as related to a "real and identifiable feature" on the map, would complement the identification.
Anyone using a GPS unit should be able to identify and describe a location with some details.
Like CPR and first-aid, GPS training will help. It is an inexpensive technology that requires some basic knowledge and a few skills.
Bill Steer is with the Canadian Ecology Centre.
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