Florin Savopol 
  
the flight. This capability of the system will be tested later. However, the image inspection and the selection of the 
more useful images were tested during the flight. 
4 DATA TRANSMISSION FOR (NEAR) REAL-TIME MAPPING 
In the case of an emergency situation such as an airplane accident, an ecological accident or a natural disaster (earth 
quake, flooding), the availability of a real-time or near real-time “Mapping Tool” could dramatically improve the result 
of the rescue operations and save human lives. 
Each emergency situation will generate its specific needs in term of spatial information and emergency mapping. We 
can identify three typical scenarios: 
A. The existing topographical information in the form of digital data or/and as paper maps is old and probably out of 
date. The emergency mapping team should provide, in the shortest possible time, (and probably in the form of a 
disturbed environment) a more or less classical mapping service, the updating of the topographic information. 
B. An emergency situation such as a natural disaster (earth quake, flooding, major forest fire) has modified the 
environment and the emergency mapping team is in charge of the mapping of these changes (limits of the flooded areas, 
of the forest fires or the areas with destroyed buildings and bridges). The main difference with the preceding situation 
(A) is the dynamic nature of the phenomena to map. 
C. The emergency mapping team is in charge of mapping the results of an accident such as the debris of a major 
airplane crash or the spread of oil in the case of a tanker spill. The major difficulty of this scenario and the main 
difference from the preceding situations is the need to identify and position objects very different from the typical 
topographic objects mapped on the standard maps and GIS. And, in the case of an airplane crash, there is no minimum 
size for the area of the debris to be mapped. 
In all this three scenarios, the delay between the inspection flight and the image data delivery is critical. 
  
  
MAIN SYSTEM COMPUTER Image Selection 
and 
  
  
Compression... 
  
  
  
    
  
    
  
Frame Grabber 1 
Local 
Ethernet 
Link 
  
  
Frame Grabber 2 
2-nd Computer 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
LUE 
  
Mobile Phone + Modem 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Hi. Res. Digital Cameras 
  
  
Figure 5: System configuration for (near) real time data transmission for emergency mapping. 
  
270 International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXIII, Part B1. Amsterdam 2000.