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GEORGE, WESTERN CAPE
LOCATION MATTERS: how NSRI uses what3words O
NE OF THE CARDINAL considerations in performing a rescue, especially in the ocean, is location. Without location information and an effective means of communicating location, effective rescue cannot take place. Traditionally the maritime language of location communication has been numeric, with a long string of coordinate numbers separated by various notations. To give a coordinate location with a resolution of about two metres entails the use of 23 characters: For example, the location of our rescue base at Wilderness is: 33° 55,735’ S 022° 34,965’ E. Trying to communicate the above coordinate over a crackly radio or with a broken cellphone signal obviously takes time at best and 36 |
SEA RESCUE AUTUMN 2020
at worst could lead to the wrong location being received. Similarly, the process of inputting 23 characters into a GPS device or cellphone on a moving vessel or in a vehicle on a bumpy road can be fraught with error. Lastly, a major problem lies in the fact that the coordinate used above is only one of three very similar coordinate ‘notations’. The example is in the main notation that NSRI uses: ‘degree, decimal minute’. At school, we were all taught the ‘degrees, minutes, seconds’ notation, whereas on Google Maps and other digital devices, ‘decimal degrees’ is becoming a new, frequently used standard. As rescuers, we often first need to determine which notation is being used by the person giving their location, and then mathematically convert it to our
standard before we can use it, which takes even more time and opens up more possibility of error. Enter an organisation called what3words (W3W). Having recognised the above challenges, which are not unique to NSRI, W3W developed an algorithm that simply and effectively divides the entire world into 3m x 3m squares that are each given a unique three-word ‘address’. Using W3W, the location of the front door of Wilderness NSRI base – jesters. sidestep.stingray – is much simpler and far easier to communicate and to enter on a smartphone. Without going into the full detail of the system, it is set up in such a way that words that are phonetically similar, or where there is a risk of the word order being swapped, are
PHOTOGRAPHS: DR BEREND MAARSINGH, SUPPLIED
NSRI Operations Manager Brett Ayres tells us more about W3W, an algorithm that divides the world into 3m x 3m squares that are each given a unique three-word ‘address’. The implications for search and rescue at sea and on land are incredible.
