Historical Maritime Search and Rescue Incident Data Analysis

Since the 1980s the Canadian Coast Guard has maintained a database of maritime search and rescue (SAR) incidents involving response assets and personnel. This information is stored in a national database known as the Search and Rescue Program Information Management System (SISAR). SISAR contains a spatiotemporal record for all serious incidents that occur within Canada’s coastal search and rescue area. In addition to providing a record of all response operations, it provides a rich historical dataset for analysts to use to support a wide range of decision-making applications. In this chapter we illustrate the use of SISAR incident data to identify and visualize temporal and spatial patterns in the maritime SAR incident data. Temporal phenomena were examined at three temporal scales: yearly, monthly, and hourly. Spatial phenomena were examined using the spatial location and density of incidents. Several useful visualizations to explore and exploit SISAR data are provided. Lastly, we provide a short discussion of several topics relevant to SAR incident analysis, including (1) under-reporting in incident databases, (2) sharing of national SAR incident data, and (3) linking environmental conditions and accident data to add context to historical SAR incidents and to improve SAR response time estimation.