03. Open source geographic information system applications for maritime search and rescue operations

Abstract

The Vietnam East Sea has large maritime traffic and often affected by many storms; thus, maritime search and rescue activities play an extremely important role. In recent years, maritime search and rescue operations in Vietnam has rapidly developed due to the application of advances in science and technology, especially Geographic Information System (GIS) technology. With the rapid development of open platforms, GIS technology has been deployed in many different fields, such as natural resource management, mineral management, urban planning, etc. GIS technology makes maritime search and rescue operations more efficient. However, the application of open source GIS technology in maritime search and rescue activities in Vietnam is still very limited. Therefore, the application of open source GIS (e.g., QGIS, PostGIS, MapWinGIS, Skyfield) for building a maritime search and rescue support system in Vietnam was proposed in this study. The research results demonstrated the feasibility of open source GIS platforms in implementing practical applications.