Surf Life Saving NSW - Rescue Package

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Emergency Response
18 months ago Surf Life Saving NSW implemented a 24-7 emergency call out system to assist emergency services when a coastal emergency occurred outside of patrol hours or at an unpatrolled beach. Since the system was implemented lifesavers/lifeguards have responded to more than 280 call outs. From an emergency response perspective, Surf Life Saving NSW would gain a lot of benefit from a list and map of all carparks, picnic areas, campsites and beach accesses in NSW. This would also assist in disaster planning.

Weather Patterns
Surf Life Saving NSW could use Daily Weather Observations – and in particular wave height information - to cross reference against rescue and drowning statistics to determine if there are patterns. This would assist in preventative measures and surf education messages

Future Planning
From a future planning perspective, Surf Life Saving NSW would also benefit greatly from having access to tourism and population trends in regional areas along the NSW Coastline, including projected growth figures. This would ensure we can focus on recruiting lifesavers in the right areas and if necessary increasing the number of clubs or patrolling lifeguards in the state.

The information that would assist with our planning includes:
• Tourism and population trends in regional areas along the NSW Coastline
• Up to date projected growth figures
• Car count stats for all beaches in the state
• Beach user numbers for whole state

Idea # 166Not for Profit PSI, emergency service, surf lifesaving, rescue

Comments

Brad Peterson 4 months ago

CSIRO did some work on this with Surf Life Saving Victoria.

Yvonne R Thompson 4 months ago

Hi, although I am Victoria Perhaps I can help point you in the direction of some resources in NSW.

You mention a list and map of all carparks, picnic areas, campsites and beach accesses. Assuming you are using GIS you are looking for geocoded data for these features.

I have previously sought data from NSW for our own emergency services (we respond over the border and also the Murray River) and did find some data maintained by Maritime NSW.

http://www.maritime.nsw.gov.au/publications/maps.html

I suggest you contact Maritime directly but proabably also contact the responsible authority in NSE, CS2i Common Spatial Information Initiative advertised as NSW's “one stop spatial information website” http://www.cs2i.nsw.gov.au/

http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=CS2I&btnG=Search&meta=cr%3DcountryAU

as I brought the Maritime data sets to the attention of the CSi2 people in February this year. I am not sure but CSi2 may be a rebranding of what was previously EICU, the Department of Lands Emergency Information Coordination Unit (EICU) which "ensures that Emergency Service Organisations (ESOs) have the best spatial and related spatial data available to deal with multi agency emergencies, such as terrorism"
http://www.lands.nsw.gov.au/about_us/eicu

Maritime NSW DATA (this is anecdotal / imdicative information only so please check with Maritime directly)

1) a dataset called Nav_fac - point data - their facility points with features from Launching Ramps, Wharves, Fuelling points to advisory signage.
2) Parks - polygon data - generally various parks along the foreshore with a separate label for major National Parks or State Forests. These areas are generally a State Forest or such anyway.
3) Coast - polygon data - base information of the coastal foreshore and river banks. It can also include polygons of immediate adjoining areas such as beaches and mangroves. It originally came from digital data held by the NSW Water Resources Commission, however, it has been progressively updated with official Land Property Information Topographic data.
4) Depth - polygon data - Based on the coast layer is more relevant along the oceans and tidal rivers of NSW, indicating at best hydrographic (current and historical) contours and at worst navigable channels of no accurately known depth.
5) Annotation Coverage for text used on boating maps compiled from the official Topographic Map information and sometimes may include "local names" from other sources, such as additional Bend names etc.
6) Published maps such as boating maps, the water ski race operational maps and mooring zone maps.

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