Table III RPAS benefits and supporting... | Emerald Publishing

Table III

RPAS benefits and supporting commentary

OCHA benefit	Broader commentary
Data collection via video/photofeeds	The whole area of achieving a timely and efficient needs assessment process is a recurring theme in the HL literature (e.g. Kovács and Spens, 2007; Kovács and Tatham, 2009)
Public information and advocacy through, for example, demonstrating the scale of the damage, the pace of recovery or by highlighting specific problems	While this subject has not been a major feature in the HL literature to date, it is a theme that has significant presence in the broader humanitarian and development literature (e.g. Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, 2011; OCHA, 2016)
The search element of “Search and Rescue” missions both at a macro-level and also through the use of small portable (micro) RPAS within buildings, etc.	The use of RPAS to carry out such macro-level missions has been a feature of operational achievements to date (UAViators, 2016), while the use of micro RPAS is under consideration by the International Search and Rescue Community (De Gubber, 2012)
Map production	Map production has also been one of the clear benefits of the use of RPAS as evidenced by a number of recent reports (e.g. Medair, 2014; Schroeder and Meier, 2016)
Package delivery – noting that, although this is an immature capability, it has the potential to deliver items such as life-saving vaccines	A number of trials of the airborne delivery of medicines and vaccines have been reported recently, including in South Africa (Mendelow, 2015) and Malawi (Kuo, 2016)

OCHA benefit	Broader commentary
Data collection via video/photofeeds	The whole area of achieving a timely and efficient needs assessment process is a recurring theme in the HL literature (e.g. Kovács and Spens, 2007; Kovács and Tatham, 2009)
Public information and advocacy through, for example, demonstrating the scale of the damage, the pace of recovery or by highlighting specific problems	While this subject has not been a major feature in the HL literature to date, it is a theme that has significant presence in the broader humanitarian and development literature (e.g. Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, 2011; OCHA, 2016)
The search element of “Search and Rescue” missions both at a macro-level and also through the use of small portable (micro) RPAS within buildings, etc.	The use of RPAS to carry out such macro-level missions has been a feature of operational achievements to date (UAViators, 2016), while the use of micro RPAS is under consideration by the International Search and Rescue Community (De Gubber, 2012)
Map production	Map production has also been one of the clear benefits of the use of RPAS as evidenced by a number of recent reports (e.g. Medair, 2014; Schroeder and Meier, 2016)
Package delivery – noting that, although this is an immature capability, it has the potential to deliver items such as life-saving vaccines	A number of trials of the airborne delivery of medicines and vaccines have been reported recently, including in South Africa (Mendelow, 2015) and Malawi (Kuo, 2016)