No.69 Disaster Response Utilizing Drones

Regarding small unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), as reported in the Inagi Newsletter August 1, 2017 issue, the Inagi City Fire Department has independently introduced them and officially started disaster response operations from the same day.
On the other hand, on July 26, 2017, we signed an agreement with the NPO Crisis Mappers Japan regarding support activities utilizing unmanned aerial vehicles during disasters.
This agreement was established in March of this year by Chofu City and Komae City, and this time, four cities including Fuchu City, Hino City, Tama City, and Inagi City have joined.
The specific content of the agreement is that within about one hour after a disaster occurs, before the fire department and police begin rescue operations using helicopters, the NPO will operate multiple drones to investigate and record the disaster situation from the air, create a database reflecting this information on map data, and provide it to each city. Each city will be able to quickly grasp the disaster situation and utilize it for initial response, as well as understand the situation in neighboring cities, which is expected to lead to mutual support.
The NPO Crisis Mappers Japan is represented by Professor Daichi Furuhashi of Aoyama Gakuin University, and is engaged in activities as part of research on new uses for drones.
Drones can fly for about 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on the capacity of the battery they carry, and university student volunteers will operate them, with takeoff and landing bases expected to utilize university facilities within the areas of the cities that signed the agreement. This is a collaborative effort involving industry, government, and academia, including companies developing equipment.
By the way, collaboration in the Tamagawa River basin was initiated in 2013 at the suggestion of the mayor of Chofu City, starting with the collaboration of six cities in the middle reaches of the Tamagawa River (Fuchu City, Chofu City, Komae City, Hino City, Tama City, and Inagi City), promoting tourism and regional revitalization through information exchange and event hosting. Currently, mayors from Ota City, Setagaya City, Kawasaki City, and Hachioji City have joined, and we are deepening collaboration with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Tokyo Metropolitan Government, surrounding railway companies, and bus operators.
In the future, like this drone agreement, we will strive to expand collaboration further, adding disaster response as a purpose, leading to the development of the region.