Geo-readiness; what is your position right now?
Far too many people have no awareness of present position(location) or an ability to figure it out fast. The examples include those on a train that derails; those in a car accident in an unfamiliar town, those lost or in need of assistance while hiking, hunting, fishing, biking, walking, those that survive an aircraft emergency, those working outdoors to include firefighters, law enforcement, utility workers, anyone. When calling 9–1–1, or equal, a priority question the call taker will ask is about location. What is your location right now?
Are you prepared to advise your real-time position? Street & postal address is not applicable much of the time. What it an alternative? Well, an easy to remember website should be on your smart phone. It is FREE and it can even work when there is no internet connectivity as long as it was loaded ahead of time and not closed out. Try it now: USNGAPP.ORG
USNGAPP.ORG uses the device’s GPS to generate the user’s US National Grid (USNG) coordinates. Usable data is just 8 to 13 characters and is easy to read and remember. Think about that; that is very little information which happens to actually mean a lot. The full coordinate identifies the user’s position on Earth to within 10 meters or 33 feet square. That is the size of about two parking spaces.
Use is certainly not limited to 9–1–1 calls. The user could be one of your family members or friends lost in town or out on a desolate stretch of highway with a flat tire or a co-worker in unfamiliar territory.
The display of USNGAPP.ORG is the same as the established Emergency Location Marker (ELM) system developed in Minnesota, but spreading nationwide.
See these links:
a) ELM website
b) ELM brochure
c) ELM article
A few words about the display. Using the example, “17R” is the Grid Zone Designator, a large area for worldwide position. “NM” is the 100 Km ID, for regional position. 16 49 is the 1 Km grid square also known as the principal digits and used for local position. The rules of USNG are “read right, then up”. In words, the position in the example is: In GZD 17R, & 100 KM NM & 1 Km grid 16 49, the location is 60% right and 92% up. As a Base-10 system and alternate description can use 100 meter grid square of 166 499. Finally, the 10 meter grid square is 1660 4992.
No one is advocating replacement of street/postal address with USNG. The strong suggestion is to ADD USNG to street/postal address when known. As explained, many times street/postal address is not known or is not applicable such as when off-road or in the wilderness and that is when the USNG component shines brightly due to its simplicity.
Once a USNG coordinate is determined, what can you do to see the location? Ans. It can be viewed on a gridded paper or electronic map, entered into numerous smart phone apps, entered into the Public Service Answering Point’s (PSAP) Computer Aided Dispatch software or entered into various free webtools such as GMAP4 or Mission Manager. Those same webtools can generate links to a coordinate as follows:
GMAP4 link to 17R NM 1660 4992
Mission Manager link to 17R NM 1660 4992
The 10 meter square (33 feet square) area can be observed on Mission Manager:
Finally, why use USNG at all? Ans. USNG is the land search & rescue standard coordinate system since 2011 and a national standard(FGDC-STD-011–2001) That includes inland waterways. USNG is not used in the oceans. There are other alternatives, but none are as simple and easy to learn & use as USNG. To prove the point, here are four other coordinate types for the same location as 17R NM 1660 4992;
- Latitude/Longitude {DD.dddddd} 28.475817,-80.830367
- Latitude/Longitude {DD.MM.mmm} N 28° 28.549' W 80° 49.822'
- Latitude/Longitude {DD MM SS} N 28° 28' 33" W 80° 49' 49"
- UTM 17N 516605,3149925
Consider speaking those over the phone or over the radio or hearing & comprehending them over the phone or over the radio. The error has been proven to be large. The error is least with USNG. Further, USNG may be truncated; in many cases just the blue numbers of the USNGAPP.ORG display would be needed to advise your position to a PSAP.
USNG is the preferred coordinate system in the states of Florida, Iowa and Minnesota. Federal agencies use it too and FEMA Director Fugate has recommended USNG use multiple times. To get an idea what is needed to occur at the PSAPs in your area, please review the Florida Fire Chief’s Association USNG position document linked here. Is your local PSAP geo-ready?
USNG is the language of location. To see even more about it, watch this IA-TF1 video. Though the intended audience was originally USAR team members, any person can get the gist of all USNG advantages in just 8 minutes by watching this video and it shows the ELM system too. If you are in need of rescue within a wide area, you will want the teams that are searching for you to know and use USNG.
In summary, BE READY, to include geo-readiness. Be able to report your position at any time. Practice and think about it when traveling in unfamiliar areas. When the time arises, be ready with: USNGAPP.ORG
Disclaimer: USNGAPP.ORG is just one tool. The GPS receiver of your smart phone must be operational and the device must be able to see the satellite system. It may not work well inside of a building or inside of a vehicle. The display will show red lines through digits based upon the known accuracy of the GPS at the time. When in the field, the minimal safety tools for navigation are a map & compass. Phones require power; a gridded paper map & compass do not. To create a paper USNG gridded map, see this link.
Multiple other article about USNG are on this Medium account or on the internet.
