Latest documentation: https://karttahimmeli-docs.netlify.app/en/intro/
Karttahimmeli - Fundamentals¶
What is Karttahimmeli?¶
Karttahimmeli is a map-based situational awareness system designed especially for search and rescue operations, as well as event coordination such as event first aid cover and security staff management. The system allows multiple teams and command staff to share their location data and add annotations to the same map in real time.
Karttahimmeli is not just a personal map app for one individual. It is a shared tool for the whole organization. Every annotation is stored in the system for common use.
Why Karttahimmeli?¶
Before map-based situational awareness systems, sharing location information was slow and error-prone:
- Search Teams had to describe their location verbally over the phone
- Command could misinterpret the location (confirmation bias)
- Under fatigue or time pressure, annotations were left unrecorded
- When people left the operation, information stored on their own devices was lost
In Karttahimmeli, all annotations are saved automatically in the system, so information is preserved throughout the operation.
Why situational awareness matters
In one search operation, a thermal camera detected a person in covered terrain. Command tried to determine by phone which search teams were nearby, and confirmation bias occurred: the detection was interpreted as their own search team. It was later discovered that their own search team was 300 meters away and the detection was the missing person. The search could have ended 12 hours earlier if location data had been available in real time.
System structure¶
Remote planning
Karttahimmeli can also be used remotely from home. Operation planning can start immediately when an alert arrives, even before command has reached the meeting point.
Karttahimmeli consists of two basic elements:
- Base maps - shared maps used by everyone for annotations
- Operation - a unique identifier that separates one search from all others
Karttahimmeli can be used both as a mobile app and via browser at https://karttahimmeli.netlify.app.
Who is Karttahimmeli for?¶
- Search Team members: making annotations in the field, sharing own location
- Dog search teams: following wind data, seeing nearby team locations
- Command staff: monitoring situational picture, planning and assigning areas, filtering annotations
- Event first aid cover (roving teams): divide the event area into 50 m grid cells — report patient locations by cell coordinate (e.g. B7)
- Security staff: share personnel locations and situation updates on a common map
Every user benefits from the system, but what matters most is that the whole organization uses the same operation.
Event coordination: first aid cover and security staff¶
Karttahimmeli can also be used to coordinate events such as event first aid cover and security operations. Sharing personnel locations on a common map and maintaining a situational picture works exactly the same way as in a search and rescue operation.
50 m grid for event coordination¶
Event first aid cover teams have long used a 50-metre grid as the coordinate map for the event area. Karttahimmeli supports this practice directly: the Grid 50 m annotation type draws a coordinate grid on the map where each cell is 50 m × 50 m.
- Columns are numbered left to right: 1, 2, 3 …
- Rows are lettered top to bottom: A, B, C …
- The grid matches standard event-area coordinate map sheets
A patient or incident location can be reported as a grid coordinate, e.g. B7, and everyone in the operation can instantly locate it on their map.
The grid is added like any other annotation: press the plus button, select Grid 50 m, and tap the point on the map where the top-left corner of the grid should be placed. The grid is visible when the map is zoomed in to approximately zoom level 14 or deeper.
Remember
Even if your own use of the system does not feel like the most important thing for you personally, your location data can be critically important to a nearby search team, command staff, or for example a helicopter team.