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 organisation. Every annotation is stored in the system for common use.
How this differs from familiar GPS/map apps¶
If you're used to hiking or sports apps (Strava, Garmin Connect, and similar), Karttahimmeli's way of working takes a little adjustment:
In a traditional app, you first draw something on a map and only then share it. Or you start recording a track, stop the recording, and share the recording afterwards.
In Karttahimmeli, everything is shared automatically and in real time. When you share your own location, it appears immediately on the shared map — everyone else in the operation sees your tail getting longer step by step, as you move. What you see on the map, everyone else in the same operation sees too. Nothing needs to be published or sent separately: sharing and saving happen at the same moment.
Karttahimmeli completely removes the cognitive burden of how to share something or who to share it with.
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 - maps shared across the whole system for annotations
- Operation - a unique identifier that separates one operation's annotations from all other operations' annotations
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 — teams can be directed to task locations by grid coordinate (e.g. B7)
- Security staff: track personnel locations and mark important areas on a common map
Every user benefits from the system, but what matters most is that the whole organisation uses the same operation, so information-sharing doesn't create silos.
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. The nearest first-aid or security staff member can be efficiently directed to event locations.
A coordinate grid can also be used to coordinate an event field — a standard map long used in event first aid cover and security work. See Coordinate grid for event coordination.
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.