2026-10-06 –, Capalari
REDOG is a Swiss voluntary organisation that trains and deploys rescue teams consisting of people and dogs to locate missing or buried individuals. It is made up of volunteers who are often called upon at very short notice and then set out on the search.
The searchers are organised by an operations manager. This person assigns search areas to the searchers and their dogs, thereby coordinating the operations. The searchers have a tracker or a smartphone with which their search routes are recorded and ultimately visualised at the operations centre. The technology used must be easy to operate and robust.
REDOG has opted for the GI-ANT solution from GEOTEST. This solution is based on QField and is therefore technically processed and organised via QGIS. A cloud solution in the background enables the real-time synchronisation of the collected data (search areas and routes). QGIS would also be the tool for visualisation. However, as it is too much of an expert system, it is deliberately not used. Thanks to web solutions such as Lizmap or the QField Desktop App, it is nevertheless possible to use QGIS as the main organisational tool for project administration – in the background, visible and usable only by experts.
Thanks to the now very extensive QGIS ecosystem, expert solutions can nevertheless be very simple for users and reduced to the essentials. This means that searchers can be equipped with the necessary technology, which also functions under adverse conditions. At the same time, thanks to real-time synchronisation, the operations command centre has an overview of the areas already searched at all times. As REDOG, being a voluntary organisation, has very limited financial resources, open-source tools are very helpful in keeping costs low and, in particular, largely avoiding licence fees.
The presentation introduces the project and explains how the components mentioned are coordinated. It also discusses the challenges involved in implementing and maintaining such a project.
Originally trained as a surveyor in the early 1990s, Hans-Jörg began his professional career in the GIS industry. After 12 years in the private sector, he accepted a post as a GIS professor at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Northwestern Switzerland. In 2016, he returned to the business world, initially working in administration, and since 2025 he has headed the GIS department at GEOTEST in Zollikofen, near Bern.
He is one of those increasingly rare individuals who entered the world of work at a time when personal email did not yet exist, when installing Oracle for spatial data took around three hours using nearly 30 1.44MB floppy discs, and nobody owned a mobile phone. A laptop cost at least 10,000. Google and smartphones were unknown, and a 21-inch monitor weighed between 35 and 45 kg. The term ‘open source’ referred to an open watercourse in the Alps, and Apple lost around 816 million US dollars in a single financial year which led many analysts to consider bankruptcy or a takeover a distinct possibility. Social media was at that time considered to enjoy listening together to a radio station or watching tv together. After all, it was a really great time.
I'm a Data Engineer and GIS Analyst at GEOTEST AG in Switzerland, where I build geospatial data pipelines and QGIS/QField workflows for natural hazard assessment and geotechnical fieldwork, backed by PostgreSQL/PostGIS. I came to GIS from development economics and impact evaluation, after working in data analytics on public infrastructure and development projects, including at the World Bank. Today I also share that experience by teaching a GIS course at Toulouse School of Economics.