South Korea has the highest suicide rate among the major OECD countries. The suicide rate in Seoul ranges from 21.3 to 23.2 per 100,000 individuals. To improve the survival rate of individuals attempting suicide on Han River bridges, the Seoul Fire Department began installing CCTVs on these bridges in 2012 and has been monitoring them to assess their effectiveness using collected data. This study aimed to evaluate the operational impact of deploying professional monitoring personnel and establishing an integrated video monitoring center by comparing suicide statistics before and after its implementation. The analysis distinguished between two periods: one when water rescue team members monitored the footage themselves after installing their own video monitoring center and the other when deploying professional monitoring personnel and establishing an integrated video monitoring center. After deploying professional monitoring personnel and operating the integrated video monitoring center, the number of rescue dispatches increased by an average of 50%, the survival rate improved by an average of 4.9%, and the mortality rate declined by an average of 4.9%.

PURPOSES : This study aims to propose drone-command standard operating procedure (SOP) guidelines and Analyze their potential application to increase the use and utility of drones in urban disaster situations. Although the effectiveness and efficiency of obtaining disaster-situation information through drones have been verified by previous studies and practical experience, a survey of actual drone usability indicated a utilization rate of only approximately 4.13%. METHODS : To provide guidance for improving drone command SOPs, prior research and relevant literature were reviewed to identify commonalities between disaster-response command and control and drone use. A sample of 73 active-duty firefighters, including incident commanders (ICs) and drone pilots, were surveyed and interviewed. The data were analyzed and categorized to establish the reasons why drones are not actively used in urban disaster-response procedures. RESULTS : The primary reasons identified for not actively utilizing drones in urban disaster areas were the lack of a drone command and control system and the lack of clear criteria for when to use drones in disaster situations. In addition, many problems were found in drone-operation procedures, including emergency flight approval, securing takeoff and landing sites, and accident burden due to urban flight obstacles. To address the issues identified, standards were proposed for the type, size, and scope of urban disasters requiring drone response; for accident-prevention on basic missions and through flight safety procedures; and for installing a video transmission and reception system to easily share drone video information with ICs. CONCLUSIONS : Application of the drone-command SOP guidelines to actual urban disaster situations by disaster type will help to improve the efficiency of information acquisition and flight safety. This is expected to enable increased drone utilization. In future, extension of the research reported in this paper beyond the Seoul metropolitan area via additional follow-up studies has the potential to establish applicability of the proposed SOP guidelines to a wide variety of environments and organizational characteristics.