As part of SARINZ ongoing commitment to SAR, we occasionally create or identify white papers that we believe will be of interest or relevance to those interested in SAR issues.

If you have, or know of, white papers that should be included here for the benefit of other SAR folk - drop us an email to info@sarinz.com, we will review it and add it here.

Compatibility of Land Search Theory Procedures with Search Theory

Prepared by the Potomac Management Group - D Cooper, J Frost & R Quincy Robe, December 2003

"The purpose was to gain familiarity with current terminology and procedures, and to identify which procedures are compatible with the application of formal search theory to land search, which could become compatible with practical revisions, and which cannot be revised in a practical manner to achieve compatibility...The report finds at various individuals at various times have attempted to apply bits and pieces of what they believed to be search theory to the problem. There is also a critical need to rectify some of the more crucial misunderstandings that could have a significant detrimental effect on future land search operations".

The report deals primarily with visual searching and is a total of 183 pages, 940kb.

You can view the report in pdf here (or right click "Save Target As... to download)

Principles of Search Theory

Prepared by Soza and Company Limited - JR Frost, 1999

The report is split into four parts as outlined below. It was considered quite advance thinking for its time and attempts to explain reasonably complex theory in layman's terms (though you may need some knowledge of search concepts and mathematics to understand it).

Pt 1 - Detection

Pt 2 - Effort, Coverage and POD

Pt 3 - Probability Density Distributions

Pt 4 - Optimal Effort Allocation

66 pages, 520 kb.

You can view the report in pdf here (or right click "Save Target As... to download)