Sea-Watch Safe Passage Userguide
Safe Passage is an app designed to coordinate emergency calls from people who are in distress in the Mediterranean. It basically consists of a geographic information system linked to a database in which emergency cases can be stored with all necessary information like coordinates, condition of the boat or people on board. By analysing the location and comparing it to the operation areas of different helping organisations, the responsible rescue vehicle can be found. Safe Passage also allows tracking cases and rescue vehicles. Emergency cases can either be entered through a web form in Safe Passage or two corresponding apps, the Sea Watch Safe Passage Search & Rescue App or the Sea Watch Spotter App.
This user guide will help you with your first steps in Safe Passage.
To get your own account, just send an e-mail to [email protected]. Please include the following information: name and home country of your helping organisation, operation area, short description of field of activities, telephone number, other contact details. We will come back to you within a short time.
Once you have your own account, type in your username and password into the log-in screen. If your log-in was successful, you will get a view like this one:
As you can see the layout of Sea Watch Passage is fairly easy. It has a main window, a light-grey vertical menu bar on the left and a dark grey menu bar at the top.
Creating a new case through the web form in Safe Passage is very easy. Just click "Create New Case" in the dark grey menu bar at the top and the web form will open up. Fill in the information you have on the new case. It is important that you enter the location of the boat (geographic coordinates in decimal degrees) - otherwise the case cannot be matched to the responsible vehicle and the error "no_operation_area" will occur. If everything went well and your case was created, the notification "case created" pops up.
Safe Passage offers four different display modes: Map, Cases, Vehicles and Telephone Watchers. In the dark-grey menu bar at the top you can see which display mode you are currently in. To change the display mode, open the drop down menu by clicking on the little white arrow and select another one.
The map gives you an overview of the locations of all cases and vehicles. Zoom in and out by using the tool in the top left corner of the map. It is also possible to zoom in by double clicking. To move the map click and hold the left mouse button and drag the map to a new place. Cases are indicated in blue, vehicles in different other colours. By hovering over the cases or vehicles, you will see the corresponding ID number. By clicking on one of the cases, the corresponing case box will open up on the right-hand side of your screen. By clicking on one of the cases or vehicles, you will be able to see the date and time it has been tracked first and last. If a vehicle or a case has moved while it was tracked, the tracking line appears on the map as well.
In this display mode you can see all the cases currently stored in the database, sorted according to the date they were added. Each case has its corresponding case box. Red case boxes are for boats in distress, orange ones for cases in progress, blue ones for rescued boats and green ones for cases on land. Above each case box, you can see when it was added.
The Vehicles display mode is similar to the Cases display mode. It shows you the Vehicles owned by the different helping organisations that are coordinated in Safe Passage. The date and time when the vehicle was added to the Safe Passage database are written in light grey above each vehiclebox. Basically, the same holds true for the Telephone Watchers display mode. This display mode provides information on telephone watchers within the Watch the Med Alarm Phone.
In the Cases display mode you get an overview of all cases which are displayed in boxes. These caseboxes show the most important facts on each case at a glance. Right at the top the boxes indicate the status (Distress/In progress/Rescued/On Land) and their source (Refugee App/Spotter App/Web Form). Below, a small map shows you the current position of the case. In the table at the bottom you can find further information on the case. Moreover, caseboxes have some extra functions which we will have a closer look at now!
The little gear symbol in the top right corner of each casebox allows you to edit the information. When you have finished click 'Update Case' to save your changes.
If you want to get involved with a case, use the 'Get involved' button on the left hand-side just below the casebox map to show other users that you are involved in the respective case. Just click 'Get involved' and you will be listed under 'Involved' at the bottom of the casebox.
On the right-hand side just below the casebox map you find another small button with a number on it. This button leads you to a chatroom which will allow you and other users to exchange information on the respective case. The number on the button shows you how many messages there are in the chat.
Safe Passage displays information on rescue vehicles and telephone watchers in boxes as well, similar to the case boxes. These can be seen and edited in the corresponding display modes.
The menu on the left-hand side allows you to filter your displayed items (cases, vehicles or telephone watchers depending on the display mode you are in). For example, in the Cases display mode, you can filter the cases according to their Area, Status and Sources. By selecting the status 'Distress' you will see all cases that still need to be rescued at a glance. As long as no item in the menu is selected, all cases are displayed, also older ones which have already been rescued.
Below the filtering options for the Area there is a little +Button which allows you to create a new operation area. Operation areas divide the Mediterranean among the helping organisations to ensure that every area is covered and that the responsible helping organisation can be found quickly.
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