Lee, J.; Park, J.; Kim, I., and Kang, D.Y., 2019. Application of vision-based safety warning system to Haeundae Beach, Korea. In: Lee, J.L.; Yoon, J.-S.; Cho, W.C.; Muin, M., and Lee, J. (eds.), The 3rd International Water Safety Symposium. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 91, pp. 216-220. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

Between 2012 and 2017, the number of drowning incidents in South Korean beaches has been on the rise. To prevent drowning accidents, huge number of lifeguards are hired to operate lifesaving activities. This burdens municipal governments in the budget. Nevertheless, because of the limitation in these resources as well as equipment, it is difficult to maintain the effective safety management. Nighttime incidents caused by entering into the water in the absence of lifeguard makes safety management become more critical. In order to resolve the issue of limited numbers of lifeguards and equipment in the aquatic facilities including beaches, it is necessary to develop automated detecting of high profile of drowning and warning systems that support lifeguarding and safety management. Moreover, to provide and maintain safe beach environment in accordance with international standards and prevent injuries and life-threatening incidents, it is essential to develop relevant reliable systems. Among these systems is the application of an intelligent video surveillance technology, the CCTV, for establishing a safe beach environment. The CCTV technology can help in developing a system that detects swimmers and beachgoers approaching dangerous zones and takes proper action. By integrating life-saving technologies that can be applied during both daytime and nighttime, which issue warnings and generate responses when swimmers enter the water at night, it enables to overcome vulnerabilities of other disaster control systems and ensure efficient safety monitoring round the clock.

AELIS (Aquatic Environment Life-saving Integrated System) is designed to monitor the high profiles of drowning and the swimmers approaching the swimming boundary lines in real time in order to prevent accidents in the water environment and maintain high standard of the safety. It also detects the swimmers who attempt to get in the water without lifeguards at night, which has high possibility of drowning.