n the maritime environment, work on

n the maritime environment, work on the distribution of sea rescue resources is generally carried out by the governments of the countries involved, is predominantly technical in nature and though its existence is known of, it is not usually published. The efficient distribution of sea rescue equipment requires, on the one hand, various coastal areas to be interrelated with areas in which accidents are concentrated and on the other hand, a planning process to be developed in which information on the past
and present, as well as predictions on the future, are handled. Thus, the methodology to be applied in assigning rescue resources combines aspects of models for the location of activities with elements of planning. The first theoretical proposals for explaining the location of activities date from the nineteenth century. One of the lines of research that emerged from this school led to gravitational and entropy models. In this context, a seminal
contribution is the work of Hansen (1959) whose model established the classical formulation of accessibility. Since then there have been a number of applications and adaptations of this model, among which the work of Bruinsma and Rietveld (1998) is noteworthy. Recent projects such as the construction of the international airport of Mexico City have used Hansen’s classical model in the location study. As far as the planning elements are concerned, we have taken into account the works of Catanese and Steiss (1970), Quade and Boucher (1968), Lee (1975) and Kay and Alder (1999). Thus, the gravitational models proposed here are intended to redistribute or position the rescue equipment efficiently, considering that to the complexity of the variables involved in accidents at sea must be added the fact that these take place in a hostile
and changing environment