If the incident is a wide area disaster involving a number of structures or suburbs, search and rescue needs to be carried out methodically to identify potential work sites and assign resources quickly. These assessments can be described in five levels called "Assessment, Search & Rescue" levels, or ASR. ASR levels firstly detail broad area assessments to take place before narrowing down the area into sectors and individual work sites.

ASR level 1: A wide area assessment is a preliminary assessment of the local area. It is the fast initial visual check of a broad area carried out by the local emegency management authority. Once the size and scope of the disaster is identified, the authority will divide the broad area into smaller sectors.

ASR level 2: A sector assessment is conducted in order to identify specific and viable work sites within a sector. This allows a plan to be formulated and resources to be prioritised

ASR level 3: Rapid search and rescue. As work sites are identified, rescuers will first be sent to those that are relatively simple and speedy rescues. ASR 3 operations may be conducted by local rescue teams, Cat 1 or Cat 2 USAR teams

ASR level 4: Full search and rescue. If the rescue operation is beyond the capabilities of the local teams or Cat 1 rescuers, and after all rapid rescues are complete, Cat 2 teams will be assigned to more technical work sites. In ASR 4 operations enhanced equipment such as technical search, shoring and concrete cutting gear may be used.

ASR level 5: Once all rescues are complete, the recovery phase starts. ASR 5 is the complete search of all parts of a collapsed structure - physically searching all voids and/or turning over all rubble piles.