GIS-Pro 2020

GIS in Emergency Management
Wednesday, September 23, 2020 - 1:00 - 4:00 PM
Instructor:
Theresa (Tari) Martin, GISP, Program Specialist, National Alliance for Public Safety GIS Foundation
Doug Adams, GISP, Baltimore County Government, Towson, MD

Today, natural and man-made disasters are becoming more complex, costly, and frequent. First responders and emergency managers are relying more and more on geospatial technology to prepare for, respond to, and recover from these disasters. There is a pressing need for cross-training on the non-technical disciplines GIS staff is being asked to support. Specifically, the policies that drive preparedness activities during blue skies and information requirements needed during grey skies, often prove foreign to those unfamiliar with these activities.

To accommodate their needs in a time-sensitive situation, our experience is that the key is to arm the GIS professional with enough knowledge of emergency management and first responder activities so they can effectively discern the needs of the incident commander and quickly produce the spatial analysis and products which best support decision making in an emergency.

This workshop is divided into two parts and will include interactive activities and discussions for each:

● Part 1 will cover a brief overview of the policies, strategies, and frameworks under which the emergency management and homeland security (EM/HS) disciplines across all levels of government, the private sector, and non-profit sectors operate to prepare for and respond to incidents. Throughout we will discuss the critical points of integration of location-enabled data, analysis, and technology and share resources to support these essential workflows.

● Part 2 will further equip GIS practitioners supporting the EM/HS mission with knowledge, skills, and resources to apply GIS technologies that are essential to informing mission-critical decision making. We will introduce the Geospatial Concept of Operations and essential preparations and considerations prior to a disaster and highlight emerging technologies in disaster response.

Learning Objectives:
1. Communicate a basic understanding of the framework that shapes emergency management preparedness activities for the whole community.
2. Understand the key integration points of GIS data, analysis, and technology to support preparedness activities across aimed at building a more resilient nation.
3. Gain knowledge of standards and best practices for the production of decision-support tools, field applications, and public information products.