119 Agencies around the world manage public safety, emergency response, fire, wildland fires, and public events from beginning to end using location intelligence derived from GIS software. Land managers, emergency managers, firefighters, and law enforcement officers use dynamic maps and GIS tools to identify risks and craft mitigation strategies. During events, mobile data collection tools and map-based dashboards with live data feeds inform decisions that save lives and property. Alexandre Penha, operations deputy at Portugal’s National Authority for Emergency and Civil Protection (ANEPC), reflected on the changes made since 2017, when wildfires killed 66 people and injured 200 in Portugal. In response, the country passed laws to reduce risk and better respond to emergencies. ANEPC added five new regional operational commands, hired more firefighters, and added aerial assets. Penha highlighted the digital transformation within ANEPC, which now uses advanced wildfire mapping technology, including an early warning system and real-time maps powered by GIS technology. According to Penha, the improved technology has led to significant results: “The results were huge, not only for the flow of information but also our ability to predict the evolution of each fire.” Jennifer Lana, the GIS manager at Cobb County Government in Georgia, highlighted how dynamic data was made accessible for Major League Baseball’s technical team during the 2021 World Series. They used advanced mapping to plan for a massive victory celebration, with just 35 hours to organize a party for 350,000 guests. “We have 50 different datasets on the map from the footprint of the stadium, all the businesses, the lights and cameras, the traffic data feed, 911 calls, traffic from Uber and Lyft rideshare, and the location of Cobb County vehicles,” Lana said. With that foundation of awareness established, Cobb County law enforcement could feel confident that they could keep peace and safety during a complex event. The City of Frisco, Texas, has developed an innovative and collaborative emergency response platform called SAFER, for Situational Awareness for Emergency Response, that delivers real-time situational awareness of assets and staff across departments. Susan Olson, assistant director of IT for Frisco, Texas, shared how GIS technology has kept up with the city’s rapid growth from 30,000 to 230,000 residents between 2000 and 2023. “We built the reliance on SAFER over time on a foundation of accurate data, strong Public Safety integrations, and being responsive to needs.” The system now integrates with more than 30 other systems and holds dozens of GIS data layers. Frisco’s police chief, David Shilson, noted how the digital twin system improved responses: “In larger scenes, incident commanders can look at where units are in order to quickly set perimeters and direct incoming resources.” In response to Hurricane Ian in Florida in September 2022, federal and state urban search and rescue teams used a suite of tools that allowed all actions to be tracked on a shared map. More than 20 search and rescue teams used a suite of tools called the Search and Rescue Common Operating Platform (SARCOP) to collect more than 108,000 field observations. The toolset enabled them to segment search areas to be covered in 12-hour shifts, show tracks where each team had been, and drop icons to indicate what was found or done. The situational awareness gave each team as well as coordinators at the state and federal levels the means to stay informed and adjust quickly to cover places where people might be found. Jared Doke, a program manager for SARCOP, spoke to efficiency gains from seeing where other teams were operating. “Before we had the ability to draw segments on a map, teams were overlapping, not knowing others were there until they’d bump into them on the streets,” he said. Mike Sena, director for the Northern California High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) and president of the National Fusion Center Association (NFCA), underscored the importance of better information sharing among federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government and law enforcement. He shared a vision for a next-level geographic approach to crime fighting, capable of identifying and understanding public safety threats across all public safety and security information fusion centers in America. Sena expressed excitement about a pilot project that combines mapping and collaboration tools to enhance information sharing: “We can share data and visualizations with 25,000 people in real time. Fusion centers have never had that capacity before.” Whether you are a first responder, analyst, investigator, or fusion center director, you need information to quickly gain awareness and understanding of events across multiple jurisdictions. GIS provides the tools to collect, integrate, analyze, and disseminate information quickly and easily.
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