Best Practices and Collaborations of Emergency Management and IT

Professionals

Brenda van Gelder – Virginia Tech Mike Mulhare – Virginia Tech David Farris – George Mason Gary Crane – Southeastern Univ. Research Assoc.

Agenda 1. Converged Technologies for Security, Safety and

Resilience at Virginia Tech • Overview of organization • Products, benefits, and institutional advantage

2. Metrics and Modeling • ENS Metrics • Models for crowd behavior

3. Continuity of Operations • Information Technology Challenges and Support • Application and Data Resilience

4. SURA Information Technology Committee • Current Initiatives • Opportunities and resources

The Frontier of IT and Emergency Management

Converged Technologies for Security, Safety, and Resilience (CTSSR) serves as a premier source of information technology expertise and applied knowledge, crafting solutions to emerging issues related to the security, safety and resilience of communities.

CTSSR Projects/Resources

• Volume purchasing for hardware and software for campus emergency responders

• Geospatial tools and processes • Cybersecurity expertise as relates to emergency

responder sensitive data • Identity management and emergency responder

needs for rapid querying of multiple databases in dispatch and response

• Social media, data mining, situational awareness

Some Questions for Discussion

• Does your institution have an organizational linkage between IT and emergency management/ emergency responders?

• Do your campus security and safety groups have their own IT support or does it come from a central organization? Or both?

• How would you characterize the cultures of your IT and emergency management groups?

• What opportunities for collaboration exist?

Metrics and Modeling Michael J. Mulhare, P.E. Director of Emergency Management, Virginia Tech

Emergency Notification Single Web Portal For Multiple Channels

Emergency Notification Single Web Portal For Multiple Channels

Emergency Notification Single Web Portal For Multiple Channels

Emergency Notification Single Web Portal For Multiple Channels

Emergency Notification Single Web Portal For Multiple Channels

At approximately 12:30PM on December 8th, 2011, Officer Deriek Crouse of the Virginia Tech Police Department was conducting a traffic stop when he was shot and killed in his patrol car by an individual that approached on foot. The assailant fled. The campus was secured-in-place while members of the Virginia Tech Police Department and other regional Law Enforcement Agencies searched the campus. A second shooting victim and a handgun were found shortly thereafter. Investigation determined that the second victim died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and was the assailant that murdered Officer Crouse.

December 8, 2011 Incident

December 8, 2011 Incident: VT Homepage Traffic Spike

December 8, 2011 Incident: A Bigger Traffic Spike

Emergency Evacuation Planning for Lane Stadium » Develop a calibrated and verified model. » Test different emergency scenarios. » Optimize stadium evacuation plan.

Emergency Evacuation Planning for Lane Stadium Requirements and challenges:

» Accurate 3D model. » Large-scale crowd simulation. » Real-time interactions and visualization.

Using parallel simulation and real-time visualization of crowd and socially correct behaviors in subgroups.

Lane Stadium Game Day Management

Lane Stadium Game Day Management

Campus Population Model

General Approach: 1. Identify data sources with:

» Temporal reference (time of day, day of week etc). » Spatial reference (building name, room number). » Count of people.

2. Aggregate data into 24-hr chunks in a “design day”. 3. Associate temporal data with spatial data in a GIS. 4. Publish as secure map services. 5. Develop web viewer.

Campus Population Model

GIS Mapping

GIS Mapping

Discussion and Questions • What types of projects has your institution

engaged in? • What other aspects of emergency management

could benefit from metrics or modeling?

Metrics and Modeling

IT’s Critical Role in COOP

Onsite and Remote Access: 1. Remote and Alternate Work Locations

Who, when, capacity, and IT support? 2. If VPN/Remote Access is not available:

a. Image computers? b. Virtual desktop computing? c. Access to licensed applications?

3. Disaster Recovery Site Activation a. Threshold for activation? b. Process and Procedures? c. DR site operations alignment with RTO?

Managing Website Traffic: • Lite website • Automated procedures based on threshold • Pre-populated – static message or ENS RSS • Load balancing or cloud based (pros and cons)

Distance Education:

• Faculty o Assumptions o Curriculum

• Training o Just in time o In advance

• Infrastructure o Capacity/Volume o Access

• IT Support o Personnel o Availability

Application and Document Management:

Access and recovery during an emergency: • Identify critical/vital records in COOP plans • Backup network/shared drive(s) • Remote hosted files • Cloud computing • Security concerns • Enterprise document management solution

Connecting ITU and COOP

UNIT NAME:

Name of Software Application or Critical Data

Absolutely necessary within 30

days no viable alternative?

Location of Application?

Licensed Application?

Enterprise Liscense?

Location of License

Information?

Number of Licenses?

Location of Data? Server Name?

Server Location? Recommentation

CARS Yes Local desktop No No Local server controlled by unit or ITU

M: Drive MESA Aquia Data Ctr. None

Traq Enterprise Yes Local desktop Yes No Farris Office PSHQ 207

3 Local desktop NA NA Maintain back up license

Discover No Local desktop Yes No Farris Office PSHQ 207

4 Local Desktop

NA NA None

Dream Weaver Yes Local server controlled by unit or ITU

Yes Yes Don't know 6 On a local server controlled by unit or ITU

FS OPS Server University Hall 2300

Move server to Aquai and data to M: Drive MESA

Fiscal Services

Unit COOP Annexes

Critical IT Applications

Unit Primary Business

Function Critical Application DR Site Comments

Facilities Management Space Planning

Archibus/FAST viewer

Resource 25 hosted off-site.

Banner Banner Resource 25 MS Office Software Suite AutoCAD

Discussion and Questions • How has your institution integrated or

leveraged IT in your COOP plans or processes?

• Do you have resources or best practices you can share?

IT and COOP

Southeastern Universities Research Association – SURA

Gary Crane

SURA Director of IT Initiatives

SURA Overview • A 501(c)(3) founded in 1980 with a mission to nurture

scientific discovery and grow the scientific capacity of our region and the nation

• 62 research university members • SURA’s major program areas

– Jefferson Lab – DOE funded nuclear research lab (www.jlab.org) – Coastal Ocean Modeling Testbed (http://testbed.sura.org/) – Collaborative multi-institutional IT projects

• SURAnet • SURAgrid • Regional optical networking (AT&T donation) • ViDe – IP video development initiative • Research Data Management Collaboration • Newest – IT/EM Collaboration

SURA IT/EM Collaboration • Kick-off at Fall 2013 IT Committee Meeting

– Brought together IT and EM leaders from 15+ member institutions

– Presentations on best practices from VT, GMU, NCSU

– Facilitated group discussion resulted in focus on four potential areas

– Formed project groups to develop short concept papers in 4 targeted areas

IT/EM Project Concept Papers http://www.sura.org/programs/itEMS.html

1. Best practices in utilizing IT in support of EM 2. Use of data, analytics, modeling and simulation in

support of EM 3. Shared evaluation of EM supportive technologies,

tools and standards 4. Balancing privacy needs & security concerns in

use of surveillance & access control technologies

Conducted community survey to prioritize concepts.

SURA IT/EM Collaboration: Get Involved

• Survey results to date • Seeking additional input and participants • To participate, complete survey at:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XLGNSJV

or contact: Gary Crane at gcrane@sura.org

Thank You Brenda van Gelder Virginia Tech Executive Director, Converged Technologies for Security, Safety and Resilience (540) 231-1853 bvgelder@vt.edu

Mike Mulhare, PE Virginia Tech Director, Emergency Management (540) 231-2438 mjmulhare@vt.edu

David Farris, MBA George Mason University Director, Emergency Management and Fire Safety (571) 233-0000 dfarris@gmu.edu

Gary Crane Southeastern University Research Association Director, SURA IT Initiatives (315) 597-1459 gcrane@sura.org

Closing Questions and Discussion