Disaster Management (DM)Program OverviewPresented to Governing Board of the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council

Chip HinesProgram ManagerDisaster Management e-Gov InitiativeScience and Technology Directorate June 14, 2006

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Topics of Discussion• Disaster Management (DM) Overview

• DM Program Components

– DM Portal

– Disaster Management Interoperability Services (DMIS)

– Open Platform for Emergency Networks (OPEN)

– Messaging Standards

• DM and SAFECOM

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Office for Interoperability and Compatibility (OIC) Organization Chart

Science & Technology Directorate (S&T)

Office for Interoperability & Compatibility (OIC)

Testing & EvaluationDisaster Management (DM)

SAFECOM

Communications Equipment Training

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DM ObjectivesDM Objectives

Provide a single source of access to information and services relating to disasters.

Enhance the nation’s ability to manage incidents by increasing the ability to share information during emergencies.

OIC’s Long-Term GoalsStrengthen and integrate homeland security activities related to research and development, testing and evaluation, standards, technical assistance, training, and grant funding related to interoperability.

Provide a single resource for information and assistance related to interoperability and compatibility issues.

Reduce unnecessary duplication in public safety programs and spending.

Identify and promote interoperability and compatibility best practices in the public safety arena.

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DMDM is an interagency initiative established by the Office ofManagement and Budget as one of the President’s 24 E-Government Initiatives. Its goal are:

• Meet the Nation’s need for a single access point to disaster management information for citizens and local, tribal, state, federal, and non-governmental authorities.

• Improve incident response (all-hazards) and recovery by creating the ability to securely share information across the Nation’s emergency management community.

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DM Architecture Framework (DMAF) Version 1.0

DMAF Version 1.0 further defines user requirements to enable industry to meet the needs of emergency responders and federal users.

• An architecture framework for interoperability

• Based upon data communication requirements from the emergency response community

• DMAF will provide:• Guidelines• Product descriptions and user guidance

• DMAF will lead to:• A common denominator for understanding between

interoperating and interacting architectures• Interoperability between disparate systems for effective

information exchange

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DM Governance Version 1.0• The purpose of the DM Governance Version 1.0 is to outline the

roles, relationships, and operating guidelines for each component of the DM governance model.

• The DM governance provides a platform for transparent, accountable, and collaborative relationship with three major stakeholder groups:– Local, tribal, state, and federal practitioners– Federal Information sharing efforts– Industry

• Provides guidelines, responsibilities, and requirements for the Practitioner Steering Group and Standards Working Group.

DM Governance will be reviewed and may be modified during the initial Practitioner Steering Group Meeting.

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DM Program Components• DisasterHelp.gov is an Internet-based portal containing

information and services for the public and for the emergency response community (www.DisasterHelp.gov).

• Disaster Management Interoperability Services (DMIS)provides basic incident management software tools.

• OPEN provides a supporting infrastructure to share incident information.

• Information exchange standards initiative is a public-private partnership that creates messaging standards to share information between disparate incident management systems and software applications.

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DisasterHelp.gov PortalProblem: No single source for disaster- and emergency-related information. Local, tribal, and state emergency responders lackautomated tools to coordinate and prepare for disaster.

Audience: Emergency response community and citizens

DisasterHelp.gov provides:• A consolidated access point for information relating to disasters.• Collaboration capabilities and support tools (e.g., Readiness

Assessment tool) for the emergency response community.

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DisasterHelp.Gov – All Users

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DisasterHelp.Gov – Registered Users

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DisasterHelp.Gov – Registered User ProfileDisasterHelp Registered Users by Self-Identified Role

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Disaster Management Interoperability Service (DMIS) Tools

DMIS is a free software toolset that provides:

• The capability to securely manage incidents and exchange incident-related information between authorized parties

• Basic tools and supporting infrastructure as a “starter set” of applications

Problem: Local and state organizations lack interoperable incident management software tools.

Audience: Emergency response community

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Johnstown, PA- Health service coordination- Traffic control coordination

Washington, DC – IMF Protests- Continuous distributed situation awareness- Coordination among operations centers

Orangeburg, SC- Anthrax hoax: On-scene data capture and rapid

incident reporting- Flooding (w/ threat to area dams): Tracking

critical data for coordination & decision making

Ashland Boyd County, KY- Barge Sinking: Total response force coordination and map value demonstrated- Hazmat event: Coordination among 10 local,

regional, and state-level organizations

Frederick, MD – Blizzard Watch- Journal as action log tool- DMIS flexibility demonstrated

Alachua County, FL – Severe Weather- Severe thunderstorm included reported

tornado touchdown- Rapid data capture for coordination of

response actions.

41st WMD – Civil Support Team-Tracked incidents for situational

awareness, in case of deployment

Washington County, MD – Flooding- Coordination across the county up

to the State Emergency Manager

Examples of East Coast DMIS Use

Laurel, MD – Hurricane Isabel- Instrumental in determining the need to

evacuate apartment buildings in Laurel, MD in advance of Hurricane Isabel

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Collaborating Operating Group (COG)

• COGs enable emergency operations centers to observe or coordinate with other emergency operations centers across their town, city, county, state, or the country to view a shared, real-time display of an incident.

Problem: Communities do not have the resources to share incident-related data – before, during, and after incidents. Audience: Emergency responder community, particularly smaller, less-funded communities

COGs facilitate information sharing between multiple users employing disparate systems.

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DMIS Shared Mapping

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DMIS Ortho-Imagery Layer

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Open Platform for Emergency Networks (OPEN)

• OPEN is an interoperability data infrastructure designed to facilitate the sharing of incident information.

• OPEN is an immediate solution for data interoperability for DM standards-compliant software applications.

• 49 vendors have developed products that interface with OPEN, facilitating data sharing among customers.

Problem: Currently exchanging incident-related information between disparate systems is difficult or impossible.Audience: Emergency responder community, industry, and citizens

OPEN enables secure data exchange through the use of standards-based messages.

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DMIS User Group

Collaborative group of one or more validated emergency response entities.

Once a member of a user group, you may receive the DMIS software and gain access to OPEN.

OPEN UsersProvides supporting

infrastructure creating the capability to share information with DMIS users and with other commercial incident management tools.

OPEN is used with vendor’s compliant software and tools.

Who Is Using the OPEN Standard?

OPEN actively serves the emergency response community.

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Messaging Standards InitiativeProblem: Lack of data messaging standards to enable emergency management software tools to share incident-related information.Audience: The full emergency response community, industry, and citizens

Messaging standards development and implementation will drive data systems to interoperability.

• Messaging standards are driven by practitioner-defined requirements and priorities, not federal agencies or industry.

• eXtensible Markup Language (XML) standards assist the emergency response community in sharing data securely while responding to an incident.

• DM works closely with the vendor community to ensure resulting standards are implemented effectively.

Emergency Messaging eXchange Standards (EMXS)

Common Alerting Protocol (CAP)

• Provides the ability to exchange all-hazard emergency alerts, notifications, and public warnings, which can be disseminated simultaneously over many different warning systems (e.g., computer systems, wireless, alarms, TV, radio).

EMXS Distribution Element (DE)

• Provides flexible message distribution framework for emergency information systems data sharing. Messages may be distributed by specific recipients, by a geographic area, or by other codes such as agency type (e.g., police, fire, etc.)

EMXS Hospital AVailability Exchange standard (HAVE)

• Provides standard exchange of hospital status, capacity, and resource availability between medical and health organizations and emergency information systems.

EMXS Resource Messaging (RM)

• Provides standard exchange of resource information (persons and/or things) needed to support emergency and incident preparedness, response, and recovery.

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Current Successes• CAP

– Standardizes the content of alerts and notifications across all hazards.– CAP 1.1 adopted as a standard on Oct. 1, 2005

• DE– Messages can be distributed by specific recipients, by a geographic area, or by

other codes such as agency type (police, fire, etc).– Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS)

adopted as a standard April, 2006• RM

– Submits requests for persons or things for incident response.– Submitted to OASIS in Nov. 2006– National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) 0.2 draft supporting pilot

implementation of National Capital Region Data Exchange Hub• HAVE

– Exchange of hospital bed capacity and availability– Submitted to OASIS in Jan 2006; expected OASIS approval in Q3, 2006