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October 26, 2012 By News Staff
In the event of an urban catastrophe, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) now has access to a new mapping tool to mitigate the damage.
In conjunction with the agency's participation in the Wide Area Recovery & Resiliency Program (WARRP), the DHS will be able to use dynamic maps that pull data from multiple sources to provide emergency officials with an accurate, cohesive view of the situation. Developed by TerraGo Technologies and supported by Esri ArcGIS technology, the system integrates data such as NOAA weather reports, plume models, utility GIS data sets, imagery and base maps that are refreshed dynamically, according to a press release.
“WARRP focuses on a coordinated systems approach to the recovery and resiliency of wide urban areas, including all types of critical infrastructure, key civilian and military resources and high traffic areas and transit facilities,” said William J. Ginley, chief, NBC Battlefield Management Branch, U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center. “TerraGo Technologies’ geospatial collaboration software, as part of WARRP, will provide responders with the latest geospatial intelligence to advance the response and recovery processes to save lives, mitigate damage and promote order in the wake of an incident.”
Emergency officials with limited or no training will be able to “fetch new information about their Area of Interest (AOI) via an index map from enterprise or Web portals in real time, or in disconnected environments, from a laptop or USB flash drive,” according to the release. Users can also attach media such as pictures, sound or video to maps for collaboration.
“The ability to maintain and distribute current comprehensive sets of georeferenced information that can be consumed by non-GIS planners and responders is essential for any recovery,” said Jeff Vining, Gartner research vice president for government research and geospatial surveillance operational technology. “The technologies fostered by the WARRP project will provide valuable new tools and expertise to enhance public safety in a catastrophic event.”
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Really? DHS is now concerned about urban catastrophes? So does that mean we can eliminate FEMA and save the billions of dollars wasted by that agency? Evidently they can't do their job if DHS has to be involved now. What about the National Guard? So that is three agencies off the top of my head the respond to catatrophes. C'mon America - cut the pork spending and trim these federal agencies and eliminate the redundant wasteful spending. And we wonder why we are broke as a nation. If we have the CIA and FBI - what is the need for the DHS? Seems like two of these agencies can be eliminated.
Hey Doc: The reason why DHS is concerned about urban catastrophes is because FEMA is a part of DHS. I am all for cutting pork spending and wasteful bloated agencies but I am more in favor of getting my facts correct before I start calling for bureaucrats heads. Also, the National Guard mostly provides manpower and logistical services so that FEMA doesn't have to pay for them to be on hand full time.