Local First Responder Decision Support Project Findings Report May 2015

National Information Sharing Consortium P.O. Box 52244 Washington, DC 20091

www.nisconsortium.org info@nisconsortium.org

Table of Contents 1 Purpose ................................................................................................................................... 1

2 Background ............................................................................................................................. 1

3 Focus Areas ............................................................................................................................. 2

4 Outcomes ................................................................................................................................ 3

5 Project results ......................................................................................................................... 3

6 Participants ............................................................................................................................. 4

7 Methodology ........................................................................................................................... 5

7.1 Initial Project Methodology ............................................................................................. 5

7.2 Revised Methodology ...................................................................................................... 9

8 Lessons Learned .................................................................................................................... 11

8.1 Challenges Encountered ................................................................................................. 11

8.2 Lessons Learned ............................................................................................................. 11

9 Findings ................................................................................................................................. 12

10 Recommendations ................................................................................................................ 14

10.1 Locality specific recommendations ............................................................................ 14

10.1.1 Charlotte Region Recommendations ...................................................................... 14

10.1.2 James City County Recommendations .................................................................... 15

10.2 DHS S&T Recommendations ....................................................................................... 16

10.2.1 Regional Implementation ....................................................................................... 16

10.2.2 National Growth ..................................................................................................... 17

11 Appendix A: Survey Findings and Initial Assessment ............................................................ 18

11.1.1 EEI Survey Results ................................................................................................... 18

11.1.2 Technical Survey Results ......................................................................................... 19

11.1.3 Additional Baseline information ............................................................................. 23

12 Appendix B: James City County Initial Operating Capability ................................................ 25

13 Appendix C: Charlotte Region Initial Operating Capability ................................................... 28

1

1 Purpose This report details the findings resulting from the National Information Sharing Consortium (NISC) Local First Responder Information Sharing Decision Support Project (Local First Responder Project) that was sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology Directorate (DHS S&T), First Responders Group (FRG). The report describes the project objectives, results achieved, and recommendations to inform future DHS S&T activities.

2 Background Over recent years, much has been learned about information sharing priorities and needs, particularly among state and federal governmental organizations. The Virtual USA® (vUSA) regional information sharing pilot series, conducted from 2009 to 2012 and sponsored by DHS S&T, focused largely on state and regional sharing coordinated by state-level emergency management agencies. In contrast, the coordinating agencies for the NISC Local First Responder Project were local first responder agencies.

To address the challenge of information sharing at the local level, the DHS S&T FRG awarded a grant1 to the NISC to address the critical need for a capability to better manage and share information to support operational decision-making at the local level while anticipating exchanges necessary with state and federal partners. The Local First Responder Project ran from October 2014 through April 2015 with a focus on working with first responder and emergency management agencies at the local level to develop a technology-agnostic, repeatable methodology for the establishment of an initial information sharing capability.

To enhance operational effectiveness across all organizations involved in emergency management and emergency response, local leaders need an information sharing and management approach that includes:

• Cross-agency and cross-jurisdictional information sharing; • Support for sharing of real-time tactical information with multiple levels of government; • Support for existing operational plans and procedures; • Rapid access to and display of specific information elements to support various event

types; • Information sharing processes, policies, and supporting governance; • Sustainable solutions (i.e., cost effective and can be supported with existing staff and

resources); • No technical single point of failure; and

1 Strengthen the Homeland Security Enterprise and First Responders’ Capabilities to Protect the Homeland and Respond to Disasters Project. Award Number 2014-ST-108-FRG005. Broad Agency Announcement First Responder Group BAA 13-012

2

• A common integration approach that provides flexibility, choice, and leverages existing investments.

Local emergency response and management agencies are faced with myriad challenges preventing the timely access to, sharing, and management of information including:

• Resource constraints including budgets, staff, training, and technical assistance; • Reliance on multiple regional partners with “siloed” systems and data; • A lack of understanding of the potential of current technology investments; • GIS staff who are often not experts at supporting emergency management; • Operational processes not supported by effective technology; • Changing government administration(s) and turnover among key staff; • Single champion(s) that may seek to impose a preferred tool on the process and other

agencies; • Overdependence on grant funding; and • Historical culture(s) that seek to protect information rather than share it.

The findings in this report provide information to local governments as they make investments toward achieving information sharing within and across organizations while addressing the challenges faced by their communities. This report also provides valuable information to inform DHS S&T activities and research and development investments.

3 Focus Areas Per the grant, the project focused on the following areas:

• Focus primarily on jurisdiction-specific sharing with state and federal-level integration addressed from the perspective of local agencies in the coordinating role;

• Expand beyond the emergency management perspective as a primary coordinator to prioritize the needs of first responder agencies;

• Address information management capabilities and workflows (i.e., how to organize relevant data and present information to decision-makers);

• Seek to advance the current state of scalable mutual aid deployments that require coordination with state Emergency Support Functions (ESFs) and the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC);

• Examine how recent technology innovations are able to address data creation, sharing, and management needs (and how they can be used to complement investments already in place);

• Identify what data formats exist and develop recommendations for standardization; and • Investigate what is needed for daily situational awareness and operational needs.

3

4 Outcomes The grant application identified the following outcomes to be determined by the NISC Local First Responder Project:

• Identification of key data sets universally needed by the first responder community; • An approach towards standardization of the creation of information and the means by

which is it exchanged, with priority placed on data services already widely in use throughout the first responder community to increase accessibility among response partners;

• Identification of best practices for the organization of data libraries to better enable discovery and access to information quickly;

• Sharing and management of information derived from public safety communication centers, (e.g., computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems, records management systems, and criminal justice databases);

• Packaging of relevant information for use toward specific types of incidents; • Scaling and coordination of mutual aid requests to state ESF and EMAC processes when

local resources are exhausted; and • Establishment of a replicable model for an initial operating capability that can improve

information management and sharing.

5 Project results The NISC Local First Responder Project achieved the following results in relation to each of the project outcomes:

• Established a replicable methodology for the creation of an initial information sharing operating capability:

o Created and tested the methodology while capturing lessons learned for enhancement of the methodology.

• Identified data sets universally needed: o Identified priority Essential Elements of Information (EEIs) and documented by

Virginia and Charlotte project participants (Appendix A); and o Developed EEI survey tool to capture EEI requirements.

• Identified technical approach for regional information exchange: o Identified existing GIS investments (i.e., ArcGIS Online)as a capability that could

serve as a common interoperability platform; and o The ArcGIS Online platform supports organization, publication, discovery, and

access to information. • Maximized value of existing investments in GIS and other information sources:

o Technical assistance and training resulted in a demonstrable and sustainable capability;

4

o Supporting processes and protocols were developed for cross agency information sharing in James City County, VA (i.e., an SOP for information sharing); and

o Partners, including the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, were enabled to share content with the community.

• Tactical level data exchanges identified including Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) and patient engagement:

o Identified CAD 9-1-1 data exchange as a priority and addressed for both regions; o Researched and prototyped the process for exporting/integrating from three

CAD systems into a common viewing platform (i.e., non-CAD user interface); and o Created tactical field operational capability and EEI for the Metrolina Healthcare

Preparedness Coalition. • Packaged relevant information for specific types of events:

o Data package (web map) created for Surry Nuclear Power Plant exercise that took place on February 10, 2015. Dominion Virginia Power and the Virginia Department of Emergency Management conducted a full-scale exercise at the Surry Nuclear Power Station to test preparedness and response procedures involving plant security;

o Transportation Incident package (web map) created for James City County around the transportation of Bakken crude oil from North Dakota through James City County; and

o EMS patient engagement data package and EEIs created for Metrolina Healthcare Preparedness Coalition.

• Created tactically-oriented use case with escalation of operations: o Developed a survey tool in coordination with the localities involved in the pilot;

and o Leveraged an online survey tool to identify priority EEI requirements.

6 Participants DHS S&T selected two agencies to lead regional efforts in Virginia and North Carolina:

1. Charlottesville, VA Fire Department 2. Charlotte, NC Fire Department

These agencies coordinated efforts in their regions and selected regional partners that would participate in the project. The Charlottesville Fire Department was unable to fully participate due to several high-profile emergency events that diverted focus of the emergency responder and emergency management communities. These unexpected complications were mitigated by fully engaging James City County in Virginia which was already a partner agency to Charlottesville in the project, and as a result, the NISC was still able to achieve the goals of the grant.

5

7 Methodology The initial proposed methodology referenced in the NISC grant application served as a starting point. That methodology included a four-phased approach that began with a capability assessment followed by on-site technical assistance and concluding with a findings report. This basic approach was followed; however, the NISC worked with local leadership to refine the methodology for future projects as described in section 7.2.

7.1 Initial Project Methodology Upon initiation of the project, the NISC upgraded the methodology from a four-phase to a five-phase process after consulting with NISC and locality leadership. This allowed for additional information requirements and technical assessments to be performed prior to the workshop.

Figure 1: Initial NISC Local First Responder Project Methodology

The NISC project team used methodology illustrated in Figure 1 to achieve the outcomes of the project. The approach is technology agnostic and seeks to first understand the baseline of systems and technology that the stakeholders involved currently have, then identifies an approach that leverages their existing investments to advance information sharing. The approach included five basic phases:

Phase 1: Select Participants and hold kickoff meeting

6

Phase 2: Conduct current Environment Assessment and Information Requirements Survey

Phase 3: Host workshops to validate information requirements and identify actions

Phase 4: Work with stakeholders to implement an initial capability

Phase 5: Complete a Findings Report and conduct DHS Briefing

In Phase 1, the project team (consisting of NISC leadership and its subcontractor) worked with the Charlottesville and Charlotte fire departments to identify participating stakeholders in their region and review and refine the proposed methodology. Once the participating stakeholders were identified, the project team held kickoff meetings to communicate the project objectives, approach, benefits, roles and responsibilities, and timeline.

For Phase 2, the NISC worked with the lead agencies to develop an online survey to identify EEIs universally needed by the first responder community. The survey sought information needs and exchanges based on a tactically-oriented use case in which day-to-day operations escalated to a regional severe thunderstorm event then to a large-scale statewide hurricane event. The NISC created a second survey to capture information about the current technical environment. This survey asked about existing tools and technologies in use. The survey was complemented by interviews with GIS staff to assess the baseline environment. The project team collected, analyzed, and presented the survey findings during the phase 2 workshops. Appendix A shows the findings related to EEIs and the baseline technical environment. A key finding from the technical assessment was the pervasiveness of GIS present in multiple organizations, specifically Esri ArcGIS supported by ArcGIS Online (AGOL).

Phase 3 consisted of workshops held in each of the two regions (James City County and Charlotte) to validate the technical baseline capabilities and EEIs. The first part of the workshop provided background and orientation to recently-added members and validated the online survey findings. In the second part of the workshop, the regional stakeholders identified short-term actions as a path forward toward achieving an initial operating capability. They also considered longer-term goals for growing the capability to support additional operational needs.

Figures 2 and 3 identify the stakeholders who participated in the workshops conducted in the Charlotte region and James City County.

7

Figure 2 Charlotte Regional Stakeholders - Kickoff and Workshop attendance

8

Figure 3: James City County Stakeholders - attendance at kickoff and workshop

In Phase 4 (i.e., post workshop), the technical assistance team began engaging various stakeholders based on the short-term actions identified in the workshops.

For James City County (JCC), the project team leveraged JCC’s existing investment in ArcGIS and AGOL to establish an initial operating capability. Often agencies do not know that a capability exists elsewhere in their city or county. In the case of JCC, AGOL was being managed by the Real Estate Assessments Division and was underused by other departments including the Emergency Management Division. The project team worked with the Real Estate Assessment Division to establish a cross-agency AGOL organization that could support development of information products (web maps) based on specific tactical and operational needs. Appendix B illustrates two web maps that were created to support these needs.

The technical assistance team also worked with the stakeholders to develop an information sharing SOP (see Appendix C) that established a cross-agency process for requesting and developing web maps to support agency operations. Finally, the CAD system was identified as a critical source of real-time tactical information. The project team worked with the CAD administrator to develop a proof-of-concept CAD data exchange with AGOL. Long-term plans include the real-time exchange of information from the CAD system to AGOL for operational use and the identification and standardization of key CAD data elements.

The Charlotte region identified GIS as a common platform to support information sharing, specifically Esri ArcGIS and AGOL. Multiple stakeholders in the region indicated that they had a current investment in AGOL, but it was not being leveraged to support emergency management

9

or response or cross-organization information sharing. Organizations who identified AGOL investments included:

• North Carolina Department of Transportation (NC DOT) • Metrolina Healthcare Preparedness Coalition (MHPC) • North Carolina Office of EMS (NC OEMS) • Charlotte Fire Department • Charlotte Police Department • American Red Cross • Carolina Healthcare System • Charlotte Water Department • Duke Energy

As a proof-of-concept, and to establish an initial operating capability, the technical assistance team worked with the Metrolina Healthcare Preparedness Coalition (MHPC) to create a tactical field capability to support patient engagement at an upcoming planned event. They also worked to establish tactical EEIs for patient engagement. Appendix D provides detail regarding this capability.

The project concluded in Phase 5 with a briefing to DHS S&T regarding the results of the project and recommendations for how the project outcomes could inform DHS S&T initiatives, as well as NISC and White House Incident Management Information Sharing Subcommittee (IMIS-SC) initiatives.

7.2 Revised Methodology Based on lessons learned, the NISC recommends upgrades to the project methodology to include additional stakeholder management, outreach and training, and in-person engagements. Also recommended is a pre-project stakeholder evaluation to assess if an agency is able to fully participate as necessary to achieve the target project outcomes.

Figure 4 illustrates the recommended upgrades to the methodology.

10

Figure 4: Upgraded methodology

One key component to the upgraded methodology is the addition of the initial workshop (Workshop #1) to occur following stakeholder selection. Because stakeholders are more likely to forge effective working relationships with people they have actually met, it is important for the initial workshop to be in person rather than via a webinar. The initial workshop provides the orientation to the project process and introduces the project team, which sets the stage for greater understanding of and participation in the project. The results will be a better assessment of the current environment and stronger, more effective communications in all subsequent tasks and phases.

Finally, the NISC recommends, as illustrated in the middle of Figure 4, that it be more directly involved in stakeholder communications and management rather than relying solely on the local agencies. This would facilitate the quality of communications necessary to ensure consistent, accurate, timely, and comprehensive information about project goals and objectives. Direct involvement in stakeholder communications would also enable the NISC and the project team to provide additional information and education about the project while encouraging participants to relay questions directly to the project team rather than routing inquiries through a local project manager.

11

8 Lessons Learned

The NISC overcame the challenges listed below during the course of the project. While these factors presented challenges to the team, they did not prevent the team from achieving the intended outcomes of the grant. The challenges also provided valuable lessons learned that were applied to the upgraded methodology.

8.1 Challenges Encountered • Charlottesville was unable to fully participate as anticipated.

o The Charlottesville Fire Department had to react to multiple emergency events and technology initiatives that prevented full participation in the NISC project. Nevertheless, they were able to provide leadership that shaped the strategy and methodology for the project. Chief Werner was briefed throughout the process, enabling him to make recommendations based on lessons learned in Charlottesville. The Chief was also able to participate in the kickoff meetings and workshops to represent the NISC.

• The Charlotte Fire Department experienced a change of leadership in the middle of the project that caused them to delay their launch of AGOL capabilities.

o While the Charlotte AGOL capability had potential to support regional sharing, having it delayed did not prevent the project from moving forward with the other project participants such as the Metrolina Healthcare Preparedness Coalition. The Charlotte Fire Department Emergency Management and GIS staff continued to participate in an advisory role.

• The Charlotte region lacked formal governance and a champion. o Due to the change of leadership in the Charlotte Fire Department, there was

concern regarding on-going promotion of the effort; however, the Metrolina Healthcare Preparedness Coalition quickly established an operational capability to serve as a model for the region and the regional partnership continues.

8.2 Lessons Learned The Local First Responder Project identified the following lessons learned:

• Redundancy of leadership: A diverse (decentralized) model mitigates the risk of project impact due to the loss of individual leaders or organizations;

• Redundancy of tools: A diverse (decentralized) technical model mitigates the risk of project impact due to the loss of individual leaders or organizations;

• Stakeholder Engagement: The initial startup group should be focused on those with a stake in the project and the process for stakeholder selection should be based on relatively rigorous criteria and supported by a project charter describing scope, timeline, roles, and responsibilities.

• Communications and outreach: A communications and outreach strategy is critical to build and solidify relationships while communicating a consistent project purpose, scope, and objectives across all stakeholders.

12

• Technology: ArcGIS is pervasive in state and local government, but not always used for emergency response and management or cross-organizational sharing. While GIS provides a common integration platform and can be used across departments within a locality, local GIS staff and operational leadership may not understand how this technology can be leveraged to provide information sharing and support emergency management and emergency responders.

9 Findings The key findings of the project are provided below, organized by the lanes of the SAFECOM Interoperability Continuum. Specific findings based on the methodology are in Appendix A.

Governance

• Establishing effective and sustainable cross-organizational information sharing requires supporting governance.

• Governance can provide redundancy by eliminating any single point of failure due to loss of an individual or organization. For example, working with existing working groups in the Charlotte region enabled the NISC project to continue despite changes in leadership at the Charlotte Fire Department. This is critical for sustainment. Within the Charlotte region, the team worked with the Charlotte Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) information sharing working group which led to a partnership with the MHPC who took on a leadership role when the Charlotte Fire Department temporally shut down their AGOL solution.

• AGOL implementations require governance and agreements to include policies and procedures for participation.

• Governance is necessary to manage internal and cross-organizational information sharing groups and membership.

• During the NISC project, conversations included discussions regarding the distribution of content, specifically around when information can go from for official use only (FOUO) to broad dissemination.

Standard Operating Procedures

• An organizational Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for information sharing is necessary. For example, James City County created such an SOP to support information sharing among stakeholders within the county (see Appendix B).

• Ensuring that compliance with regulations around what to share and how to share is fundamental. For this project, the team developed solutions compliant with the following:

o Protective Critical Infrastructure Information (PCII) o Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) o 28 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) for protecting individual privacy

13

Technology

• AGOL was the common denominator and presents an opportunity for organizational and cross-organizational sharing. GIS investments are common in local government and private sector and leveraging GIS does not require organizations to implement a new technology, but rather integrate with existing databases.

• AGOL can provide a platform for regional sharing that avoids a single point of failure. • Interoperability with key public safety business systems (e.g., WebEOC, CAD and City

Works) was achievable with some integration effort. • Leveraging GIS can serve all levels of government from tactical operations to emergency

management support functions. • Numerous other government business functions would be better supported by GIS.

Training and Exercises

• Education and outreach are critical because organizations often do not understand the potential of their existing GIS investments or the potential to support cross-organizational sharing and support to mission-critical operations.

• Training and technical assistance are critical to ensure that organizations are maximizing their existing GIS investments.

• Training and technical assistance are critical to ensure that GIS support staff understand how GIS can better support emergency response, management, and cross-agency collaboration.

• Exercises are important to support, validate, test, and refine the use and integration of existing investments in technology. By leveraging existing technologies (e.g., GIS integrated with existing operational tools), organizations will be able to achieve and identify unrealized potential of those investments while testing and refining response operations and SOPs.

Usage

• Information products should be developed for day-to-day use. Changes in day-to-day information views can flag potential developing issues.

• The technology should be simple enough to support untrained users. • The initial operating capability achieved for JCC and MHPC will be enhanced through

constant use and feedback: o The capability will be informed by the experiences of end users, and o Expansion and leadership support will be enhanced through continued use.

• After establishment of the initial operating capability, JCC plans to build out their capability based on specific planning and operational requirements including ESFs and the National Incident Management System (NIMS).

• The project created awareness among stakeholders of other potential business applications of ArcGIS and AGOL, increasing the value of existing investments and contributing to the sustainability of their use of information sharing.

14

10 Recommendations

The NISC suggests the following recommendations to continue enhancement of regional information sharing in Charlotte and James City County, and to inform future DHS S&T investments and activities.

10.1 Locality specific recommendations The following recommendations are provided to the Charlotte region and James City County based on findings and results of the project. These recommendations are intended to help further progress already made.

10.1.1 Charlotte Region Recommendations The Charlotte region made valuable progress by identifying a foundational technology (i.e., AGOL) that can be used by multiple regional stakeholders (including local, state, NGO and private sector partners) to provide internal agency and cross-organizational information sharing. Figure 5 illustrates a recommended model for cross-agency collaboration using existing investments in AGOL technology.

Figure 5: Cross-organizational information sharing model using AGOL

This model would need to be supported by cross-organizational information sharing SOPs that are developed through collaborative agreements (ideally through a structured governance organization). A supporting governance group (or working group) would use the following process as a guide for creation of hosted groups:

15

1. Determine a reason to share; 2. Identify host organization; 3. Host organization creates a group; 4. Group owner invites individuals with AGOL Accounts; 5. Group owner shares content with group

a. Group members may contribute content if owner permits (two-way sharing); 6. Members of group accept invitation and the group icon appears in the invited

individual’s own organization account.

The MHPC has made progress implementing AGOL and an initial tactical operational capability. The Charlotte Fire Department is also transitioning situational awareness capabilities to AGOL. The existing partnerships formed by the Charlotte Fire Department can be leveraged to advance this regional information sharing strategy.

Other recommendations for the Charlotte region include:

o Use of special events to complement Training & Outreach efforts; o Leveraging of the NISC Member Portal; o Continued defining and publication of EEI services; o Expanding the partnership with North Carolina Department of Public Safety and the

North Carolina Department of Transportation; and o Continued working with communities outside of the City of Charlotte.

10.1.2 James City County Recommendations James City County made valuable progress by establishing a branded AGOL organization, creating AGOL groups to support cross-agency sharing and developing information products (web maps) to address significant regional threats. The county also created the first ever information sharing SOP for the creation of information sharing products to support emergency management and response operations. Finally, the County initiated engagement with private sector partners (e.g., Dominion Power) to begin the process of sharing information about power conditions with the emergency management department.

The following are recommendations for continued progress:

o Exercise the information sharing SOP to inform enhancement of the SOP (continuous improvement process);

o Provide training and outreach to communicate value and growth and garner support of leadership in the County;

o Leverage the NISC repeatable process to engage additional private sector partners and stakeholders, as well as other localities;

o Align planning and operational capabilities to support NIMS ICS and emergency support functions; and

o Integrate Sungard CAD system with ArcGIS and make select data available on AGOL to provide tactical information for both daily use and emergency operations.

16

10.2 DHS S&T Recommendations The DHS S&T recommendations provided below are intended to advance information sharing on a regional and national scale. These recommendations include the refinement of specific best practices and methodologies for regional information sharing while supporting national growth. That is, create a proven, cost effective approach and engage national organizations to support education and standards development.

10.2.1 Regional Implementation Using the enhanced methodology and initial operating capability developed for cross-agency information sharing within James City County, the implementation of the methodology could be expanded to address scalability, governance, and SOPs across organizations including several localities, select state agencies, NGOs, and the private sector. Specific activities that will support regional implementation include:

• Implement the enhanced methodology to expand from internal agency sharing to cross-organization sharing to include additional counties, NGOs, private sector, and levels of government;

• Address specific tactical information sharing needs and expand EEIs: o Identify key CAD data subsets that can be promoted by APCO nationally; o Identify tactical EEIs;

• Identify a model for cross organizational governance and disseminate more broadly: o Address governance best practices for cross-organizational sustainability and

resilience; o Make models and best practices available via the NISC;

• Build and disseminate a template for cross organizational information sharing SOPs; • Address local mutual aid by:

o Providing visibility into tactical resources of local/regional partners (including CAD systems); Work with APCO to define standard CAD resource types and symbology;

o Support mutual aid request for emergency management agencies by providing visibility of regional resources; Work with NEMA to define standard resource types and symbology;

• Use the NISC Member Portal to promote and disseminate EEI templates, information sharing tools, and information sharing SOPs;

• Work with the Geographic Information Infrastructure (GII) to better enable local agencies to access its tools and data sets; and

• Address how the Local First Responder Project methodology can support NIMS Incident Command System (ICS) to include multiple levels of government and other organizations (horizontal scaling) from local to national.

17

10.2.2 National Growth National growth can be driven through aggressive education and implementation support. An important aspect is to partner with key organizations that can socialize this strategic approach while continuing to advance best practices, standards, and case studies.

To promote national growth, partnerships should be established with key associations to promote information sharing standards and methodologies (e.g., CAD standards, mutual aid requests). These partnerships would leverage support from private sector partners with national perspectives. Organizations that may be willing partners include:

• NISC (National Information Sharing Consortium) • IAEM (International Association of Emergency Managers) • APCO (Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials) • NEMA (National Emergency Management Association) • NENA (National Emergency Number Association)

In addition, it is important to identify and engage solution providers who have a large customer base and whose products are used by local, state, and national stakeholders on a regular basis (e.g., Google, Esri) to help promulgate standards and successful practices. Ideal solution providers would provide platforms for third party innovation (i.e., apps developed by third party developers to enhance the platform and provide additional value and capability).

Another recommendation to support national growth would be to support an online university that can be developed and hosted by the NISC—with support from other partner associations—to build, educate, and train around the successful practices and lessons learned from this and related projects. For example, a series of training sessions can be developed on the use of AGOL as an interoperability platform.

Finally, standardization of key sets of EEI’s will support local information sharing needs, including CAD and mutual aid, and making them available through partner organizations will help to reach a broad audience.

18

11 Appendix A: Survey Findings and Initial Assessment This appendix provide results of the online survey, initial assessment and additional baseline observations.

11.1.1 EEI Survey Results The following “heat maps” illustrate the responses received to the online survey. The heat maps show rankings of EEIs for various scenarios. The rankings are totaled in the rightmost column.

19

11.1.2 Technical Survey Results The following charts reflect the initial assessment data collected by the online survey and through interviews. Additional information was discovered in post workshop engagements.

James City County Survey

Agency Viewer/COP IMS/RMS GIS IMS-GIS Integration

Dept. of Emergency Management

• WebEOC (Local)

• WebEOC (Regional)

• WebEOC/Fusion (State)

• AGOL

Fire Department • AGOL • ONESolution CAD

• AGOL

Police Department

• AGOL • ONESolution CAD

• AGOL

20

Real Estate • AGOL

• Sungard

• AGOL

• ArcGIS Server

• Google Earth

Emergency Communications

• Sungard • ONESolution CAD

• Sungard/OSSI

• AGOL • Yes (Sungard)

Building Safety & Permits

Parks and Recreation

Community Services

IT • ArcGIS Server

Agency Viewer/COP IMS/RMS GIS IMS-GIS Integration

HRPDC • WebEOC (regional)

VDEM • AGOL • WebEOC (State)

• ArcGIS

• AGOL

Dept. Human Service

21

JCC Schools - Williamsburg

Charlottesville Fire • VIISE SitRoom

• CAD-VIISE

Charlotte Survey

Agency Viewer/COP IMS GIS IMS-GIS Integration

Charlotte Fire Dept. Cobra 2.0 • ArcGIS Online

• AGOL

Mooresville Fire Rescue

Catawba County Emergency Services

Cleveland County EMS

Cabarrus County

NC Emergency Management

• E-TEAM

• FDM

Novant Healthcare

Energy United EMC

22

Duke Energy

Tools and Technologies used

Discipline/Sector Technology Fire FDM-Fire Record Management

Charlotte Tri-Tech 911 CAD Flood Gauges CFD AGOL CFD COBRA 2.0

Police CMPD Intergraph CAD CMPD Video Cameras CMPD ArcGIS (local) CMPD KB COPS (Crime RMS)

Emergency Management CFD Everbridge UASI E-Team CFD Weather Feeds NC WebEOC (from NC DPS and SC EMD) CFD AGOL

Utilities Health SMART

WebEOC MARVLIS AGOL

Federal NWS NOAA

Transportation 511 AGOL

Energy Cityworks-Public Works Records Management ArcGIS Enterprise

Telecom State WebEOC

ArcGIS Enterprise AGOL

23

11.1.3 Additional Baseline information In addition to the survey and technical assessments, the following information describes the baseline environment at the start of the project.

Charlottesville

• City of Charlottesville Fire Dept. using CAVS for situational awareness • CAVS not used day-to-day (used for event specific use) • Informal sharing relationships • No formally established information sharing capability across localities • Major technology initiative launched: Albemarle County and UVA transitioning from

WebEOC to VEOCI • Several high-profile emergency events diverted focus of emergency responder and

emergency management communities

Charlotte, NC region

• Regional information sharing efforts driven by Charlotte Fire Department • Chief Jeff Dulin providing regional leadership

o Informal regional partnerships established (no formal governance) o Charlotte Fire Department had prior limited success with COBRA o COBRA administered and maintained by Fire Department (not city GIS depart) o Charlotte Fire Department was in process of transitioning COBRA to a cloud

based platform (i.e., AGOL) o Charlotte Fire Department seeking to support additional stakeholders with

COBRA • Multiple Regional Partners had AGOL, but were not fully aware of its capabilities to

support emergency management and regional response. o Stakeholders with AGOL included: NC DOT, MHPC, NC OEMS, American Red

Cross, Carolina Healthcare System, Charlotte Water, Duke Energy, NCEM o No effective sharing across the region (except during planned events) o No governance, policies or procedures in place to support cross organizational

sharing through ArcGIS • Regional partners have informal partnership and were seeking a means for information

sharing

James City County

• James City County Real-Estate Division has ArcGIS and AGOL o Real Estate Division provides GIS support to all county departments and

functions o ArcGIS capabilities were not fully understood by GIS staff, senior staff or

potential users o No model available for use of AGOL across multiple departments/functions o No structured process to guide collaborative use across multiple

departments/functions

24

o ArcGIS and AGOL were not being used effectively to support emergency management, emergency response, or exercises

• CAD data siloed in the Emergency Communications/9-1-1 Center • Crisis Track damage assessment system

o Not integrated with ArcGIS (even though that is a standard feature) • Local instance of WebEOC no longer maintained or used

25

12 Appendix B: James City County Initial Operating Capability The NISC provided technical assistance to James City County to assist the GIS staff in establishing MHPC’s ArcGIS Online Organizational account. This included identification and creation of AGOL groups to support cross-agency sharing within the county. The team also established an information sharing SOP (i.e., procedures for identifying internal agency information needs and workflows for approval and establishment of information sharing products). This SOP is described in Figure 6.

Figure 6: James City County Information Sharing SOP

Using this information sharing process, JCC created webmaps to support Surry Nuclear Power Plant exercises and a webmap to support rail transportation hazmat incidents. The Surry Map, which was used support a recent exercise, is shown in Figure 7. FEMA evaluators lauded JCC’s use of the map to solve problems in the exercise.

26

Figure 7: Surry Power Plant Exercise Web Map

Figure 8 illustrates the transportation map developed to support response to hazmat incidents that occur on the railway passing through the county.

27

Figure 8: Transportation Web Map

The technical assistance team also worked with the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) administrator and GIS manager to develop a proof-of-concept CAD data transfer from the Sungard CAD system to AGOL. Further development is needed for an operational capability.

28

13 Appendix C: Charlotte Region Initial Operating Capability

While a region-wide operating capability is not fully realized, the Charlotte region has identified a foundational technology that can support cross-organizational regional sharing. The cross organizational model is illustrated in Figure 5 in this report.

As represented in Figure 9, the Charlotte participants represented a diverse community, which allowed the research to explore how different private sector industries, government, and non-government organization not only shared content but how they collaborate.

Figure 9: Charlotte Project Stakeholders

One use case that came from the Charlotte portion of the NISC project was around triaging medical complaints at a major sporting event/mass gathering (see Figure 10). The NISC partnered with the Metrolina Health Preparedness Coalition (MHPC) http://metrolinapreparedness.org/mhpc/ to create an operational capability by providing the following technical assistance:

o Setting up MHPC’s ArcGIS Online Organizational account o Defining of requirements for two new EEI’s for health data o Researching HIPAA regulations to ensure that the EEI’s would be compliant o Designing the EEI Patient Symptom tracker model

29

o Publishing the model as a feature service o Configuring an operations dashboard to display the data o Requesting content from North Carolina Department of Public Safety

Figure 10: CMS Patient Encounter Form

With this environment created, MHPC approached the staff at the Lowes Motor Speedway and received approval to deploy the capability at several medical tents. The findings from use of this approach and deployment of the EEI will go back into the NISC member portal

30

Figure 11: Patient Encounter EEI Background

The use case for the new EEI and how it would be deployed and used during the Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 24, 2015.