E- Gov Initiative Overview

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• E- Gov Initiative Overview
• December, 2003

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Challenges

• No single source of trusted, validated
  information is available for citizens and the
  emergency management community.
• Frustrated with multiple federal sources that
  provide seemingly conflicting data.
• Citizens are unsure about where they should go to
  find information and services.
• Multiple government organizations are maintaining
  and/or developing overlapping capabilities.
• Many communities do not have the resources to
  acquire and run incident management software.
• More than 50 of responder organizations do not
  have digital tools. This is found true in 50
  states, 3,000 counties, 120 high threat cities,
  and much of the Federal government.
• Incident management software packages in the
  marketplace are not compatible with each other
  and thus do not allow the creation of a common
  operating picture.
• Lack of interoperability is repeatedly identified
  as a pressing national need, as identified in the
  Nunn/Luger/ Dominici deliberations and
  legislation, InterAgency Board proceedings, the
  DOJ requirements study, and by the Gilmore
  Commission.

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How does the Disaster Management Initiative
address these Challenges?

• DM is an interagency initiative to
• Meet the nations need for a unified point of
  access to disaster management information for
  citizens and appropriate Federal, State, local,
  tribal, and non-governmental authorities.
• Improve incident response (all hazards) and
  recovery by creating the ability to seamlessly
  and securely share information across the
  nations emergency management community.

• Value Proposition
• Unified point of access to disaster-related
  information and services for citizens and
  emergency organizations.
• Accelerated and improved quality of disaster
  preparation, mitigation, response and recovery
  minimizes the loss of life and property.
• Savings to Federal, State, local, and tribal
  governments due to interoperability.

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Program Breakdown

• Information access and Emergency Management
  Community collaboration
• DisasterHelp.gov portal
• Information sharing via Interoperability
• EM-XML Standards Development
• Disaster Management Interoperability Services
  (DMIS)

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Program Breakdown (cont.) DisasterHelp.gov Portal

• Purpose
• Provide a place of integration for government
  partners disaster related content,
  notifications, and web based applications where
  27 federal partners, NGOs, and other State and
  local agencies own and maintain content on the
  site.
• Provide online tools to allow responders to
  collaborate in preparation for and response to a
  Disaster
• Technology
• Built on Portal and Collaboration Center
  technology that runs Army Knowledge Online, Navy
  Knowledge Online, and DHSOnline
• Scalable to over 1 million users
• Secure, role-based security embedded within the
  application
• Allows users to
• Gather disaster related info from one
  authoritative source
• View news and headlines and sign up for
  emergency-related notifications
• Communicate and collaborate directly with the
  Emergency Responders community
• Exchange documents in a secure on-line community
  and
• Chat, meet, and discuss common issues related to
  disasters.
• Use specialty tools i.e. Self-assess, track, and
  report Urban Search Rescue team readiness.
• Actual use
• DisasterHelp.gov has 10,219 registered users from
  49 states and supports 1,417 Knowledge Centers
  supporting collaboration and sharing of 10,672 MB
  of information. DisasterHelp.gov portal and
  Collaboration Center recognized as E-Gov best
  practice applications by winning a 2003 E-Gov
  Explorer Award.
• Urban Search and Rescue (USR) division of FEMA
  uses the Readiness Assessment Tool to
  intelligently score and record the readiness of
  USR Teams throughout the country.
• FEMA Mitigation Group uses Specialized Knowledge
  Center notification capability to send out
  targeted information to specific groups of users

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Program Breakdown (cont.) Two Key Components to
Deliver Data Interoperability

• 1. EM-XML data standards development
• XML standards required to support the timely and
  accurate incident information exchange
• Emergency Interoperability Consortium
• Over 60 member organizations from industry and
  government
• Creating a National approach for developing
  emergency information XML data standards through
  an active partnership among the public, private
  and non-profit sectors in a fashion that will
  foster innovation across all sectors.
• CAP (Common Alert Protocol) is the first standard
  out of the box being adopted by EIC
• 2. Disaster Management Interoperability Service
  (DMIS)
• Provides an infrastructure with common service
  functions that enable different automated
  information systems to exchange data
• Provides a platform to assist standards-bodies,
  such as EM-XML, on prototyping, testing and
  implementation of emerging data standards
• Delivers a basic incident management toolset to
  registered emergency management user groups

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What is the interoperability problem?
City A
City B
Emergency Manager
Organization to organization interoperability
tends to be inefficient
Emergency Manager
Emergency Operations Center
Civil Support Team A
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What is the solution?
Interoperability Service enabling horizontal
vertical information sharing
Federal
Region
State
EOC
EOC
Local
ICP
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Whats an Interoperability Service?
An infrastructure with common service functions
that enable different automated information
systems to talk to each other.
DMIS Interoperability Services
Incident Creation
Common Operational Awareness
XML Based Standards Open APIs
Desktop Mapping
Shared Incident Information
Incident Management System A (Local)
Incident Management System C (Federal)
Incident Management System B (State)
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DMIS used in 39 Incidents and 89 Exercises

• Washington County Maryland
• Multi-agency coordinated response in
• Flooding
• Hurricane Isabel

Johnstown, PA - Multi-agency coordinated response
in mass casualty HAZMAT release
Colorado State Patrol - Traffic control
coordination during wildfires
USAF 509 Medical Group - Tornado response

• Catasauqua, PA
• Hurricane Isabel

• MD Office of Emerg. Mgt.
• I-81 closure major accident
• I-70 closure sinkhole
• Petroleum spill

Alaska Office of Homeland Security - Multi-agency
coordinated response in river flooding, summer
2003

• Laurel, Maryland
• Multi-agency response coordination
• Hurricane Isabel
• Major fire with evacuation

ODP Pre-positioned Equipment Program - Continuous
situation awareness during IMF protests

• Ashland Boyd County Kentucky
• Multi-agency response coordination in
• Barge sinking
• HAZMAT truck spill on Interstate
• Heightened DHS alert

• Orangeburg County South Carolina
• Multi-agency response coordination in
• Anthrax hoax
• Snow event
• Diesel spill
• Ammonia spill
• Suspicious package
• Dam leak
• 2 Major HAZMAT traffic accidents
• 2 flooding events
• Petroleum spill
• Heightened DHS alert
• Chemical plant explosion
• Large-scale telephone outage

Nevada Test Site Operations Center - Coordinated
evacuation and cleanup during major diesel spill
Alachua County Florida - Coordinated all-agency
tornado response
41st Civil Support Team Military Support to Civil
Authorities during - Chemical plant explosion -
Manufacturing plant explosion
USDA Animal Plant Inspection Service -
Newcastle disease response high impact to
regional poultry industry
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DMIS State Interest Current User Groups
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As of 09/10/03

• 291 User Groups
• 46 States DC
• 6 FEMA Regions
• 7 Federal Agencies

installation visit requested
considering installation for assessment
installed assessment in progress
installed decision made for state-wide roll-out