In Florida, the city of Tallahassee, Leon County and the Leon County Property Appraiser's Office formed a partnership called TLC GIS. The area has seen its share of hurricanes, fires and floods in recent years, so this group is no stranger to the threat of large-scale disasters.

TLC GIS recently built a server GIS-based incident management system known as the Emergency Operations Center Incident Mapper. Released in pilot phase as part of a phased rollout, the system complements existing communication networks in organizing, analyzing and displaying GIS data in a big-picture format. It supplies electronic display of disaster activities in real time and supports all phases of the disaster management cycle: preparation, mitigation, response and recovery.

In August 2008, the system was put through more than a dry run when Tropical Storm Fay hit the area.

“We mapped over 700 incidents in the application over about three days,” says Lee Hartsfield, TLC GIS coordinator. “It included road closures, trees down, automobile accidents, power outages and flooded areas. In one situation there was a subdivision that was completely closed off by flooding. Looking at some of the maps, they found that they could go from a contiguous subdivision if the public works folks cut a quick access road into the subdivision. As we were trying to coordinate the communications, there was an officer in the field saying he was standing at so-and-so address and the floodwater is up to this high on the door. From that, we could extrapolate … just how many residents were flooded based on contour and topography information that we had in the GIS.”

In another case, the application was used to warn residents near a river on the west side of the city before a high-water surge came their way.

“They asked us to give them a list of addresses and a map of all the potential residents that could be impacted,” Hartsfield says. “We can create a map like that in about 30 minutes. The majority of the time is in the printing. We have pre-set maps that are already configured with GIS. If somebody needs a map, it is a matter of us zooming into that particular area, highlighting any area they need and printing the map.”

Prior to the system, responders coordinated the disaster and emergency recovery mostly on-site; they communicated information to the EOC when time permitted during the event. When maps were needed, a runner took the request from the field to the TLC GIS site and returned with the generated map.

Developers built the EOC Incident Mapper using ESRI's ArcGIS Server, ArcGIS Network Analyst and ArcSDE technology. The system uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Incident Management System's common language and symbology. In addition, the project team developed a viewer in ArcIMS for staff to view nonsensitive information during an event. Hartsfield says the program is browser-based, which allows responders to access maps through an Internet connection.

“We limit the editors to a password because we don't want people not familiar with the technology having complete access; they might go in there and move something that they shouldn't,” he says. “We're starting to train some of the emergency management staff to be able to use this application for more normal incidents that you might have on a regular basis. In the next event, we will probably have editors, viewers that can view all of the information and then another viewer level that can only view public-available information.”

The system organizes data and events into three basic categories: emergency service points, point events and area events. It allows real-time interaction for managing resource and personnel allocation, placement, and routing.

Emergency service points include facilities and apparatus that may be open, closed or on standby. This includes items such as Red Cross shelters, sandbag distribution points and work-crew feeding sites. Previously, these were tracked separately by different agencies. Point events are incidents, such as a fire or a chemical spill, confined to a specific location.

An area event includes both man-made emergencies and natural disasters that impact more than one location in the jurisdiction. The system can adapt quickly from a point event to an area event as the geographic impacts broaden in scope and effect. Users can track several common incidents that may occur simultaneously. This includes automobile accidents, downed trees or power lines, power outages, flooding and quarantined areas. The common incidents also carry a status indicating open, assigned or closed, and Incident Mapper can identify whether traffic flow is blocked or impeded. Users can input data and provide updates to the ArcSDE database that allows others to view the information in real time.

For example, when an emergency happens, GIS staff can map the above incidents and other data as it comes into the EOC. Users, whether in the EOC or in the field, can see where Red Cross shelters are being set up, the location of debris collection sites, supply distribution points and more. Users can generate point-to-point routing with turn-by-turn directions. In addition, they can perform queries by address, intersection, tax-code identification or other geographic indicator. They can search for a local business, a government agency, and educational and social institutions by name, address, phone number and classification.

TLC began planning the system in 2005 and got it up and running in 2008. Hartsfield says the group invested about $40,000 in the system. However, because this application was new and TLC GIS served as a test case for ESRI, the company matched at least that much in in-kind services. There also are licensing and maintenance fees that the group pays.

As with any investment, one of the first questions becomes, “What is the return?” In TLC's case, it is too early to have much evidence, but Hartsfield says they are looking into it.

“We're in the process of assessing the post Tropical Storm Fay. That effort will not be completed until January when there is a workshop going before the board of county commissioners. The data we collected within the EOC TLC application was an essential component for the successful application to FEMA for disaster funding. That is the immediate impact that has the most direct impact on dollars. It is not the only thing that was involved with the application, but the FEMA office told me that it was an essential component for the successful application. We could not only identify the extent of damage, but we could visually represent it so that it was very easy for them to verify what they were being told, and to go out and make a field examination and respond back quickly.”

The incident mapping system is still in the final phases of development, which includes end-user evaluation and testing. In addition, the TLC GIS staff is working to complete a system user guide.

As mentioned earlier, disseminating information to the public is one area where the system will grow. TLC had the capability during Fay using a sister application, but was still sorting through some issues.

“There were folks within the government that were using that application to view some of the things that were going on,” Hartsfield says. “That was the test on that piece of it. One of the challenges is what information is everyone comfortable sharing with the general public and what information do you need to protect. Do we really want power outages going out to the general public? If it is in an affluent neighborhood and all of the burglar alarms are off, you are kind of inviting people to come in.”

The system is not set up for mutual aid outside the TLC jurisdiction. Hartsfield says they've shown the system to other jurisdictions, but none have come on board. That is partly to do with other priorities and that it is a complex system to set up.

“At some point, if not this application, it will be some version of this that most likely will be used on a regional level. We've shared the code with a couple of jurisdictions,” he says. “But it is not for the faint hearted. It is a very, very complex, complicated and in-depth application. The software has the ability to create simple applications out of the box, but if you don't have a quality programmer on staff, this application is something you may want to think twice about; you may have to bring in an outside vendor to get something like this set up.”

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ESRI contributed to this story.