E- Gov Initiative Overview

December, 2003
 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”.

2
 How does the Disaster Management Initiative
address these Challenges?
DM is an interagency initiative to:
• Meet the nation’s 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 nation’s 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.

3
 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)

4
 Program Breakdown (cont.)
DisasterHelp.gov Portal
Purpose
• Provide a place of integration for government partner’s 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 (US&R) division of FEMA uses the Readiness Assessment Tool to intelligently score and
record the readiness of US&R Teams throughout the country.
• FEMA Mitigation Group uses Specialized Knowledge Center notification capability to send out targeted information to
specific groups of users
• USDA distributes notifications of new disaster headlines, Secretariat Amendments, or Presidential Declarations.
5
 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

6
 What is the interoperability problem?
City “A”
City “B”
Emergency
Operations Emergency
Center Emergency Organization to Manager
Manager
organization
interoperability
tends to be
inefficient Emergency
Operations
Center
Civil Support
Team “A”

“Pass the rumor FAX

telephone chaos.” hassles

“Grease pencil and

acetate”

“Same room
syndrome”
7
 What is the solution?
Interoperability Service enabling horizontal & vertical information sharing

Federal

Region

State
EOC EOC

Local ICP

8
 What’s an Interoperability Service?
An infrastructure with common service functions that enable
different automated information systems to “talk to each other.”
DMIS Interoperability Services

Incident Common Operational

Creation XML Based Standards Awareness
Open API’s

Desktop Mapping
Shared Incident
Incident
Information Incident
Management
Management
System A
System C
(Local)
(Federal)

Incident Management
System B (State)

9
 DMIS used in 39 Incidents and 89 Exercises
Washington County Maryland
Colorado State Patrol Johnstown, PA
-Multi-agency coordinated response in:
- Traffic control coordination during - Multi-agency coordinated
- Flooding
wildfires response in mass casualty
USAF 509 Medical Group - Hurricane Isabel
HAZMAT release Catasauqua, PA
- Tornado response
-Hurricane Isabel
MD Office of Emerg. Mgt.
Alaska Office of Homeland Security -I-81 closure – major accident
- Multi-agency coordinated response in -I-70 closure – sinkhole
river flooding, summer 2003 -Petroleum spill
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:
Nevada Test Site Operations Center -Anthrax hoax
- Coordinated evacuation and cleanup -Snow event
during major diesel spill -Diesel spill
Alachua County Florida -Ammonia spill
- Coordinated all-agency -Suspicious package
st
41 Civil Support Team tornado response -Dam leak
Military Support to Civil Authorities during: -2 Major HAZMAT traffic accidents
USDA Animal & Plant Inspection Service - Chemical plant explosion -2 flooding events
- Newcastle disease response; high - Manufacturing plant explosion -Petroleum spill
impact to regional poultry industry -Heightened DHS alert
-Chemical plant explosion
-Large-scale telephone outage 10
 DMIS State Interest & Current User Groups

12

24

25 6
13

13
6
As of 09/10/03:
- 291 User Groups 8 10
- 46 States & DC 10
- 6 FEMA Regions
- 7 Federal Agencies
= installation visit requested 18
= considering installation for assessment 37

= installed; assessment in progress

= installed; decision made for state-wide roll-out

11