Emergency Response

As the United States focuses efforts on the goal of defending against future attacks under the banner of Homeland Security, the need for GIS in emergency management and response is clear.

GIS provides the best method to efficiently and effectively support emergency management and response information needs whether its local 911 call location mapping or disaster management applications with the scope of September 11th. No other technology allows for the visualization of emergency or disaster situations as effectively as GIS. By placing a map of the accurate physical geography of a disaster event on a computer monitor, along with conditions or threats within that geography, GIS lets police, fire, medical and administrative personnel make decisions based on data they can see and judge for themselves. This visual information can be of critical relevance to emergency responders or a disaster manager.

GIS is also a data consolidator. Decision makers, whether at the state capital or at the scene of a toxic chemical spill, are always faced with more information than they can deal with. GIS brings many information sources into clear focus, helping responders decide which things can wait, which can be delegated. These are the kinds of choices and compromises that are intrinsic to disaster management. GIS allows them to be seen with new clarity.

With the right data and the right GIS tools, understanding of where help is needed becomes instantaneous. And in a disaster, instantaneous is the speed at which responders want to be moving.

IGRE is working with the Ogemaw County Sheriff's Department and the Detroit Public School District to develop data and applications that allow responders to move fast. One critical data set all responders need is an accurate street centerline map. Whether it is used for locating incidents or used to route first responders to the disaster site quickly, the street centerline is a critical data layer in any 911 or emergency response system.

IGRE has developed routing and centerline cleanup applications that create street centerlines that are validated with respect to street naming, street direction, address range gaps and overlaps and odd/even number assignment. These applications also validate the centerlines for use with vendor specific, 911 Computer Aided Dispatch systems, the local telephone company's Master Street Addressing Guide, and comply with National Emergency Number Association and US Postal Service data formats.