In our March and May 2008 articles, we shared our work on a regional GIS (geographic information system) strategy that started with a pilot project funded by the South Central Region Homeland Security Council.
The goal? Obtain critical GIS data layers region-wide, backed up in multiple locations, and accessible to emergency responders when needed.
Why? GIS data is vital when disasters strike and critical infrastructure needs to be located (sometimes by responders from other jurisdictions) for response and recovery.
Now what? Because of the success of this pilot project, similar projects have recently been approved by three more Regional Homeland Security Councils: Northwest, Southwest and North Central.
Each region-wide GIS project will begin to create a critical information network about infrastructure, assets and key populations for use by the Incident Management Teams (IMTs), first responders and decision makers. The information will then be available to aide in timely response to any event, natural or man-made, across the region and eventually statewide.
Each project will utilize the regional Homeland Security Council’s allotted grant dollars to work on eight objectives:
- Complete a county-level GIS Inventory of all related data, equipment and personnel (State-level GIS data is provided during the inventory visits. Inventory visits to the 18 Northwest counties are set for the week of December 1.)
- Encourage the use of the free back-up service for GIS data at DASC so when needed for responders, the data will be available regardless of the destruction at the local level.
- Form a GIS Technical sub-committee in each homeland security region to facilitate discussions between decisions makers, responders and GIS personnel. The South Central region found this committee improved cooperation, communication and networking among responders and GIS personnel.
- Hold Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Meetings to introduce the project to local responders and GIS personnel and allow them the opportunity to identify their disciplines’ critical data needs.
- Complete a GIS Data Gap Analysis to determine what data gaps exist in the region and to develop a plan to close these gaps.
- Develop Region and Statewide GIS applications for use by the IMTs, Emergency Management Managers and decision makers at all levels of government.
- Provide GIS and GPS Training opportunities at no charge to participants (except travel expenses).
- Purchase GIS Equipment (ArcGIS Software, mapping-grade GPS units, etc.) for use by GIS professionals to support emergency management activities.
We look forward to seeing you at the Kansas Association of Counties conference, November 16 – 18, in Wichita! More information on this and other Kansas Collaborative projects will be available at our six booths in the Exhibition Hall on Sunday. You can also hear more about our work at the five Educational Workshops that are scheduled for Monday.
Until next month…
Kathleen and Joel
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