January 12, 2010
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Science & Technology
Directorate (S&T) newsletter, S&T Snapshots, features stories about
current research projects and opportunities with laboratories, universities,
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The damage from a tornado that
ravaged central Alabama in February 2008 is superimposed over the picture of the
region before the tornado, as viewed in the Virtual USA system. This ability
allows emergency responders to quickly assess the extent of damage.
Mapping an Emergency
Making communications among first responders interoperable
Natural disasters rarely color inside the lines. Like a toddler with his
first box of crayons, they leave a mess all over the map—spilling across
federal, state, and local lines. To clean up, different agencies and
jurisdictions must come together and share what they know. But far too often,
critical information goes unseen by those who need it most: our emergency
responders.
In the past, there were incidents where deficiencies in communication caused
problems for the emergency response community. In one case, while the National
Guard was dispatching hundreds of trucks to a hurricane-ravaged area in the
Southeast, drivers were unaware of a key road closure. In another instance, a
neighboring state did not receive notification that planned evacuation routes
were jammed with fleeing motorists. And at times, responders hurrying to aid
residents outside their jurisdictions had limited information on what local
resources were available.
Even though many authorities track incident management data, these records
typically are walled off from one another by incompatible computer systems,
proprietary technological platforms, or simply a culture of reluctance to share
information.
Recognizing this urgent predicament, the Department of Homeland Security’s
Science and Technology Directorate is working on a solution. Led by Dr. David
Boyd, director of the Command, Control,
and Interoperability Division (CCI), and patterned after the state of
Alabama’s Virtual Alabama program, the project has been dubbed “Virtual
USA” (vUSA). Its goal: to create a nationwide capability to share and
standardize life-saving emergency data in real time.
A collaboration among CCI, first responders, and state governments, vUSA
provides a 3-D platform of interactive maps that displays the location and
status of critical assets—helicopter landing sites, evacuation routes, shelters,
gas supplies, water lines, power grids, and everything in between. Whether
you’re a county firefighter on the scene, a state-based EMT en route, or a
federal FEMA official at your desk, the system equips responders at all levels
with the same richly detailed data.
This coordination makes information sharing more comprehensive and decision
making more informed, which is why vUSA was included in the recently announced
White House Open Government Initiative, which emphasizes transparency,
participation, and collaboration.
But one of vUSA’s most exciting attributes is platform agnosticism—the
ability to integrate disparate data sources seamlessly (as long as the sources
use the same standards). To a layman, this might not sound like a big deal. But
to a first responder, who must contend with Alabama’s preference for Google
Earth, Virginia’s need for ArcGIS, and X’s comfort with Y, interoperability
constitutes a revolution.
Most importantly, the price is right. Typically, when an IT department is
told it needs a new software system, what it hears is a request for a large
amount of money. But whereas proprietary systems can fetch up to $5 million, the
enterprise license—in perpetuity—for Google Earth costs about $150,000, which
makes vUSA a relative bargain.
Since February, Virtual USA has been operating as a pilot program in eight
southeastern states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. In September, CCI met with five northwestern
states (Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and Wyoming), followed by
talks with six northeastern states (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, New Jersey, and Vermont) earlier this month. The goal: to match the
number of vUSA states with the number of stars on the American flag.
Yet, according to Director Boyd, standing up an interstate initiative rivals
the difficulty of running it. “Just to socialize the concept of data-sharing—to
get everyone communicating, to localize solutions—takes six months,” he says.
But that’s not the end of the process. A plenary meeting for technical and
governance matters comes next, after which a plan is designed. By this time,
almost a year has passed.
Indeed, the chief challenge that vUSA faces isn’t the lack of data. It’s the
lack of interoperable data. In order for data to be shared, you need to
get people to share them. Put another way, mastering the software is the easy
part. Getting human beings to collaborate is the hard part.
“Too many federal and state programs fall short of their potential because
they’re driven from the top-down without buy-in at the local level,” Boyd
continues. So in order to facilitate steadfast local participation, vUSA starts
from a set of three principles:
1. You collect it; you own it. If, for example, a county
funds and processes the collection of aerial photographs, then the county—not
Washington—owns these data.
2. You own it; you control it. Decisions related to who the
data is shared with—and when, how, and what to share—are at the discretion of
the data’s owner.
3. You control it; you make the rules. Instead of having to
adapt your data to accommodate others, you can continue to use your existing
software and do business your way.
Shaped by this bottom-up foundation, Virtual USA is helping responders across
the country to communicate better, to work together, play nice in the sandbox
and share their crayons.
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