Use Emergency Management Operations

The Emergency Management Operations solution delivers a set of capabilities that help you to identify an emergency incident, define the impact, allocate resources, and communicate status to internal and external stakeholders.

In this topic, you’ll learn how to use the solution by assuming the role of a user and performing the workflows below.

Note:

Use your organization's data or configured apps to follow these workflows.

Assess impact

The Situational Awareness Viewer can be used by emergency management personnel to understand the impact of an incident on public infrastructure and human populations. Situational Awareness Viewer includes incident information used in a suite of related emergency operations solutions essential to maintaining situation awareness.

In this workflow, you will assume the role of a duty watch officer responsible for assessing the incident impact and sharing that information with other users in the EOC.

Define an incident area

The incident area can be defined by selecting an existing incident, weather warning area, or storm report from Active Incidents and Warnings. An incident can also be created by creating a buffer around a point, line, or polygon.

To define the incident area using the sample data, complete the following steps:

1. In a browser, from the Emergency Management Operations solution, view the Situational Awareness Viewer.
2. From the Active Incidents and Warnings list, click an incident perimeter.

   Note:

   You can also define an incident area by clicking any existing polygon.

3. Click the more options button in the lower right corner of the pop-up window and choose Set Location to define the incident area.

   The Understand Impact widget will open at the bottom of the screen with the impact of a one-mile buffer around the flooding incident.

   Note:

   The point, line, and polygon icons can be used to create another incident area by specifying a buffer distance around another location. This can be useful for accidents, chemical spills, tornado paths, wildfires, or any other type of incident.

4. Click the Save button in the Situation Awareness panel at the bottom of the screen to save the incident location in the Incident layer.

   A pop-up will appear allowing you to enter parameters for this incident.

5. Enter an incident number, name, type, then click Done.

Identify potential impact

After the incident area has been defined, the impact to population, facilities, and infrastructure can be determined.

To identify the potential impact of an incident using a previously defined area, complete the following steps:

1. To determine the potential impact to the population, select the Potential impact tab in the Situation Awareness panel at the bottom of the screen.

   The estimated potential impact to vulnerable populations in the incident area is displayed by age group.

2. To further understand the impact to population, select the Special Needs tab.

   This tab displays a list of residents who have registered for assistance during an emergency.

3. To determine the impact to facilities, select the Schools, Shelter, and Hospitals tabs. Each tab displays the number of facilities in the incident area.
4. To determine the impact to road infrastructure, select the Road Closures tab. This tab displays the number of Road Closures in the incident area.
5. Click the Incident tab, then click the Download button to download all the incident information into a CSV file.

   Note:

   This CSV file can be given to the emergency management staff or volunteer coordinators.

6. Click the Print button to create a report of the potential impacted facilities, infrastructure, and human populations. In the properties window, enter a title, orientation, page size, and any comments, then click OK.

   Note:

   This report can be printed or saved electronically to share with emergency management staff.

7. The Snapshot button can be used to create a time-stamped folder in your ArcGIS organization containing a map and feature layers. The map and feature layers can be used for after-action reports or other analysis.

   Note:

   The Snapshot button is enabled when deployed in your organization and is enabled.

8. Close the Situational Awareness Viewer app.

Understand operational needs

After the incident area has been defined and the impact has been determined, the operations personnel can plan and assign response activities. The Operations Response app can be used by emergency management personnel to understand the status of emergency facilities and response teams.

In this workflow, you will assume the role of the operations section personnel responsible for locating and assigning emergency response resources.

Find resources near an incident

Operations response begins by identifying the incident area and finding nearby resources to support tactical operations. You can search for an address or place to find a given location to help plan response activities near that location.

To locate resources near an incident, complete the following steps:

1. In a browser, from the Emergency Management Operations solution, view the Operations Response app.
2. In the search box, type an address.
3. Click the more options button in the lower right corner of the search result pop-up window.
4. Choose Set Location to define the incident area and specify a buffer distance of 1 mile.
5. Click the MRP Deployments tab to display a list of mission-ready packages within the specified buffer.
6. Click the Response Facilities, Road Closures, and Closest Hospitals, Schools, Shelters tabs to find other resources.
7. Click the Incident tab, then click the Download button on the left side and open the CSV file to see the list of resources.

   Note:

   This information can be shared with other agencies or saved for an after-action report.

8. Explore other methods of defining incident boundaries by using the line tool to locate a linear incident such as a train derailment along the train tracks and use a buffer distance of 1 mile to see the impact area.
9. Click the Start Over button to remove the selected incident area, if necessary.

Locate response teams assigned to an incident

Mission teams that have been assigned to response activities can be located on the map with attributes and symbology for each type of response team. These locations and attributes can then be updated from the field as teams change or complete assignments.

To locate a response team assigned to an incident, complete the following steps:

1. Click the Add Resources widget in the upper right corner to view the resource that can be assigned to this incident.
2. In the Search Templates box, type Emergency to see a list of resources with that name.
3. Select Emergency Medical Services to add a point on the map near the point of the incident address.
4. In the Add Resources list for Mission Ready Packages, add the following attributes:

   Parameter	Value
   Name	EMS 1
   MRP Type	medical
   MRP Status	Acceptance of Mission
   MRP Description	public requested assistance
   NIMS Resource	Medical/Public Health System Assessment Team
   NIMS Discipline	Emergency Medical Services
   NIMS Resource Kind	Team/Equipment
   NIMS Type	III

   Leave the remaining attributes blank for now and close the Resources widget.

5. Use the Directions widget to get directions from the incident location to the nearest hospital.
6. Click the Print button in the Directions widget to print a map of the route with directions.

   Note:

   Operations Response can be used on a mobile device or printed directions can be sent to a mobile device if necessary.

7. Click Clear to clear the directions from the map.

Visualize incident status

As the incident unfolds, it is important for incident commanders to monitor response activities as they occur in real time. Typically, the county or state Emergency Operations Center displays the incident status on a big screen so all command staff can monitor events and make informed decisions.

In this workflow, you will assume the role of the incident command personnel responsible for monitoring the status of the incident and emergency response activities.

Monitor incident status

The Incident Status Dashboard can be used by emergency management staff to monitor response activities in the Emergency Operations Center and measure progress toward the incident objectives.

To monitor the status of an incident, complete the following steps:

1. In a browser, from the Emergency Management Operations solution, view the Incident Status Dashboard app.

   Note:

   The Incident Status Dashboard is designed to be a passive dashboard, meaning no interaction is necessary since it typically will be viewed on a big screen in the Emergency Operations Center.

2. Review the number of Active Incidents and Weather Warnings on the left side of the dashboard. As the active incidents increase, so does the demand on resources.
3. Review the number of Open Shelters and Shelter Occupancy on the right side of the dashboard. Each green symbol on the map indicates both the location and status of shelters. Closed shelters will appear in red. As the shelter occupancy increases past 75 percent, the gauge will turn red, indicating additional shelters will need to be opened to meet the demand.
4. Review the indicators at the bottom of the screen.
   • MRPs Deployed indicates the number of Mission Ready Packages that have been assigned or deployed. An MRP type describes a specific capability that has been developed, trained, and equipped to respond to a unique incident or situation.
   • Road Closures indicates the number of road closures within the current map extent.
   • PODs indicate the number of Points of Distribution where public safety agencies can distribute critical supplies to the public.
5. After you are done reviewing the information, close the Incident Status Dashboard.

Brief key stakeholders

During an incident, emergency management personnel must provide key decision makers with accurate and current information that communicates the scope of the emergency incident, the status of operational response, and resource availability. Using digital maps to brief key stakeholders ensures clear communication across all command levels and enables effective executive-level decision-making.

In this workflow, you will play the role of the incident command staff who is responsible for conducting the incident briefing. The briefing is conducted using a series of interactive apps in the Incident Briefing app.

To brief key stakeholders during an incident, complete the following steps:

1. In a browser, from the Emergency Management Operations solution, view the Incident Briefing app.
2. Review information in the Introduction tab to see how the briefing app can be used.
3. Click the Situational Awareness tab to see active incidents and warnings.

   Note:

   The Situational Awareness app is embedded in the Incident Briefing app to provide an interactive map showing the status of the incident. You can select an active incident to show the current situation and impact to the community.

4. Click the Operations Response tab to see current emergency response activities.

   Note:

   Questions often arise during an incident briefing such as how many teams are currently deployed or how many roads are closed. Because the Operations Response is embedded in the Incident Briefing app, questions such as this can be quickly answered with current information.

5. Click the Incident Status tab to see the overall picture of the current situation.
6. Close the Incident Briefing app when done reviewing.

Locate incident information

Citizens need access to information before, during, and after an incident to assess their personal risk and determine when to act. The Emergency Response site and Public Information app can be used by the public to review authoritative information and understand the status of an incident or event.

In this workflow, you will assume the role of a resident or member of the public that is interested in obtaining information about a current incident and volunteering to help if your skills are needed.

Find an open shelter

Follow the steps below to learn more about the incident and locate an open shelter:

1. In a browser, from the Emergency Management Operations solution, view the Emergency Response site.
2. Scroll to the Emergency Map and click Launch app to open the Public Information app.
3. In the Public Information pane, drag and use the buffer distance slider to set a distance of 3 miles.

   The slider allows a user to define a distance once an address is entered or a location is identified on the map.

4. In the Public Information pane under Search for an address or locate on map, search for an address.
5. Click the Expand All button to review all the incident information near the specified address.
6. Scroll down the list of incident information to review the local incidents, evacuation notices, and weather warnings.
7. Click Open Shelter to review additional information about the selected shelter.
8. Close the Public Information app when you are done reviewing the incident information.

Volunteer to help

Follow the steps below to volunteer to help during an emergency incident.

1. In a browser, from the Emergency Management Operations solution, view the Emergency Response site.
2. Scroll to the Volunteer to help section.
3. Click the Volunteer button.
4. Complete the survey and click Submit.

Produce emergency maps

Often, field support personnel don’t have access to the internet or real-time maps on devices during an emergency incident. Therefore, it may be necessary to produce paper maps of the current situation quickly. Emergency Management Maps can be used by emergency management mapping technicians to update the data sources with local incident data, share maps and data, and create standard hard copy briefing and response maps.

In this workflow, you will assume the role of a mapping technician supporting an emergency incident.

Configure a project

Emergency Management Maps is an ArcGIS Pro project used by mapping technicians to create a standard set of briefing and response maps. It can be used to update source data for the current incident which can be used in the other apps that are part of the Emergency Management Operations solution.

Follow the steps below to configure the Emergency Management Maps project.

1. In a browser, sign in to your ArcGIS Online organization, and then click My Contents.
2. Locate the Emergency Management Operations folder.
3. Download the Emergency Management Maps desktop application template.
4. Start the ArcGIS Pro application and open the project package from the active portal.
5. On the View tab, in the Windows group, click Catalog, and click Catalog Pane.
6. In the Catalog pane, expand the Using your data task group.
7. Click the Update data sources task and follow the instructions to update the ArcGIS Pro project to reference hosted feature layers.
8. Click the Append your data task and follow the instructions to add your data to the existing data schemas provided with the project.
9. Click the Use existing geodatabase task and follow the instructions to source layers with your data or published web layers.
10. Click the Use Esri Demographic data task and follow the instructions to use data included in ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World.

Share incident maps

Some situations require sharing data and maps with other people within the organization. After you resource the data in the previous workflow, you can share layers and maps with your data. You can also share the desktop application template with other mapping technicians.

Follow the steps below to share an incident map.

1. In the tasks panel, expand the Share with your organization task group.
2. Click Share Layers and follow the task instructions to publish your data as a web layer.
3. Click Remap layer to use published layers to replace layers in the project with the new published layers.
4. Click Share maps to share the maps as web maps with your organization after referencing web layers in the project maps.
5. Click Create Shared Map Package to create a map package that can be shared with other people in your organization to edit data and create map books.

Create a map book

One way to deliver standard hard copy briefing and response maps to field personnel is in the form of a map book. The map book can be either a series of the same map with individual pages covering the geographic extent of the incident or a collection of different maps with the same extent.

Follow the steps below to create an incident map book.

1. In the tasks panel, expand the Create map books task group.
2. Click Create a field reference map series and follow the task instructions to create a map series with pages of different extents of the same map.
3. Click Create an incident map book and follow the task instructions to create an incident map book with different maps of the same extent.
Emergency Management Maps contains several layouts that will be used to create the incident map book in PDF format so that you can print the map book or send it by email.

Archive an incident

After the incident or event is over and operational features in the map are ready to be archived, the Operations Response app can be used to update the active incident flag and archive incident data quickly and efficiently. When you archive an incident, the features are no longer visible in the app but will continue to be stored in the associated feature layers. This allows you to manage multiple incidents from a single app and allows you to access your archived data from the associated feature layers for after-action analysis or reporting.

Follow the steps below to archive incident data and prepare for the next event.

1. In a browser, from the Emergency Management Operations solution, view the Operations Response app.
2. Click the Archive Incidents widget to view the operational layers available to be archived.
3. Check the check boxes next to the layers to be archived.
4. Click one of the Drawing tools, and then select the features on the map.
5. From the Active Incident drop-down list, choose No, and then click Save.
6. Close the Operations Response app.