Use Watch Center

The Watch Center delivers a set of capabilities that help you monitor real-time all-hazard events in and around places of interest and share essential information with stakeholders.

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

Note:

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

Monitor alerts in watch areas

With a wide range of real-time data sources for threats and hazards, it can be a challenge to streamline and prioritize monitoring of potential risk events. Creating a dataset of geographic areas of interest, maintaining authoritative contact information for jurisdictions and facilities, and filtering open-source information by event type and priority level all help provide a focused and relevant set of alerts to staff in a watch center.

Designate watch areas

Whether an organization needs to monitor areas surrounding specific facilities or within a political boundary such as an area of jurisdiction, an authoritative inventory of watch areas ensures notification of appropriate points of contact and keeps open-source threat and hazard data feeds geographically relevant.

In this workflow, you will assume the role of a watch officer who wants to create and update the organizational locations that are being monitored for threats and hazards.

1. In a browser, sign in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Watch Center app.
2. From the item page, click View.
3. Click the Edit Watch Areas tab at the top of the app.
4. Click Location Points or Location Polygons in the editor.
5. Complete the feature details and click Create.
6. On the left side of the app, view lists of current point locations and polygon locations.
7. To update or delete a watch area, click points or polygons in the list or the map, modify information, and click Update.

Note:

Additions, deletions, and updates to watch areas do not take effect immediately. Watch areas are updated during each scheduled run of the Create Watch Areas big data analytic in ArcGIS Velocity. By default, this analytic is recommended to be scheduled to run once per hour; therefore, any changes made to watch areas will take effect a maximum of one hour after the change is made.

Monitor alerts

Maintaining situational awareness around watch areas includes monitoring consolidated real-time event feeds, which allows watch officers to identify and prioritize threats and hazards more efficiently.

In this workflow, you will assume the role of a watch officer who wants to view alert trends and review a detailed list of alerts in their watch area.

1. In a browser, sign in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Watch Center app.
2. From the item page, click View.
3. Click the Review Stats tab at the top of the app.
4. Review the increasing and decreasing trends of alerts in the past 24 hours.
The statistics shown on this page can be configured to meet your organizational needs. Learn more about configuring the Watch Center Review Stats page.
5. Click the Monitor Alerts tab at the top of the app.
6. Review the Alerts list section for recent alerts. Click an alert to view details, source information, and its location on the map.
7. At the top right of the dashboard, click the Timeframe filter to refine the results for a specific time window.

   This filter contains time windows for the last hour, the last four hours, today, and the last 24 hours.

8. In the top left column of the dashboard, click the Priority types in the table to filter alerts by priority.

   Note:

   Dashboard charts and tables are linked. If you click a record in either the Priority table or the Watch area, Type, or Source tables, related details are filtered and updated in other elements in the dashboard.

9. At the bottom of the dashboard, click the Watch area tab, and select different watch areas to filter and view only the alerts for that area.
10. To dismiss an alert that is not relevant, click the record from the Alerts list.

    A pop-up appears on the map.

11. In the pop-up click Edit, then click Save.

Understand risk and report on events

Understanding risk and reporting on events of concern is crucial because it allows organizations to identify potential threats, vulnerabilities, and hazards that could impact their operations or stakeholders. By proactively evaluating risk events and promptly reporting on alerts of interest, organizations can take appropriate measures to mitigate risks, ensure the safety of individuals, and protect their assets.

Create watch reports

When an alert is of interest to stakeholders, the watch officer can generate a watch report using the information in the alert and create a dataset of events that pose risk to the organization.

In this workflow, you will assume the role of a watch officer who wants to create a watch report for an alert of interest.

1. In a browser, sign in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Watch Center app.
2. From the item page, click View.
3. Click the Monitor Alerts tab at the top of the app.
4. Click an alert in the Alerts list, and then at the bottom of the list element, click the Create watch report from alert tab.
5. Review the information automatically populated in the form. Modify or add additional information as needed, and click the Submit button.

Manage watch reports

As events unfold, it is important to update reports to include the latest information and maintain authoritative data throughout the duration of a report. Once a report is no longer active or relevant, its status should also be updated to reflect that change.

In this workflow, you will assume the role of a watch officer who wants to update information and status of watch reports.

1. In a browser, verify that you are signed in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Watch Center app.
2. From the item page, click View.
3. Click the Manage Reports tab at the top of the app.
4. Click the Watch Reports button to view all current reports.
5. To edit the details of an existing watch report, select the record in the Reports list, and click the Edit button.
6. Change the status field to Inactive. Inactive watch reports do not appear on the Watch Reports dashboard.
7. Make any additional necessary changes to the watch report, and click Update.
8. Click off of the widget to close the edit form.

Create manual watch report

Sometimes an alert or event is reported by internal organizational channels, such as a phone call, rather than through open data sources. The watch officer can manually create a watch report based on information received from within their organization.

In this workflow, you will assume the role of a watch officer who wants to manually create a watch report from internally reported information.

1. In a browser, verify that you are signed in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Watch Center app.
2. From the item page, click View.
3. Click the Manage Reports tab at the top of the app.
4. Click the New Report button.
5. Select Reports in the Editor panel and choose the report location on the map.
6. Complete the feature details and click Create.

   Note:

   Custom watch reports created using the editor will not automatically join to the watch area attributes such as watch area name and point of contact. This information should be filled out manually.

View and share watch reports

To help internal stakeholders and decision makers understand the risks to their organization in near real-time, sharing watch reports and reviewing all current active reports becomes an important step in planning response activities. Stakeholders rely on the assessment and timely reporting from the watch officer to provide prioritization and context for various threat and hazard feeds.

Email watch reports to stakeholders

When an event occurs that may pose risk to an organization, watch officers need to quickly those in the organization who may be affected or may need to act to address the risk. Most commonly, this notification process occurs in an email.

In this workflow, you will assume the role of a watch officer who wants to share reports to watch area points of contact and other internal stakeholders.

1. In a browser, verify that you are signed in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Watch Center app.
2. From the item page, click View.
3. Click the Manage Reports tab at the top of the app.
4. Select a watch report on the map. Alternatively, select a record in the Watch Reports list. Review the information in the lower left panel of the app.
5. Click the Email Watch Report button to open a new email in your default email client containing automatically populated details of the watch report.
6. In the Watch Center app, on the Manage Reports page, click the Contacts button to open a table with watch area points-of-contact (POCs). Optionally, click the Other contacts tab to view contact information for other stakeholders and organizational POCs. Copy and paste any additional relevant contact email addresses into the email client.

View active watch reports

To respond efficiently, stakeholders and decision makers responsible for response functions proactively review watch reports rather than wait for notifications from a watch officer.

In this workflow, you will assume the role of an internal stakeholder who wants to review active watch reports to understand current risk to their organization.

1. In a browser, sign in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Watch Reports dashboard.
2. From the item page, click View.
3. Review the Active watch reports list section for recent alerts. Click an alert to view details, source information, and its location on the map.
4. At the top right of the dashboard, click the Timeframe filter to refine the results for a specific time window.

   This filter contains time windows for the last hour, the last four hours, today, and the last 24 hours.

5. In the top left column of the dashboard, click the Priority types in the table to filter alerts by priority.

   Note:

   Dashboard charts and tables are linked. If you click a record in either the Priority table or the Watch area or Type tables, related details are filtered and updated in other elements in the dashboard.

6. At the bottom of the dashboard, click the Watch area tab, and select different watch areas to filter and view only the alerts for that area. Click the Type tab to filter and view alerts by type.
7. Optionally, select a watch report from the Active watch reports list section or in the map. Click the Email Watch Report button in the pop-up to email the report to other stakeholders.

Review watch reports by email

When a watch officer issues a report about a threat or hazard that may impact an organization, stakeholders need to review that information immediately and be able to understand the location and possible impact of the reported event.

In this workflow, you will assume the role of an internal stakeholder who wants to review a watch report received by email to gain situational awareness about that particular report.

1. In your default email application, open the report email and review basic details.
2. Click the link to go to the Watch Reports dashboard, which opens to the report and displays additional details and map location.

   This will open the report, display additional details and the map location which allows internal stakeholders to make informed decisions.