UICDS Update: Learn all about NLE 11 information sharing

UICDS Update

NLE 11 Technology Showcase Review

May 23, 2011

UICDS NLE 11 Technology Showcase Featured on the UICDS Tutorial and Biweekly Call - Thursday May 25 at Noon ET UICDS Logo

Learn all about the UICDS NLE 11 Technology Showcase from the participants on our regular biweekly tutorial and call. We will summarize the architecture, information sources, and information sharing that took place parallel to the National Level Exercise 2011, a simulated earthquake on the New Madrid Fault in the Midwest.

Employing several UICDS deployments, including a UICDS deployment to the Cloud, the UICDS NLE 11 Technology Showcase showed the scalability of the UICDS peer-to-peer architecture and the accessibility of many information technologies to the UICDS middleware. Sharing occurred among cores located from coast-to-coast and among governments, private sector organizations, and non-governmental agencies. So join in the call at noon on Thursday by calling 800-366-7242 and using code 735108.

A UICDS NLE 11 Information Sharing Case Study

If you have been following UICDS, you've heard that "It's all about collaborative content." Information sharing technologies are only as valuable as the content they deliver.

In the UICDS NLE 11 case study summarized below, you will see how the interaction of previously isolated data turns into valuable information through UICDS.

So follow the path below as alerts become incidents which are shared with their map location that results in tracking of response vehicles and the modeling of a toxic plume that requires new staging locations for a response vehicle and finally sharing of mobile phone images of the scene and the continuing deployment of other resources. This is a composite of activities that took place among several pilots, all shared through UICDS to produce comprehensive shared content to support decisions made collaboratively among responding agencies.

Please click on each graphic below to view a larger image.

Monitoring the NLE 11 Exercise and Producing CAP Alert Messages

NC4's External Situational Awareness (ESA) was used to capture information generated by the NLE 11 exercise and produce Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) standard messages.

Significant Alerts Elevated to Incidents

The U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) UICDS Core consumed ESA CAP messages (left panel above) and elevated significant ones to become UICDS incidents (right panel). In this case a Hazardous Materials spill is shared among UICDS Cores.

Ammonia Release into the Air Incident First Reported as a Point on a Map

The ammonia spill incident carries with it the CAP message location information. Shown above is an ESRI Flex Viewer that consumes UICDS incidents. The location and brief description of the ammonia spill is indicated by the pop-up window.

Police Command Vehicles is On the Move Leading Protective Deployment

First on the move is the Police command vehicle (CMD) heading south on I-240, tracked by GPS in Dragon Force and shared through UICDS as Sensor Observations.

Police Deployed for Spill Traffic Control Based on Original Reported Location

Police Units Deployed for Spill Traffic Control

Now we see the full deployment of police vehicles (HH1, HH2, HH3 and CMD), again tracked by GPS through Dragon Force, shared to UICDS, and shared to all other subscribing applications, in this case, Google Earth.

Police Forces Redeployed for Officer Safety Based on Plume Footprint

When the ALOHA plume is shared through UICDS as shown on Google Earth, it became clear to those operating the Blue Force Tracking tool from Draknotas that one unit (Police HH2) had been dispatched into the area of potential ammonia contamination.

Other Resources Committed with EDXL-RM for Earthquake Response

In other NLE 11 simulated incidents, the Emergency Data Exchange Language-Resource Messaging (EDXL-RM) standard allowed applications to request and commit resources. Here we see committed resources from the Federal Government shared by UICDS to applications, including this ESRI Flex Viewer.

Local Forces Become Information Sources

The Incident Management Decision Support System from ElanTech not only consumed incidents from many applications through UICDS but also was used to create incidents to share with UICDS, here a dormatory collapse at Murray State University caused by the earthquake.

CAP Alert Contains Location

Part of the CAP standard calls for providing location information (latitude and longitude points or areas) about the location of the alert. Shown here is NC4's ESA locating an alert on the Risk Center map.

Applications Share Incidents for Common View

Incident management applications, shown here is WebEOC, consume incidents from UICDS as well as provide incidents to UICDS for sharing among other applications. Here the Hazardous Materials incident turns out to be an ammonia release into the air, shown as an Open incident.

Police Get Word of the Release and Their Response is Seen on Blue Force Tracking

Drakontas' Dragon Force Blue Force Tracking application shows Police cars with GPS that are constantly reporting their location. Responding units are associated with the incident response. Their locations are shared with other applications through UICDS.

Blue Force Tracking Shares Original Location of Police Force at Time of Spill

Here is where some key police resources were located based on GPS at the time of the spill as provided to UICDS by Draknotas' Dragon Force and shared to other connected applications, in this case Google Earth.

ALOHA Plume Shared Through UICDS Raises Questions About Deployment

One application receiving spill information from UICDS in NLE 11 was a (simulated) environmental agency or hazmat unit which proceeds to use the ALOHA plume from the U.S. EPA to model the airborne effects of the release, shown above.

New Police Deployment Provides Traffic Control at Safe Margin Around Possible Plume

Able to see the location of the plume because it was shared through UICDS, police can redeploy HH2. The unit's movement out of the possible release area is tracked by GPS in Dragon Force and shared through UICDS.

UICDS Brings Together NGO and Public Response Resources

Direct Relief International distributes donated medical and pharmaceutical supplies. DRI identified needed supplies from UICDS incidents and then staged a response using their SAP logistics system by providing EDXL-RM Commit Resource messages through UICDS, here seen on the DRI ESRI Flex Viewer.

Mobile Phone Damage Photos Shared Through UICDS

IMDSSMobile from ElanTech provided images from the dormitory collapse showing damages and the associated response activities. These were shared through UICDS to connected and authorized applications.

The Bottom Line on UICDS ... Common Operational Data

Remember, "It's all about collaborative content."

UICDS is Common Operational Data. No matter what the source application, using recognized standards UICDS can collect and share data among authorized and authenticated applications in a one-to-many, two-way exchange that assures collaboration about the important content of an incident.

In the illustrations above taken from NLE 11, there are examples of sharing from application to application. Not just a pretty picture but genuine collaboration ... to distill from many alerts the key incidents to share ... to protect police from potential hazards ... to get the right resources in place ... to track those resources with GPS sensors ... to get the best information from the field ... and to share it among applications around a city or across the country. Information sharing technologies are only as valuable as the content they deliver. UICDS is the source of that collaborative content with which all applications can interact to improve incident management.

Become a UICDS Pilot - Join Information Sharing from DHS

Tired of watching and want to get involved? Are you a government agency that knows you shoud share information better? Critical infrastructure owner/operator in need of coordination with governments? Technology provider who wants to better serve emergency management and response organizations?

Are you ready to become a UICDS Pilot? A answer a few questions to apply to be a UICDS Pilot.