The California Earthquake Clearinghouse conducted the second of its planned six exercises employing Unified Incident Command and Decision Support (UICDS) as its information sharing middleware and SpotOnResponse as its mobile situational awareness and trusted crowd-sourcing application. 

The Clearinghouse took advantage of the opportunity of the 2012 Shakeout earthquake exercise to conduct a parallel technology showcase of information sharing and field operations.  

The Clearinghouse, acting on the decision of the California Emergency Management Agency to specify UICDS compliance in a recent incident management system procurement, has developed a multi-year and multi-exercise plan for implementing UICDS as the middleware for its information sharing and SpotOnResponse as its gateway application. 

The Clearinghouse was formed by five federal and state agencies to provide a location, real or virtual, after a damaging earthquake for engineers, geologists, seismologists, sociologists, economists, and other professionals who arrive in the affected area to share information with emergency managers.  The Clearinghouse facilitates the gathering of information, maximizes its availability, and better uses the talents of those present. "These experts have a wide range of knowledge and experience, and their observations in the field can add substantially to the information available to officials managing response and recovery operations." 

The application of UICDS and SpotOnResponse, two innovative technologies, now allows the Clearinghouse to create a "Virtual Clearinghouse" to serve the needs of geoscientists, engineers, and emergency managers in earthquake and tsunami events 

Below are highlights of how the Virtual Clearinghouse operated in the Shakeout exercise using UICDS for information sharing.   

Seismic Network Locates Earthquake and Shares Through UICDS 

Initial earthquake notification originate from the California Integrated Seismic Network, jointly operated by the U.S. Geological Survey, California Geological Survey, Cal Tech and University of California, Berkeley.  Shared through UICDS, non-scientists can see the epicenter and fault on any application, here using Google Maps.

Caltrans Traffic Sensors from FiRST Testbed Shared Through UICDS  

One of the early indicators of the extent of the earthquake are traffic sensors that show stoppages.  At the University of California, Santa Barbara, the California Department of Transportation is a supporter of the First Responder's System & Technologies (FiRST) Testbed which uses UICDS to monitor and distribute Caltrans traffic sensor data.  In Shakeout, FiRST simulated traffic flows affected by the earthquake.

Mobile Apps Allow Field Reports to Flow to EOCs Through UICDS 

This mobile app, SpotOnResponse, allows the professional team of public and private responders to be alerted to nearby incidents (red) and to provide field reports immediately, all of which are shared through UICDS to EOCs and critical lifeline infrastructure.

Field Reports Flow Through UICDS to All Connected Applications  

Here we see two field reports from SpotOnResponse (Damaged Rails and Building Evacuated) provided through UICDS to Google Earth or any other connected application with interest in field reports and permission to view them.  

USGS Field Notes Gives Geologists and Earth Scientists Reporting App

This mobile app by the U.S. Geological Survey allows earth scientists and geologists to record observations about earthquake fault ruptures, liquefaction, and landslides. In the hands of experts, the scientific calculations are dynamically entered and available on UICDS. 

Scientific Observations Made More Efficient Through UICDS Sharing

As earth scientists and geologists spread out following an earthquake using the USGS Field Notes mobile app, they report their observations and measurements to USGS. As they do, those reports are shared through UICDS to connected applications.  This allows other scientists, as well as emergency responders and critical infrastructure repair crews, to see the extent of damage and scientists to avoid wasted time in assessing previously reported areas.   

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Shares Satellite Imagery Analysis 

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, implemented a tool to use the analysis provided by the ARIA satellite, called Radar Deconfliction.  Radar Deconfliction is represented by the red locations that means between two radar satellite images there is a difference - which might mean a change in the landscape, for example, a loss of elevation that might mean a building collapse.  

Image Analysis Yields an Incident in UICDS to be Checked for Impact  

In Shakeout the California Geological Survey performed image analysis on the NASA Radar Deconfliction.  Putting the human in the loop lets someone distinguish between uninhabited areas from possible infrastructure losses.  The NASA APL tool identifies the location and allows entry of a note, "subsidence in parking lot," that points scientists and engineers to the location to investigate.    That information is transmitted through UICDS to local mobile devices of engineers who are part of the response team who are then able to investigate.

Satellite Image Analysis Enables Response Request Sharing

When mobile devices received the NASA satellite imagery analysis results from the California Geological Survey through UICDS during Shakeout, scientists and engineers had to decide how to respond. Using this location-based app, the location of the end-user allowed the app to determine their proximity to potential damage areas and, thus, point them to the nearest inspection site.  In Shakeout, the SpotOnResponse mobile app was a "gateway" for scientists and engineers to deeper investigation through the USGS Field Notes.

Earthquake Modeling from NASA JPL Helps Quickly Identify Vulnerable Infrastructure

The E-DECIDER program at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory incorporates a host of models that forecast the intensity of an earthquake.  In this view, the results of a model have been shared through UICDS to identify the epicenter and a 40 mile radius of potential damage. Within that area, E-DECIDER then queries the HAZUS data set, a national database of infrastructure, to identify what potentially vulnerable facilities exist - bridges, hazmat facilities, schools, healthcare facilities, and many more. These appear as icons on the map and can become the basis for further investigations and assessments, all of which are reported back through UICDS to other connected applications.

Great Upcoming Tutorials this Fall

Watch this spot for new tutorials planned for the fall ...

Mobile App Field Observations

Moving information from the field - especially from mobile apps - is a new frontier for emergency management.  But with the abundance of handheld devices today, and the advent of social media taking pictures and making postings throughout an incident, UICDS is leading the way on this new form of information sharing.  This tutorial focuses on field observations and the use of the Sensor Observation Service (SOS).  In short, "human sensors" provide an extraordinary view of an incident. Whether formally involved in data collection using a field investigation tool or informally involved in crowd-sourced data submitted by individuals, the UICDS SOS is the ideal place to store observations and associate them with incidents.  This tutorial will describe Best Practices for using the SOS format for all the updates provided by the "human sensors" in the field.

Getting the UICDS Accreditation:  ATO for DHS Networks and IATO for DOD Networks