EAGER: US-Ignite: Creation of Situational Awareness for Emergency Response and Management Using Next Generation Gigabit Communication Systems

Rochester Institute Of Tech, Rochester NY

Investigators

Abstract

This US Ignite project aims to develop and demonstrate the integration and distribution of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) maps and Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) type imaging in support of emergency management. A major stumbling block for successful response and recovery in the event of an emergency is the lack of actionable, timely and reliable information flows between the regional emergency management office (EMO) to the incident command (IC) and then to incident responders in the field and from the IC to the EMO. There are multiple informational flows between these coordinating entities and stakeholders such as utility crews, transportation managers, health services and the like. Emergency response benefits from having all parties aware of the "ground truth" associated with the incident. Because of large data set sizes, current disaster response relies on pre-generated static maps with overlaid physical notations. There is a lack of real-time method to integrate data, particularly high density GIS and image applications for emergency response needs. This project shows the value of high-bandwidth communications in emergencies. The project combines GIS maps and LIDAR imagery and transmits the combined data to public safety offices via on-demand, Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI)-provided Software Defined Network (SDN) connections for performance and authorization reasons. Several public safety training exercises using the enhanced data will provide demonstrations of the system's usefulness.