IMPLEMENTATION PROJECT PLAN

DEVELOPMENT OF COMMON OPERATING PICTURE FOR EMERGENCY

MANAGEMENT AND HOMELAND SECURITY

Summary of the Project

To respond to the DHS NPG mission areas, priorities and capabilities, the development of
common operating picture based in geospatial technologies is envisioned as a unifying
foundation. The Kansas City region has made considerable investments in this area over
recent years and the recent development of a strategic plan for geospatial and data server
requirements has brought focus to the needs of the region. This project is designed to fill in the
pieces of puzzle to complete the foundational common operating picture for the region. Many
elements are working well, but often in stovepipes. Therefore, this project is seen as essential
to leverage and enhance the prior investments in a regional fashion to address the common
goals of prevention, protection, response and recovery. The project plan covers areas of data
collection, data accessibility and training and is presented in a phased approach in order to
allow for considerable flexibility based upon the funding allowances in the upcoming budget
year for this area of work.

Investment Areas Supported by this Project

This project is designed to support multiple investment areas. Key investments support areas
are as follows:
• Expand Regional Collaboration
• Implement NIMS
• NIPP/Critical Infrastructure
• Planning
• Interoperable Communications
• Information Sharing
• Training & Exercise

National Priorities Supported by the Project

• Expanded Regional Collaboration
• Implement the NIMS and NRP
• Implement the NIPP
• Strengthen Information Sharing and Collaboration
• Strengthen Interoperable Communications
• Catastrophic Planning

Target Capabilities Supported by this Project

• Planning
• Communications
• Risk Management
• Community Preparedness and Participation
 • Information Gathering and Recognition of Indicators and Warnings
• Intelligence Analysis and Production
• Intelligence/Information Sharing and Dissemination
• Critical Infrastructure Protection
• Restoration of Lifelines
• Economic and Community Recovery
• Onsite Incident Management
• Emergency Operations Center Management
• Critical Resource Logistics and Distribution
• Public Safety and Security Response
• Citizen Protection/Evacuation and/or In-place protection
• Emergency Public Information and Warning
• Mass Care (Sheltering, Feeding and Related Services)

Geographic and Demographic Area of this Project

This project is designed to encompass the entire area served by the Mid-America Regional
Council focused on the Kansas City metropolitan area and consisting of Leavenworth, Johnson,
and Wyandotte counties in Kansas; and Cass, Clay, Jackson, Platte, and Ray counties in
Missouri.

Project Approach
The proposed project will consist of three distinct phases, which may run sequentially or
simultaneously depending on resources and funding. The goal of this project is to create an
environment of mutual aid and collaboration with respect to leveraging technology for
emergency management and homeland security in the Kansas City region. The result of this
project will be a solid and functional prototype with scalability and flexibility encouraging
stakeholder involvement and effective usage. The phases include:

• Data collection
• Data accessibility
• Training

Data Collection
The first project phase will be focused on data collection. The region already has a
tremendous amount of data and the status of available data has been documented in the
data survey summary accomplished in the development of the Geospatial Strategic Plan
(Appendix A). However there are few layers for which a seamless layer exists for
regional use and planning to support emergency management and homeland security.
The data collection effort focuses on those layers that are most critical to these
functions. These include:

• Critical Infrastructure
 o Identify and map/collect facilities that are critical for the protection, housing,
and medical treatment of people (schools, hospitals, critical care facilities,
shelters, day cares, primary government buildings, fire/rescue stations, and
police stations)
o Identify and map/collect facilities providing basic services (water and sewer
treatment facilities, power plant and substations, bridges, and
cell/transmission towers)
o Identify and map/collect facilities that can be utilized as staging areas,
treatment centers, or evacuation centers (malls, stadiums, convention centers,
hotels, and landmarks)
• Master Addressing (completion and integration)
o Acquire existing local address databases
o Field data collection (new and verification of existing)
o Development of a verification and maintenance program
o Contribute to the completion and integration of street centerlines

• Natural Hazards
o Acquire and develop a regional compilation of the FEMA Digital Flood
Insurance Rate Maps
o Acquire and develop wildfire risk areas
• Hazardous Materials
o Complete the mapping of Tier II storage sites
o Obtain and incorporate the area DOT’s truck routing data
For the above referenced data collection effort, this project will leverage the investment
of the recent geospatial strategic plan project and the resultant data inventory.
Leveraging this effort will enable strategic collection of known data sets and minimize the
manual digitizing efforts to complete these regional layers.

Collecting the data alone does not present a sustainable solution to meeting the regional
needs and therefore the proposed data collection phase also includes:

• the establishment of minimum standards for the priority layers

• the assignment of data stewards
• the creation of a sustainable maintenance plan for each priority layer

The first step in developing these data layer is to develop standards the data.
Development of data standards are required to be NIMS compliant and to assist in
development interoperable communications. These standards will include collections,
conversion, data model, and data storage standards. These must be work out as the
initial step so that all partners and stakeholders can develop and share data efficiently
and effectively to build seamless, comprehensive data layers. It will be important to
develop region-wide naming and nomenclature standards for critical data layers based
on industry standards and HLS enterprise architecture standards. Applying
standardization to such things as file naming and the database fields will insure that data
collection, manipulation, and maintenance are uniform across the region. Other
important aspects of the standards are data accuracy, completeness, and attribution
requirements. The intention of this project is to establish minimum standards necessary
for the priority data layers and set a foundation for future standards development with
respect to geospatial data. To do this the project will focus on the following steps:

• Convene a data standards committee

• Develop standards for data development and sharing (data models,
nomenclature, data
types, accuracy, conversions, etc)
• Develop metadata standards

Knowing what data exists and critical information about that data (i.e. metadata) such as
when and how it was collected is a very important aspect of being able to use and
understanding the data. It is important to know the quality, scale, and age of the
geospatial before application and analysis in a real-time response event. Completion of
the region-wide inventory will reduce redundant data collection, promote proper use of
the existing data, and provide developing communities with the framework to build their
geospatial data. Each layer should have FGDC compliant metadata has well as
maintenance information and the anticipated use of each data set that identifies its
possible use to HLS. Developing an inventory that is highly accessibly to all regional
stakeholders, also known as a geographic network will allow users to search and find the
required data and understand quickly if it meets their needs.

Data Accessibility
The second phase will focus on the accessibility of the data collected. Data access will
be addressed via a number of methods including:

• Establishing a data warehouse server to support a stable, interim solution to

house the
comprehensive critical data layers described under Data Collection.
• Create a protected download environment for direct access to the
comprehensive critical data layers
• Develop Common Operating Picture/WebEOC user interface to provide
efficient and
readily available use of the base data for the region and the critical data sets
• Create web services to make the critical data layers accessible to other existing
systems used to support emergency management and homeland security in the
region.

Establish a Data Warehouse Server

There are many factors that will effect the appropriate location and management of a
data warehouse for the Kansas City region. These include, but are not limited to:
• Existing infrastructure
• Politics
• Support resources
• Integration requirements
Consideration will need to be given to all of these in greater detail into the future.
However, the intention of this project will be to leverage existing resources to implement
an interim solution for the region with respect to a data warehouse. Not only will this
interim solution provide a useable environment for homeland security and emergency
management, it will enable a learning process by which the decisions for the long term
solution can be made more effectively and with greater confidence. The most viable
interim solution for this effort will be to leverage the Data Access and Support Center
(DASC). Modest capital investments will be made to ensure this environment meets the
minimum standards for the project, but will be managed appropriately in light of the fact
that an alternate facility may present a more long term solution.

Create a Protected Download Environment

Most of the Kansas City region counties and jurisdictions have an FTP server
implementation, but it is limited to their own use. There is no centralized FTP
infrastructure that connects the members directly. FTP is viewed as an ideal electronic
mechanism for exchanging digital data and can be facilitated in a protected environment.

A centralized FTP server, would be implemented as part of the central data warehouse
infrastructure, and would be an easy and ideal solution to offer for designated members
of the Kansas City region. The centralized FTP server can then act as either a one-to-
one data exchange route or as a limited secondary data distribution

Develop COP/WebEOC User Interface

Communication during an emergency event can be as basic as having radio
communications that works between Fire & Rescue and Police from different
jurisdictions. However, when it come to using geospatial technologies to support the
common operating picture the capabilities that can be realized are tremendous. This
project envisions the creation of a common web interface accessible through WebEOC
with routine tools for navigation, query, display, print and download. The project will
leverage the investments made in the region with both the WebEOC ESRI based
products to deliver a user friendly and consistent interface for analysis and decision
support.

To accomplish this, the project will:

• Define the organizational structure for implementation management.
• Implement a phased system development methodology focused on the first phase
of a functional pilot system.

Create Web Services

As a companion to the online mapping tool, a web service can be created to facilitate
access from other systems as well that are employed during emergency operations. In
its simplest definition, a web service is a self-describing, self-contained, unit of
application that provides functionality to other applications through an Internet
connection. Other applications access the web service via ubiquitous web protocols and
data formats, such as HTTP and XML.

The web service’s main role is to serve data to other Internet client applications. The
programming capabilities are infinite. Key examples are:
 • Feed updated data automatically to other subscriber applications
• Serve data to portable devices via a SOAP interface
• Provide a programmatic and direct back-door entry to the central data warehouse
for other applications with specific requirements (high-security for an application
like TEW – Terrorist Early Warning system)
• Receive updated data in real-time.
• Integrate geospatial data import functionality in other web service aware
applications like ArcMap, Web EOC, and CATS

The capability of integrating the “right data” via a web service for compatible applications
like ArcMap, WebEOC, and CATS will allow similar functionally to ESRI’s Geography
Network. With this capability, emergency managers and all GIS users will have
seamless and transparent access to the data for real-time analysis.

Training
The final phase of the project will focus on training. It is essential for both the effective
use of the data provided as well as the data maintenance for the users to be trained on
the systems available and knowledge of the data accuracy. Specific training will be
provided for the new COP user interface, data download and web services. Training can
take on a variety of different forms, one being facilitation of information sharing between
the emergency management and the geospatial communities in the form of a geospatial
workshop series, inviting both emergency and GIS representatives to workshops to
review data requirements and possible application of geospatial systems for homeland
security and emergency management. However, more importantly, additional training for
the use of these systems will be structured in the form of a table top exercise. Using this
format the new tools can be tested in a simulated event. Being able to use the new tools
effectively in a real-time event is the true goal and this type of training will provide the
biggest benefit to the region and serve to fully engage the stakeholders from among both
the technical and subject matter expert communities. After action plans for each table
top exercise will be prepared to identify data gap needs and recommendations for
providing or collecting missing data.

To accomplish the goal of increasing GIS awareness and usage within the Homeland
Security communities the project will:

• Expand the existing MARC Public Safety and Emergency Services Outreach and
Training Plan to include the application of geospatial technology to address
homeland security and public safety needs
• Establish on-going GIS training for officials involved with homeland security and
emergency management-related activities
• Organize a semi-annual GIS workshop for homeland security and emergency
management agencies to improve technical skills and capabilities, enhance inter-
organizational communication, and facilitate the use of available data

Stakeholder Collaboration Process

Geospatial data exists in many locations and levels across the region but is often only identified
and used by one entity or jurisdiction. This project will engage stakeholders in a collaborative
process for the collection and management of emergency management related geospatial data.
Together a list will be compiled of these data sets at a regional level to support the common
operating picture. This initiative is straightforward but is very broad in participation and to be
successful must rely on jurisdictions and stakeholders to actively participate to compile this
information. A regional approach to data collection will be more cost effective then individual
jurisdictions compiling the data independently. MARC understands this and has experience in
serving in a collaboration leadership role with should past projects as the data collection in
support of the 911 systems development and currently is working on a regional aerial
photography effort. This project will leverage the relationships and trust established from those
efforts and furthers it with the development of data sharing agreements, mutual aid agreements
and collaboration with regional geospatial user groups and the academic community.

An additional aspect of stakeholder collaboration within this project is the intention for table top
exercises as a form of training on the use of the common operating picture interface. These
interactive sessions will provide for valuable data exchange to enhance the foundation
developed through this project and strengthen trust and interoperability throughout the region.

Anticipated Impacts of this Project

Accurate, comprehensive, and accessible geospatial information plays an important role in
protecting the public from natural and man-made threats. Geographic Information System (GIS)
technology and geospatial data can be used to address a number of emergency management
and homeland security-related issues. Specific examples include: the identification and
mapping of potential natural and human induced threats, the assessment of how vulnerable
people, buildings, infrastructure, and future development is to the damaging forces of natural or
human induced hazards, and the modeling and simulation of disaster scenarios. All of these
are intended to provide individuals with the type of information needed to make informed
decisions. Geospatial data can also provide decision makers a framework to allocate
emergency response and recovery resources more efficiently based on real-time analyses of
damages following an event.

For each of the critical data layers identified for this project, the impacts are addressed more
specifically below:

Critical infrastructure
Critical infrastructure can be used to describe much of the built environment around us
including utilities, government facilities, and roads. For the purpose of this project, we
will be referring to critical infrastructure as fixed facilities and buildings in the region. The
development of this layer supports several of the national priorities including implantation
of NIMS, NRP, NIPP, and strengthen information sharing and collaboration. The
information can also be used for catastrophic planning to analysis what critical
infrastructure will be affected by an incident The Critical Incident Site Management
System (CISM) developed locally, can benefit from data that will be developed as part of
this layer. CISMS has detailed information about each site including photos, floor plans,
site plans and other site specific information.

Master Addressing
A master addressing dataset is a critical layer for georeferencing of structures.
Addressing gives the recognizable address with a geospatial coordinate for visually
locating the address on the map. Development of a regional master address data layer
is critical in development of a NIMS compliant Common Operational Picture (COP) for
the region. This layer is critical for being able to relate the actual location of an incident
to all incident mangers and at all levels and functions.
 Existing street centerline data can be enhanced for emergency management with
additional attributes such as number of lanes, type of pavement, road widths, and
conditions. MARC is currently working with ESRI to build a data model for a multi-use
street centerline layer. These additional attributes can serve emergency management in
developing evacuations routes, re-routing of traffic for incidents, serve weather road
closure notifications, tracking of emergency personnel and resources, snow removal and
major event planning. Having an accessible comprehensive street centerline to share
will allow responder from other jurisdictions to easily navigate the region during an
incident.

Natural Hazard
A comprehensive risk data set can be built based on data layers of map-able hazards
such as 100-years floodplain areas, flash flood problem areas, high risk dam locations,
wild fires and can be expanded to risks such as transmission pipeline High
Consequence Areas (HCA). Developing these layers will allow communities to map at-
risk infrastructure and population sectors and prepare mitigation plans accordingly.

FEMA is the responsible developing the regulatory 100 year floodplain data and
distribute this data in hardcopy and digital formats that can be compiled into a regional
layer. Additional local flood prone areas can be added. Natural hazards do not follow
political boundaries so a regional effort to create seamless hazard layers makes the
most sense. Evacuation planning can be enhanced using this type of data by knowing
what population is at risk and what evacuation routes may not be available during an
event.

Hazardous Materials
Hazardous materials accidents are listed as one of the hazards facing the Kansas City
region. Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPC) deal specifically with hazardous
material response planning in the Kansas City region there are currently four committees
within the region. In managing and developing this data layer, it will be imperative to
involve the LEPCs. Though the storage of hazardous materials does not constitute a
CBRNE threat; it may require the same response in the case of an incident. Tier II
databases can serve as an excellent resource for integration with geospatial data sets
for safety and emergency management. This data can be linked to parcel and/or
address data to develop a comprehensive picture of hazardous materials within the
Kansas City region. Additionally, this data can be cross-referenced with licensed
businesses to make sure that all potential hazardous material users are mapped and to
locate the gaps. Collaboration with first responders and hospitals to alert them of the
possible chemicals incidents will be a benefit of the creation of this data layer. MARC
has begun to map the location of Tier II hazardous sites to support the update of the
region’s LEPC plan and this project would enhance and further that effort. In dealing with
a possible accident involving a chemical transport, many geospatial data layers would be
useful in planning and dealing with an incident starting with the street centerline for
alternate route development for traffic, evacuation, and emergency response; drainage
for possible flow path of liquid chemicals; parcel and census data for notification and
evacuation; aerial photography for visual referencing.

Ability of this Project to Decrease/Mitigate Risk

Geospatial information increases the capacity for risks to be assessed and prepared for, assets
to be positioned and managed, people to be warned, personnel to be deployed, damage to be
assessed, rescue efforts to be targeted and restoration activities to be tracked. Geospatial
technology allows for multiple sets of information to be intersected to correlate them and find
patterns that may lead to improved strategies for prevention, response, and mitigation.

Perhaps the most important role of geospatial information and geospatial technologies is that of
information integrator, providing both a canvas upon which to post information from a wide
variety of sources and the tools to combine it, visualize and make sense of it. In this way,
geospatial capabilities are a key component to decreasing or mitigating risk by providing the
common operating picture needed by emergency personnel so that everyone sees the whole
situation simultaneously and can develop an appropriate, coordinated response. In addition,
geospatial technology allows aspects of that common operating picture to be shared with the
media in order to prepare the public, keep them informed, and seek their assistance.

Homeland Security Risks of not executing this Project

There is no significant homeland security risk of not executing this project. However, the
inability to access or slow access to data presents serious challenges in all four primary DHS
mission areas of prevent, protect, respond and recover. The lack of a common operating
picture can result in inconsistent or conflicting perspectives during an emergency event.
Additionally, the lack of interoperability or data exchange can limit response times and even at
times prevent response from occurring due to lack of information regarding true response
requirements.

Potential Project Implementation Challenges

The potential implementation challenges for the project are fairly familiar ones. Obviously,
appropriate funding is a challenge. Given the multi-faceted nature of this project, it could easily
tangent into different areas of need.

Additionally, due to the numerous stakeholders that would be directly involved their will
undoubtedly be some political challenges as well. Simply the selected long term location for
the data warehouse or the selected data standards could become political issues.

Another challenge that is more specific to this project is the lack of active communication
between the subject matter experts and the geospatial sciences experts within the region.
This “disconnect” has permitted some divergence in perception of the most critical data and
system needs.

Finally, as the reliance on the geospatial data infrastructure increases there might be
limitations in the number of available and adequately trained resources to effectively
management the environment.

Risk Mitigation Plan for Anticipated Project Challenge

With respect to funding challenges, there are many methods to consider beyond Federal funds
to further the project objectives. These include:

• Leveraging use of national standards

• Academic partnerships
• Public-Private partnerships
 • Increasing level of ownership
These funding strategies are described further below.

The political and communication challenges will be largely addressed through the collaborative
process that will underpin this entire project. Bring critical stakeholders together to invest
personally in the solution and ensure their issues and needs are voiced in an open environment
will help to ensure these challenges are overcome.

Finally, with respect to resources, there are some additional risk mitigation steps that can be
implemented include:
Implementation steps to be considered include:

• List of GIS professionals that can provide support, include experience, availability and
contact information
• List of GIS resources available – laptops, licenses, printers etc.
• MOUs between city, county and states including involvement in the Emergency
Management Assistance Compact (EMAC)
• Investigation of Federal guidelines affecting resource sharing/management for emergency
response (http://www.emacweb.org)
• Open lines of communication with and coordinate with larger regional groups
Project Management Team
This project will be managed by MARC and the Regional Homeland Security Coordinating
Committee. An advisory board will be established with lead technical professionals for the
states, counties and jurisdictions identified as key stakeholders in the project.

Additional Funding Resources

As previously mentioned, there have been alternative, less tangible funding sources that have
been identified and can support this project effort. These are described in more detail below:

• Leveraging use of national standards – A significant benefit of standardization is the ability

to leverage off-the-shelf solutions at minimum cost. As the efforts of the Geospatial One-
Stop at the Federal level and adoption of industry standard data models for
water/wastewater and stormwater at the state and local levels are furthered, the nation
begins to realize the ability to go beyond data sharing into solution sharing. Stakeholders
in the region will be encouraged to be active in applicable steering committees at all levels
of government to not only be able to influence the direction of national standards for critical
infrastructure data sets, but to simply be aware of these directions so regional efforts can
be closely aligned. Building this knowledge directly into the implementation strategy for
geospatial data and data servers will lower the long term cost of achieving and sustaining
the desired goals.
• Academic partnerships - Through active involvement in advisory boards and other venues,
MARC and its members can proactively work to align academic research to their real-world
emergency management and homeland security needs. Universities often have access to
funding streams and philanthropic activities that public agencies and private companies
can not obtain.
 • Public-Private partnerships - With the growing demand for both data and software to
support some of the very needs described herein there is a market for investment.
Pointing back to the ability to leverage solutions developed on national data standards,
there is an opportunity to engage private corporations to cost-share in the development of
a new solution given there is a high potential for marketability of that solution beyond the
MARC region. Whereas, these partnerships may be more difficult to seek out and achieve,
they can be very rewarding to MARC in that the region directly benefits from leading
consulting and subject matter expertise at a slightly lower cost.
• Increasing level of ownership - As the MARC region progresses in the implementation of
this plan, there should remain significant focus on both consensus and assurance that
members of the region are fully invested in the strategic goals. Active involvement in terms
of time, people and money should be sought so that all members feel true ownership of the
results. Valuing the importance of ownership and the pride and responsibility that comes
along with it should not be underestimated. Even though funding limits may vary from year
to year to carry out specific initiatives, if the commitment is fostered and remains strong
success will undoubtedly be realized long term for the entire region.

High Level Timeline

Phase One and Two of this project, data collection and data accessibility respectively, can begin
simultaneously. Phase One is anticipated to range in duration from nine to twelve months
depending on factors such as availability of existing data, resources to input non-existent data
primarily.

Phase Two of this project would be estimated to range in duration from six to twelve months.
The factors most influencing this phase will be ability to leverage existing servers, the purchase
time for new equipment and/or software, and configuration of new infrastructure.

Phase Three is dependent on the conclusion of Phase Two but not Phase One, meaning that
additional data can still be in the process of collection or assimilation when training ensues so
long as enough data has been amassed in the interim data warehouse to support the designed
training exercises. The anticipated duration of Phase Three is three to six months primarily
dependent on availability and scheduling of trainers and trainees.

Duration of Overall Project Implementation

The duration of this entire project would be anticipated to be between twelve and twenty-four
months.

Project Budget
The follow budget estimates are provided for the three phases of the proposed project:

Data Collection
$550,000 - $850,000 (dependent on accuracy level requirements of critical data layers)

Breakdown:
Data
Critical Infrastructure $150,000 - $250,000
Master Addressing $200,000 - $300,000
Natural Hazards $50,000 - $100,000
Hazardous Materials $50,000 - $100,000
Establishment of Data Standards, Data Stewards, and Maintenance Plan $100,000
Data Accessibility
$350,000 - $600,000 (dependent on capital purchase requirements)

Breakdown:
Establish Data Warehouse $100,000 – 200,000
Create Protected Download Environment $50,000 – 100,000
Development COP/WebEOC Interface $150,000 – 200,000
Create Web Services $50,000 – 100,000

Training
$200,000 - $300,000 (Approximately $100,000 per training event)

Total Project Estimate is between $1,100,000 - $1,750,000