Emergency Management Situational Awareness Portal Base Project

The City of Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management (OEM) coordinates emergency response between City department managers, utilities, and regional partners in response to large-scale emergencies, disasters, and planned events. City executives and department heads assemble at the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to map the extent of the problem, coordinate response, and track progress until services return to normal. The EOC also functions as a media center to share damage assessments and provide progress updates.

EBA designed and implemented a situational awareness portal to support monitoring of streaming data feeds from external and internal systems to incorporate real-time awareness into OEM event management and emergency response. Examples include call locations harvested from the City’s 311 Call Center, computer-aided dispatch (CAD) fire and ambulance call locations, fire and ambulance vehicle locations, SEPTA train and bus locations, the NOAA weather feed, and many more.

The ArcGIS GeoEvent Extension for Server was used to integrate data feeds to support streaming location updates in the map. EBA also developed a custom Android app to track the location of OEM staff deployed in the field and a custom Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS widget enabling staff in the EOC and in the field to collaboratively create, update, and view event statuses.

This system was deployed in time for the July 2016 Democratic National Convention and used to monitor the location of buses transporting convention delegates from their hotels to the convention center. It was later used during a SEPTA strike to track the location of chartered buses transporting city workers.

Discover how the City of Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management is using real-time GIS to manage emergencies and major events: click here