Abstract: (204 words)

During the 1997 Red River flood paper maps normally used to locate victims needing emergency evacuation became virtually useless. The murky flood waters obliterated most navigational landmarks. Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) staff employed a Geographic Information System (GIS) to help the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG), Manitoba Natural Resources (MNR), the Armed Forces and the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) locate victims and provide accurate and timely navigational coordinates for emergency evacuation. Laptop computers loaded with existing PFRA databases, ESRI's ArcView 3.0 and several external datasets provided portable and real-time spatial information.

The WGTPP-developed quarter section point file was the backbone of the PFRA emergency response system. Using ArcView to view this spatial data, field staff were able to quickly convert legal land locations (quarter-section-township-range or river lot description) to geographic coordinates. The geographic coordinates were then input to GPS for use on-board rescue craft. All coordinates supplied to rescue crews were accurate to within 10 metres. Five GIS stations were positioned throughout the flood zone. All agencies quickly recognized the potential for using GIS in other aspects of flood relief and ArcView was quickly customized to track emergency response crews to map floating and submerged obstructions and to map the locations of remaining residents.

Author Biography: Troy Riche has been with the PFRA GIS Unit since March 1995. He possesses a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physical Geography from the University of Regina.

INTRODUCTION

Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) staff utilized Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in multiple ways to support the 1997 Manitoba Red River Flood Relief Effort (April 22 to May 10, 1997). PFRA as a branch of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada was asked by Emergency Planning to map resident and livestock concentrations for potential evacuation planning. Once the capabilities of GIS were demonstrated and recognized, the focus of GIS quickly changed to emergency response. As the crisis subsided, GIS was used to monitor the return of flood victims to their homes. The success of using GIS in the emergency response system is attributable to the ability of talented PFRA staff to adapt and augment existing PFRA data in a timely manner. Existing datasets provided the spatial referencing necessary to locate flood victims in the flood zone (Figure 1). PFRA staff with diverse backgrounds in geography, agriculture and computers were able to quickly customize GIS software which provided field emergency response crews of Manitoba Natural Resources (MNR), Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Canadian Coast Guard (CCG), Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), and Canadian Forces (Army and Navy) with the ability to locate and rescue flood victims.

MAP PRODUCTION

On April 22, 1997 PFRA's initial task was to map resident and livestock concentrations within the flood zone. The maps provided the basis for evacuation planning, by indicating areas where emergency feed was needed and where livestock mortality and subsequent disease might be high. These maps were required for an Emergency Planning Meeting on April 24, 1997.

The PFRA Western Grain Transition Payment Program (WGTPP) Point File and its PFL (PFRA Locator a standard for identifying land parcels within the PFRA area) provided geographic locations for 18,300 quarter-section points within the potential flood zone. To provide the level of mapping detail necessary, existing data had to be augmented with information acquired from the Manitoba Pork Producers, Manitoba Agriculture, Manitoba Poultry Association, Manitoba Water Resources, Keystone Agricultural Producers, and the Western Grain Transition Payments Program. To be useful for emergency planning, these data sets were acquired and manipulated in a forty-eight hour time frame. All tabular data had PFL's added to allow it to be represented spatially in the GIS.

Other data sources utilized in producing maps included the PFRA WGTPP land cover, National Topographic Survey (NTS) base map themes (road, rail, buildings, structures, and towns) from Geomatics Canada , 1:20 000 Basemaps from Linnet Geomatics, and RADARSAT satellite imagery from RADARSAT International and The Canadian Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS). The Imagery was processed by the Manitoba Centre for Remote Sensing (MCRS) and Vantage Point International (VPI). Hard copy maps (Figure 2) were produced within forty-eight hours and were distributed to the agencies involved in flood efforts.

EMERGENCY RESPONSE

PFRA's Emergency Response encompassed 19 days, by day 3 (April 24, 1997), as Red River flood waters continued to rise, paper maps for navigation became useless as water covered landmarks (Figure 3). GIS field staff, who had been dispatched to Morris (MNR), Selkirk (CCG), Aviation Navigation School (Navy), Kap Yong (Army)and University of Manitoba Campus (DFO) early in the crisis, were able to demonstrate that GIS was a real-time solution to the location problem. All the data collected for the Map Production task was now used to assist in the emergency response. The WGTPP quarter-section point file, which was the backbone of the system, was created for an agricultural purpose and was quickly adapted for the flood relief effort.

A PFRA data support network was established to provide data, equipment and staff [()indicates number ]:

Data Support

- GIS Unit, Regina, Sk. (4)

- PFRA - Winnipeg, Mb.(4)

Field Staff

- GIS Unit, Regina, Sk. (4)

- PFRA-Edmonton, Ab. (1)

- PFRA-Red Deer, Ab. (1)

- PFRA-Rosetown, Sk. (1)

- PFRA-Winnipeg, Mb. (4)

- PFRA-Beausejour, Mb. (1)

Equipment

- All PFRA regions (10 Laptops, 5 Plotters)

The general public were instructed to call specific phone numbers if they were stranded or needed emergency help. When a call came in on an emergency line, the GIS operator on call could immediately transform the verbally-given legal land location (usually in quarter-section-township-range-meridian or river lot) into a precise geographic coordinate for use in a Global Positioning System (GPS). A radio dispatcher would quickly relay the geographic coordinate to the closest GPS-equipped emergency response vehicle (helicopter or boat) . Rescue response time was generally within a half hour depending on weather conditions.

Constraints Involved in Emergency Response

In order for PFRA staff and Emergency Measures Organizations to deliver an accurate and effective method for Emergency Response several crucial constraints had to be overcome.

Coordinate Systems

The geographic coordinate for use in the GPS had to take different forms depending on which organization was using the data:

Canadian Armed Forces (Army and Navy) - northings and eastings (Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) system)

Manitoba Natural Resources - decimal degrees (Latitude and Longitude)

Canadian Coast Guard - degrees-minutes-seconds (Latitude and Longitude)

Department of Fisheries and Oceans - degrees-minutes-seconds (Latitude and Longitude)

Emergency Medical Services - degrees-minutes-decimal minutes (Latitude and Longitude)

Rapid location conversions was made possible by Avenue scripts. Avenue is an object orientated programming language which allows customization of ArcView. These scripts summarized multiple commands into a single ArcView button click that allowed operators to do real-time coordinate conversions. Additional Avenue scripts were written as needs arose from emergency measures organizations.

Data Distribution

The most current version of our data needed too be distributed to field staff at each of the five base stations. As data was continuously updated, a daily delivery of data was required. CD-ROMs were burnt each day with data sets in the range of 500 megabytes and helicopters delivered the data in a timely fashion.

Weather

Several days of wind and rain hampered all missions delivering people or data to required destinations.

Adverse Working Conditions

Seventeen hour days were not uncommon among all people involved in the Flood Relief Effort. In areas of the Flood Zone with no vehicle access, 24 hour shifts were inevitable. Sleep was had during slow hours of the night, generally on a hard floor only metres from a laptop and phone.

Time

All data, maps, scripts, location queries and personnel were in place and functional within 7 days of the first contact with Emergency Planning. The GIS was kept in operation until the flood waters began to subside on May 10, 1997.

Each constraint was overcome and the developed solutions contributed to the success of flood response effort.

MONITORING

Environmental hazards monitoring became important early in the Flood Response. As fuel and propane tanks became suspended by rising flood waters they drifted downstream. When foreign objects were discovered a GPS coordinate was entered and returned to a GIS Operator. Emergency measures people were dispatched to secure the object. Maps were created of all potential environmental hazards and provided to Manitoba Environment for post-flood cleanup.
Manitoba Natural Resources found it necessary to log the activity of residents as they returned into the flood zone to check their property (Figure 4) and livestock. The 1997 Flood Zone Access Control Program was developed and GIS played an integral role. Residents requesting permission to return to their property were given a numbered access pass and were required to log their intended destination (legal land location) and return time. This tabular data was fed into the GIS and maps were given to rescue crews. Search crews were sent looking for residents that did not check back in at the stated time.

The Canadian Coast Guard and the Department of Fisheries and Ocean suggested that tracking emergency response crews during rescue or investigation missions would be very useful as both preventative and time-saving measures. Rescue crews on day or night missions were required to make radio contact every ten minutes to relay their geographic location from on-board GPS. The rescue vehicle's course was plotted on the GIS and navigational assistance was relayed back to the crew. This assistance allowed the rescue crews to travel at the fastest, safest speed while avoiding submerged obstructions such as railway tracks, roads, and fences. While on missions, rescue crews could locate floating or submerged obstacles and relay the GPS coordinates back to the GIS operator (Figure 5). These obstacles could be added to the GIS database for the benefit of future missions in that area. Typically the obstacles located by the rescue crews were things that weren't already in the GIS database such as trees, cars and power poles. Locations of residential properties were also logged and data such as the condition of the local dike, number of residents remaining, means of escape and phone numbers were collected and mapped.

CONCLUSIONS

The use of GIS was considered to be a great success by all agencies involved in the flood relief effort. GIS were used initially in a general manner to map the concentrations of residents and livestock. As the potential of GIS was recognized, it was used to help locate and rescue flood victims. GIS was also used as a monitoring and tracking tool. The success of using GIS is attributable to available data, to adequate software and talented PFRA Staff. PFRA as a Federal Government Agency provided service to residents of Manitoba by assembling a TEAM of talented people who could perform well under such critical time constraints, adverse weather conditions and long working hours. The PFRA GIS Response to the 1997 Red River Flood is the first use of ESRI's Geographic Information System Software, in Canada, during a Natural Disaster of this type and magnitude.

Note: On October 6, 1997 the PFRA Flood Response Team was awarded the Agatha Bystrom Award for Leadership in Information Management. PFRA GIS Response to the 1997 Red River Flood for developing an innovative system to provide timely and accurate geographic information to emergency response personnel during the 1997 Red River Flood. By using data collected during the Western Grains Transition Payments Program, developing and refining data retrieval tools used with Geographic Information Systems to direct rescue crews using Global Positioning Systems and by doing so under critical time pressures.