Leveraging your GIS as a Collaborative Platform

Forging Partnerships Across Government for True Community Resiliency & Homeland Security

—Rebecca Harned & Sandi Cone, National Alliance for Public Safety GIS Foundation

Lack of effective geospatial information access and sharing in the public safety & homeland security communities hinders effective decision making that has life safety implications. NAPSG Foundation is working to fill this capability gap by leveraging GIS as the collaborative platform. It has established 10 Regional Leadership Teams (RCTs) in FEMA regions. They hold public safety GIS workshops that serve to forge cross-discipline and cross-boundary partnerships to share data and establish a collaborative GIS environment. One case study is the Maryland (and NCR) Public Safety GIS Work Session held in September 2010. This included a GIS exercise where 3 jurisdictions consumed and shared spatial data feeds in a simulated incident. The 180 workshop participants gained knowledge for how to take the model to their localities, state, and Federal agencies. This session will address NAPSG Foundation's lessons learned and best practices to leverage GIS as a collaborative platform for local, state, and Federally-supported homeland security.