GIS in National Security

Geospatial ConOps for Emergency Management

—Ron Langhelm, Booz Allen Hamilton

The Federal Interagency GeoCONOPS is intended to identify and align the geospatial resources that are required to support the NRF, ESF, and supporting federal mission partners. Through the development of the document, end users supporting homeland security and emergency management operations will be better served with authoritative and expedited coordination mechanisms that facilitate geospatial information sharing. By defining these mechanisms and authorities, the GeoCONOPS aims to reduce redundancy and confusion and ensure efficient access to geospatial information and capabilities in support of incident management. The Geospatial Interagency Oversight Committee has supervised the creation of the Geospatial Concept of Operations as a starting point for understanding how the coordination of disaster response geospatial activities can be improved at the Federal level. When finalized, the GeoCONOPS is intended to serve as a guide to federal departments and agencies providing geospatial support under the Stafford Act and in support of Homeland Security. This session will describe the process to develop the GeoCONOPS, the latest draft of the GeoCONOPS and the path forward.