Abstract

Situational Awareness through GIS at the FDA
Track: Disaster Management and Emergency Response
Authors: Nathan Beck

The Office of Crisis Management serves as the FDA's focal point for coordinating emergency and crisis response activities where FDA regulated products are involved, utilized, or deployed. Location information, collected for every activity handled by the FDA Office of Crisis Management, is turned into spatial data and stored in the FDA Emergency Operations Network Incident Management System. A map, powered by ArcGIS server, dominates the system's dashboard page and displays the current top incidents. When an emergency situation occurs, a standard set of situation maps are created showing the locations of FDA offices, regulated industry, and other points of interest. These maps are used for situational awareness, planning, and coordination.
This session will highlight the integration of GIS into FDA crisis management operations, and a new situational awareness Flex viewer application developed by the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and the Office of Crisis Management.