Natural Hazards Observer
| January 2006 | Volume XXX | Number 3 |
Collaborating for Risk Reduction: Building GIS Partnerships for Universities and State and Local Emergency Management
Geographic information systems (GIS) have become indispensable tools for natural hazards planning and mitigation. No other technology can match GIS for visualizing vulnerabilities, opportunities, mitigation, and disaster response strategies, yet many state and local emergency management agencies lack GIS expertise or access. Furthermore, some emergency managers may be intimidated by the technical nature of GIS or fail to see its value for their work, and GIS experts themselves may not understand how to effectively communicate the value of their technology to emergency management officials. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been working to facilitate collaborative relationships among state and local agencies and institutions of higher education to make better use of GIS resources.
Several such partnerships have emerged as a direct result of the 2005 Geospatial Workshop convened by FEMA’s Mitigation Division in Indianapolis, Indiana, in April 2005. The workshop brought together a range of experts from the GIS and natural hazards fields who presented compelling examples of how GIS is being used in real-world hazards planning and mitigation. It also featured regional breakout discussions that created opportunities for state and local officials to meet GIS scholars from universities and colleges, form relationships with them, and develop joint activities. Those discussions led to the formation of a GIS consortium in Oklahoma, a regional effort in the Midwest to establish partnerships between emergency management agencies and GIS groups, and a number of other state and regional initiatives. To maintain the momentum and encourage participants to continue sharing information, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, the workshop’s host, set up a dedicated listserv for the workshop attendees.
“The workshop was a great opportunity for us,” says Connie Dill, state hazard mitigation officer for Oklahoma. Dill had been planning to contact the University of Oklahoma about opportunities to collaborate on GIS applications but was not sure where to begin. At the workshop’s regional session she met May Yuan, director of the university’s Center for Spatial Analysis, who agreed to participate in a new GIS consortium with Dill’s agency and other Oklahoma institutions. The group held its first meeting in August 2005 and launched a plan to use the development of the University of Oklahoma’s Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan as an opportunity to build a GIS-based statewide emergency decision support system. “The university has facilities in every county in the state,” explains Yuan, so while the university prepares its plan, it will be gathering and analyzing data that the state, counties, and communities can use as well. Ultimately, the plan is to create a user-friendly online tool that communities can use to run their own scenarios.
The Indianapolis workshop built on the success of a May 2004 FEMA workshop for representatives from historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the mid-Atlantic region, their local communities, and their state emergency management offices. As a result of the workshop, which generated funding and training opportunities, a communications network, and enhanced awareness among the HBCUs of the need for emergency preparedness and mitigation in their own institutions, many of the participating colleges and universities have become involved in their counties’ hazard mitigation plans. FEMA sponsored a similar conference for HBCUs in the southeastern United States, hosted by Florida A&M University in May 2005, which generated additional collaborative activities for HBCUs and their government partners in a region that suffered so much hurricane damage in the fall of 2004.
Unlike many conferences, where participants meet and then go back home to business as usual, the FEMA workshops focused on generating concrete activities with follow-up to track progress and ensure accountability. “This was not a once-and-done meeting,” says Ladd Colston, associate vice president for commercialization and outreach at the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, which hosted the mid-Atlantic HBCU workshop in 2004. “We proposed next steps at the workshop and called participants afterward to follow up on their progress. We wanted to keep the momentum going.” Colston’s team set up a listserv to keep participants informed of new opportunities, resources, and conferences, and is creating a Web site on mitigation and emergency management issues for HBCUs and emergency management agencies across the nation. After attending the 2005 HBCU workshop, many participating university officials met with their state and local emergency managers to assess hazards and mitigation opportunities.
A Natural Alliance
Partnerships with colleges and universities allow state and local agencies to gain access to GIS expertise, technical resources, and research support. For their part, institutions of higher education can benefit from new funding opportunities, an enhanced role in their communities, and better access to data. Partnerships can leverage resources and increase the impact of efforts that otherwise would be undertaken individually. Communities that reduce their vulnerability to hazards and develop strong emergency management plans and alliances offer a safer and more secure environment for everyone.
One of the most promising efforts to bring universities and colleges together with emergency management agencies is underway in Indiana. Six of the state’s universities have signed a memorandum of understanding to create an outreach network that will enhance GIS communication and data sharing among state government, political subdivisions, and the business community. The coalition intends to maintain an inventory of university faculty, skills, and research interests; promote GIS educational opportunities for students; and assist the state GIS office in collecting and distributing data from local governments.
“Universities have a long-standing commitment to serving the educational and analytical needs of communities and thus offer a logical network of content experts for providing this support,” says Jan Crider, state hazard mitigation officer for the Indiana Department of Homeland Security. “Our projects with the universities in Indiana have created a way to tap into these resources to assist in mitigation planning and projects.”
The coalition is coordinated by The Polis Center at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, which offers GIS education and training, outreach and user group support, and technical assistance, including development of customized applications, and undertakes special studies, such as the ongoing assessment of the earthquake risk to bridges in southwest Indiana.
GIS in Action
“Geospatial data are a cornerstone of mitigation,” says Michael Buckley, deputy director of FEMA’s Mitigation Division. “GIS helps communities better understand their hazards and how to deal with them.” Working with universities and colleges, state and local emergency management agencies can cost-effectively identify where hazards and vulnerabilities intersect. For example, GIS tools can be used to calculate damages, economic losses, and mitigation benefits, as well as to display risk scenarios to key decision makers and the public. The following examples illustrate GIS in action:
- The University of New Hampshire’s Complex Systems Research Center (CSRC) partnered with FEMA in 1999 to develop 10 digital flood insurance rate maps for three New Hampshire communities under FEMA’s Multi-Hazard Flood Map Modernization Program. The maps support floodplain management and preparedness programs, and the new digital format makes the maps easier to obtain and use online. The project allowed CSRC to expand its expertise into new types of mapping for which it is now nationally recognized. CSRC has since been tasked with digitizing and updating an additional 151 map panels for counties in New Hampshire. For more information, visit http://www.fema.gov/fhm/.
- The North Central Texas Council of Governments coordinates a GIS system for the Dallas/Fort Worth area that includes severe weather maps linked to population data. Emergency managers can see instantly how many people are at risk, the percentage of people living in mobile homes versus multifamily units and single-family homes, and even whether the language spoken in the area is predominantly English or Spanish. Managers can use the information to assess vulnerability and decide which workers to deploy to an affected area. For access to the maps, visit http://www.dfwinfo.com/weather/graphicalwarnings/nwswarn.asp.
- GIS tools can also help emergency management agencies assess the results of their efforts. After a devastating tornado tore through Oklahoma in 1999, the State of Oklahoma offered a rebate program to encourage the construction of residential safe rooms. More than 6,000 safe rooms were built through the program, all of which were geocoded and entered into a GIS database. In 2003, another powerful tornado followed nearly the same track as the earlier storm, and by superimposing the storm track on a map of the safe rooms, decision makers and residents could instantly appreciate how many lives had been saved by the program. To view the map, visit http://www.fema.gov/mit/saferoom/map1.shtm.
Collaboration with universities and other stakeholders can significantly reduce the cost of developing GIS databases. A group of stakeholders in north central Texas coordinated a bulk purchase of aerial photographs for the region’s GIS, reducing their cost by nearly 95 percent. They also organized cooperative purchases of data sets. “The more that play, the less we pay,” says John Hunt, GIS manager at the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
Taking the First Step
How do GIS partnerships begin? Communities and states can start by contacting specific faculty, offices, or the president or chancellor of institutions in their area. Colleges and universities can initiate partnerships by contacting their state or local emergency management offices. According to research by the National Academy of Public Administration, partnerships should be approached as a strategic investment. They require a lot of up-front work and resources to get started, and they must be maintained through ongoing attention and oversight, but the results are worth it. “Partnerships are a key component of mitigation,” says FEMA’s Buckley. “You don’t have to go through the mitigation process alone.”
Kevin Mickey (kmickey@iupui.edu)
The Polis Center
Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis