Latest Contributions by PaulDoherty3

This week there were updates to both ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Pro 2.0 was released. This is a short blog post to highlight what is relevant for emergency management in New Zealand.  1) The Solutions for Emergency Management have also been updated (What's New | ArcGIS for Emergency Management). This includes updated symbology in the Service Catalog (simpler, easier to read symbols). A series of enhancements to Situational Awareness Viewer, Logistics Planning, and Operations Response. A series of enhancements to the ArcGIS Solutions Deployment Tool. 2) Web AppBuilder Widgets (What’s New in Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS (June 2017) | ArcGIS Blog ) Full Screen Widget – This enables web apps to launch in full screen mode in your web browser.  Grid Overlay Widget - For those of you working with NZ Defence Force and Urban Search and Rescue in the US, this is a great addition. This will render and display a US Military Grid Reference System (MGRS) grid dynamically and at different index levels inside the application based on the scale of the map display. Screening widget – Enables you to define an area of interest (based on a placename and buffer distance; drawing a point, line, or polygon; an input shapefile that defines the spatial extent; or a coordinate location and buffer distance) and analyze specified layers for potential impacts. The analysis results can be shared with others as a printed report, CSV file, and file geodatabase or shapefile download. Below I have configured this widget to work with a Situation Report feature layer template.   See the PDF report produced here.   3) Web AppBuilder Dashboard Theme (Theme—Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS | ArcGIS)  The new theme displays all the widgets in the panel simultaneously when the app starts. It is designed to visualize widgets and their communication directly. You can modify the predefined layout by adding, removing, or resizing the grids in the panel. By default, most on-screen widgets are turned off except for the Home and Zoom Slider widgets. Optionally, you can turn on the Header widget to display the logo, the app name, and links. ... View more

I met the team at Recovers.org quite a few years ago while working for the Esri Disaster Response Program and have been impressed with this platform to enable communities to support themselves. They are also an Esri Emerging Business Partner and understand the value of spatial to support community recovery / regeneration.  For those of you familiar with the Student Volunteer Army - this is a similar concept. It allows community members to help each other and for governments to form trusted local organisations. Co-founders Caitria and Morgan created a functional infrastructure for recovery after an EF3 tornado in their hometown of Monson, MA. Recovers.org is the idealization of the infrastructure they built: clean, easy-to-use recovery software framework that can be deployed before a disaster to prepare communities. Please forward to your welfare and community managers and discuss how this could be used to support preparedness at a local level. You can create a community in less than 10 minutes: Recovers-Communities  ... View more

Link to schema: www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=12835e7b8f404d90890673108efb2e2f#overview as an XLSForm which can be used with Survey123.   This is a feature layer template used for integrated energy, telecommunications, transportation, and water infrastructure based on the Bay of Plenty Lifelines Project. You can either download the geodatabase or create a new feature layer directly from this template.   Criticality: Nationally, Regionally, Local (this is to be edited by Lifeline stakeholders during Reduction / Readiness). Level of Service*: Full, Operational, Survival, Emergency (this is to be edited by Lifeline stakeholders during Response / Recovery). *Consider a simpler definition such as Red, Yellow, Green. We are waiting on guidance from MCDEM and the National Lifelines Council.   Below is an example of how this could work with editable feature layers and feature layer views (representing level of service). You can click the edit button and drop a few points on the map.  Lifelines Example Web Map (Try it Live with sample data) Options Pre-load Data: As a best practice, you might have an integrated lifelines layer pre-populated with known lifeline assets (using the Append Tool to add assets to your layer), them simply have stakeholders update the level of service during disaster using any editing app (e.g. Web AppBuilder). Pro: All of your lifeline data is at your fingertips and you simply need to update the level of service. Con: This can lead to a very large dataset that requires effort to update.  Add Data "On the Fly": If you do not have data to pre-populated onto your map, you can always simply add points and lines manually during an event using this schema with (e.g. Survey123 or GeoForms). Pro: The advantage here is it is very simple. Con: the disadvantage is you are duplicating effort since you most likely already know the locations of your lifeline assets. Try this approach using Survey123: https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/5129459964c14fa2884fcc8f6042f193  The best approach is one that you can manage with the resources available to you - either way, do not wait for the next disaster to pick one of these options! ... View more

If you are a GIS Specialist supporting authorised civil defence emergency management officials or structural engineers, this XLSForm will help them quickly evaluate building safety after an event such as a major earthquake or flood.  This is different from the Urban Search and Rescue and Welfare Assessment - it is the official building placard system (red, yellow, white) for New Zealand.   The form is a digital version of the Rapid Assessment Forms which are provided by Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, and is designed to be deployed with Survey123 for ArcGIS. You can augment the form with your own questions, and extend it with the additional capabilities of Survey123. Earthquake: http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=411b492e86e644b1b9d194d09d536afa  Flooding: http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=d2bf6e3a5dd543af85001419e1dbb53b  Download the Survey123 application by visiting http://doc.arcgis.com/en/survey123/download/. Download Survey123 for ArcGIS Connect to deploy your Survey. Download Survey123 for ArcGIS mobile applications for your users to fill out the survey.  See this tutorial for more information: Deploy the Earthquake Rapid Assessment Form with Survey123 Please post comments here for feedback or suggestions for improvements to this template. For more information on the NZ Building Assessment process, see the MBIE Website. ... View more

UPDATE November 23rd 2017 The Welfare Needs Advisory Group has met and decided on a common set of minimum data. We are now hosting an XLSForm schema that reflects these changes. This is likely to change in the coming months as the adivsory group and others make modifications. Link to XLSForm: www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=770addcdad8641cb91fa3539c92e20dc The below information was posted prior to the November 23rd update. This is a XLS Form for Survey123 based on the EMIS Welfare Form. This was originally created by Andrew Hansford from Thames-Coromandel and Andrew Mackay from Otago Regional Council. Once a National Welfare schema has been adopted, it will be used to re-design this Survey123 Form.  Link to XLSForm: http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=fb490ea4b64345b385a3c3807dca30c8  See this tutorial for more information for the steps on how to deploy the form: Deploy the Earthquake Rapid Assessment Form with Survey123 ... View more

For a full summary please NZGIS4EM Auckland Workshop Summary. This was a two-day workshop with an emphasis on GIS for Emergency Management for the Upper North Island and a follow up to our Wellington Workshop in February 2017. There were over 50 attendees across National, Regional, and Local Government. The first day included both thought provoking presentation, discussion panel, and a breakout session. The GIS Specialists from the Bay of Plenty region demonstrated the geospatial decision support tools used in the Cyclone Debbie and Cook response. The second day was designed to train GIS staff to be deploy geospatial decision support tools ahead of disaster and test their preparedness with a short exercise. The overall goal of this event was to raise awareness, build community, and to give participants action items to take back to their organisations. While participants gained new skills and successfully deployed geospatial decision support tools, the stress test on Day 2 showed critical knowledge gaps.  The key finding of this workshop is that a National & Regional geospatial concept of operations is required for the civil defence and the geospatial community to be sufficiently prepared for the next large-scale disaster.  See the NZGIS4EM Training Website for more information and a full map of NZGIS4EM Attendees. ... View more

Here is a link to the full  Wellington NZGIS4EM Workshop Summary.  This was a two-day workshop with an emphasis and GIS for Emergency Management for the Lower North Island. There were over 50 attendees across National, Regional, and Local Government, as well as private sector and not for profit organisations. The first day included both thought provoking presentations and also a discussion panel and breakout session. The second day was designed to train GIS staff to be deploy geospatial decision support tools ahead of disaster and test their preparedness with a short exercise. The overall goal of this event was to raise awareness, build community, and to give participants action items to take back to their organisations. While participants gain new skills and successfully deployed geospatial decision support tools, the stress test on Day 2 showed critical knowledge gaps. The key finding of this workshop is that a National & Regional geospatial concept of operations is required for the civil defence and the geospatial community to be sufficiently prepared for the next large-scale disaster. ... View more

The first release of the New Zealand Common Alerting Protocol Guidelines has been released:  This is great news for New Zealand as it provides the first geospatial intelligence for notification of forecast and current hazards. It is used by other counties and we can learn from their approach.  Key Message: If you work in the geospatial industry, this is going to impact you, so follow closely! Resources Public Alert and Warning Training Materials - (from the US National Alliance for Public Safety GIS Foundation) In the United States they use a system called IPAWS and it is based on CAP. The data is provided in the standard XML format via a hub and then made available as live, scalable web services in a variety of OGC formats with standardized symbology. NZ Common Alerting Protocol Guideline - This document is written by the New Zealand CAP Working Group and owned by the ‘Principal Advisor - National Operations, Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management (MCDEM)’. Before using this guideline always email opsteam@dpmc.govt.nz to check you have the latest version. Version 1.0 is a draft intended to be available for Alerting Authorities and vendors to refer to, but with a number of areas still under development at working group meetings. This document is an accompaniment to the definition of Common Alerting Protocol (CAP). It describes how to implement CAP in the New Zealand alerting environment. It is suitable for: Developing business analysis requirements for CAP messages; Developing logic for the interchange or uptake of CAP messages; Discovering further useful CAP resources; Becoming an official Alerting Authority and joining the Working Group. Here is a feature layer view that is using the MetService CAP feed as the source: http://eaglegis.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=b4967d1b25c349edb1fa20a182568c19#overview  Here is an example of using MetService CAP Feeds in a web mapping application. ... View more

What is a ShakeMap? ShakeMap is a product of the U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program in conjunction with regional seismic network operators. I have just updated our archived shakemap for the 2016 Kaikoura Earthquake and it is available as a polygon feature layer (dissolved by MMI Grid Code) for you to use for your web maps, apps, and spatial analysis. To add it to your web map, just search in ArcGIS Online for tag 'KaikouraEQ' or '1000778i'. Kaikoura Earthquake Feature Layer hosted by Eagle Technology Group: http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=52077373b3ac40aead3cf992247302e4  You can also download the original data from USGS: Shakemap us1000778i  Don't forget that you can add live updates from the USGS in your web maps from the Living Atlas of the World | ArcGIS. On the ribbon, click the Add button and choose Browse Living Atlas Layers. Search for 'Earthquake'. Find Recent Earthquakes and Add layer to the map. This service presents recent earthquake information from the USGS Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) program. Click CLOSE. ... View more

On February 8th, 2017 the NAPSG Foundation provided a virtual workshop for the Montana Association of Geographic Information Professionals (MAGIP) and local search and rescue team members.  While MAGIP attendees attended on-site (Bozeman, Montana), they also extended the invitation to the Public Safety GIS and SAR Community to attend via WebEx.   Go here for more details and access to the training resources: WiSAR and GIS Blog: Presentation to MAGIP on SARGIS  ... View more

After the Kaikoura Earthquake of 2016, a group of GIS Specialists in New Zealand agreed to meet here in Wellington to discuss best practices for using GIS for Emergency Management. On February 14th and 15th 2017 we will have our first workshop focused on the Wellington Region / Lower North Island.  The workshop will focus on the following objectives: Share experiences & demonstrate apps from the recent Kaikoura Earthquake and the preceding Tangaroa Exercise. Deploy and test response-ready web mapping applications and procedures. Have fun and develop transferable skills / workflows that will also benefit each Organisation in business as usual. We think this will be a very productive and fun event with over 50 participants from National / Regional / Local government, the private sector, and not-for-profit organisations. Here is more information if you are interested in what will be discussed and the type of training we will be doing.  Agenda: http://arcg.is/2kj5OUj  Training Website (with free tutorials): http://bit.ly/NZGIS4EMTraining  Hopefully there will be more of these events to keep the Emergency Management GIS Community growing strong. Let us know if you think your Region would like to host a GIS for Emergency Management Workshop.  ... View more