Using GIS for Emergency Services

There is a shortage of people with the practical experience to apply GIS in an emergency management and response situation. As the occurrence of natural disasters continues to increase, it will be important for state agencies and local communities to have data collection applications ready for fast response to these events. Course exercises will provide practical hands-on spatial analysis using local data focused on emergency preparedness. Through lecture and hands-on course exercises, students will learn how to prepare and use geospatial tools to inventory, organize, evaluate and display data gathered to better inform stakeholders about current, on-the- ground conditions.

Who Should Enroll in this Course:
This course is designed for individuals who are interested in using GIS to support emergency management mitigation, planning, response, and recovery operations.

Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this two-day course, learners will be able to competently employ these powerful tools in order to provide field-captured data that will help leaders and first responders take action in emergency management situations.

• Describe how GIS is used in emergency management.
• Assemble feature datasets in local projection from various sources including CAD, field applications, state and local government
• Generate field app for field preparation and assessment to generate informative maps
• Describe the workflow of deriving data layers for fire mangement from sUAV including orthomosaics, surface and slope analysis
• Perform database queries and spatial analysis such as determining which buildings are within fire zones.
• Perform various cartographic techniques, and create map layouts using industry conventions.
• Prepare presentations for various stakeholders including storymaps

Skills You Will Gain

• Harness ArcGIS Pro tools to perform operations frequently performed in emergency management.
• Build a basemap with relevant data for emergency management
• Build field applications relevant to applications in emergency management
• Construct feature datasets including using local projections
• Generate layer and map packages for sharing
• Create map books using advanced mapping techniques
• Generate cartographic deliverables including web mapping