GIS for Next Generation 9-1-1

In our wireless, mobile world where one hand-held device serves as telephone, camera, web browser, e-mail minder, GPS, calendar, alarm clock, calculator and stereo, the expectation is certainly out there that this super-device can and should communicate our location, vital statistics, text messages, photographs and yes, indeed, our heart-rate and blood pressure, to emergency services when we need them.

“A 9-1-1 System Accessible Anytime, Anywhere, from Any Device.”

Such is the promise of the coming revolution in how 9-1-1 calls for service are delivered to PSAPs—Public Safety Answering Points—in an IP-based 9-1-1 world.  Freed from the traditional hard-wired telephony networks, 9-1-1 calls and the data associated with them can move from source to destination dynamically, avoiding call centers overloaded or down during crises and rerouting to neighboring PSAPs who have access regionalized 9-1-1 and mapping databases.

But what about that data associated with a 9-1-1 call?  Currently, 512 bites of data, including name, 9-1-1 address, community and responders, are retrieved with the landline voice call to display on the dispatcher’s monitor.  But expand that very narrow data conduit to an IP network with remote servers and network storage, not to mention an incomprehensible number of potential connections to sites hosting databases of use to 9-1-1 dispatchers and emergency response personnel, and those 512 bites riding rowboats paddling their way through a narrow conduit become Queen Mary-sized gigabytes in the English Channel.  Think of what can fit on the Queen Mary—videos shot on smart phones during a bank robbery, text messages from a teller barricaded in a storeroom during the robbery, floor plans of the bank, oblique imagery showing the bank’s rooftop and exits, a detail of known hazardous materials stored in all buildings immediately accessible from the bank, medical records of the teller (who’s been shot but not mortally wounded).

While the possibilities are nearly endless in a next-generation 9-1-1 IP world of superhighways connecting PSAPs and GIS Sources across the country and even across the world, the realities for most local governments are far more problematic.  How does one marry the needs of local government GIS users—departments who use GIS for road maintenance, tax assessment, address assignment and school district bus routing—with the needs of an NG9-1-1 world which requires contiguous, complete datasets and boundaries, edge-matched from community to county to PSAP to state to nation?  How does the local government GIS entity deliver useable output, integrating 9-1-1 needs along with the myriad other needs it must address?

In short, 9-1-1 is, and continues to be, an important client of local government GIS.  As local governments represent their tax-paying constituencies, and tax payers needing emergency services call 9-1-1, providing GIS data that can be used at the PSAP—either directly or with some conversion—will likely remain a responsibility of Local GIS.  However, to meet the needs of an ever-more-regionalized 9-1-1 market, local GIS entities must work in tandem with neighboring GIS entities, for what entity other than an island nation doesn’t have contiguous cities, counties, Native American nations, states or countries at its borders?

In a Next Generation 9-1-1 world, where a 9-1-1 call is mapped and the answering PSAP and Emergency Response Agencies determined from the map itself and not a tabular and separate database, a boundary that is poorly mapped, or one that overlaps a neighboring PSAP boundary, may result in a misrouted call or an inappropriate responder decision.   When a municipality expands its boundaries and annexes a rural subdivision, the GIS map layer representing that boundary must change—as must the law enforcement and possible fire and EMS boundaries.  And where one boundary in a layer of contiguous boundaries changes, so must the others touching it.

Coordination of local efforts that affect other localities is critical in a wireless, mobile, IP-based world.  Where state or regional coordination does not exist or is not yet developed, local agencies must forge relationships with their neighbors and arrive at an understanding that decisions they make locally that affect the mapped representations of their boundaries in turn affect every neighbor with whom they share a 9-1-1 related boundary—be it municipal, addressing (in the case of an ETZ or ETJ), fire, PSAP or other.

Data standards present another issue.  While the 9-1-1 industry, in conjunction with GIS and addressing partners, is working to establish attribution standards, at this point history and common sense might be the best guidelines to follow.  URISA, NENA and the US Census Bureau are close to releasing a draft addressing standard, yet this standard adds more complexity to an already complex environment and attempts to consider the needs of almost any potential end user of addressing, making the format more cumbersome than most rural addressing authorities can comfortably accommodate.  Some general guidelines to consider:Road names in road centerline and address layers need a minimum of four parsed attribution fields (for pre-directional, name, street type and post directional). 

1. Address ranges should continue to be split at all intersections and relevant boundaries, and the high/low ranging on each segment should represent actual addressing potential on that segment.
   
   
2. Road name information in address point and road centerline layers should synchronize completely with the MSAG and the ALI databases.  In short, use the same road naming protocol and fields in both GIS layers and the 9-1-1 databases.
   
   
3. Avoid combining numbers and letters in the structure address field in your address layer.  The house number should be a number and any lot, unit, apartment numbers or other designators should be stored in a separate, sub-address field.
   
   
4. Follow USPS standards for naming and abbreviations.  Most 9-1-1 providers currently use these and although local control of 9-1-1 databases is on the horizon, standards (even more than currently in use) will be required in an environment with increasing data sharing.  Check the SDR website’s answer page http://www.sdrmaps.com/html/pages/answer.htm for USPS Publication 28.
   
   
5. Look at how your numbered county roads and State and US Highways are designated.  Your “Highway 44” may be “State Highway 44” in the county to the east and “Route 44” in the county to the west.  Look for standardization of highway designations on a statewide or even nationwide basis in the near future.
   
   
6. Do your address ranges accurately reflect potential addressing in your jurisdiction where your roads cross jurisdictional boundaries?  Make sure that the road centerlines in your GIS responsibility area do not have address ranges that duplicate ranges on contiguous segments in the next county.
   
   
7. Begin now to assure that your MSAG and GIS addressing data is synchronized.  You may have to change the MSAG, the GIS or both.  Work in tandem with the MSAG Coordinator if required.  The ultimate goal is that both reflect actual on-the-ground addressing and that all sources are 100% synchronized.   In the NG9-1-1 world, the GIS is the MSAG so start now to assure it reflects your actual addressing.
   
   
8. GIS for Next Generation 9-1-1 will require ZIP Code Community Boundaries as well as a second set of community boundaries intended to give more meaning to address or coordinate locations.  Start planning your “9-1-1” Communities now.  You can include major subdivisions, unincorporated towns, Native American boundaries, parks, recreational areas, campuses and much more.  Work with PSAP personnel to plan out logical, meaningful boundaries.
   
   
9. Build relationships!  If you’re a GIS provider for a local government responsible for maintaining centerlines, or an addressing authority doing work in the GIS environment, you’re probably already working with your 9-1-1 personnel.   But as 9-1-1 centers connect via IP network across the country, more areas may utilize your data as even something as fundamental as call routing will rely on GIS boundaries and coordinates assigned to address locations.  Most states don’t and won’t have the resources to update locally controlled data such as addressing.  Know your GIS neighbors and form partnerships with them to share information now.
   
10. Learn the national grid.  The national grid is based on the UTM Coordinate System and assigns a unique grid (X/Y) “address” to every potential point on the map.  SDR is including a National Grid converter in our next version of AddressIt.  You will likely see National Grid Addressing gaining new prominence in the NG9-1-1 world as it helps manage ambiguous addressing and road naming, especially in multi-jurisdiction databases.  The National Grid is already being used by FEMA, Homeland Security, and the National Guard to provide location information during regional emergencies.

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Go2It Responder

Go2It Responder, SDR’s in-vehicle mapping and navigation tool, was built on the platform of SDR’s successful Go2It Dispatch call mapping product (link to appropriate product page).  Designed for the rural emergency response agency, Go2It Responder integrates GPS location and navigation tools with proven map query and location functionality. 

Unlike over-the-counter products that integrate mapping with GPS location, Go2It Responder uses your GIS data and does not rely on pre-packaged digital maps.  Your GIS data—including road centerlines, address point locations, emergency response zones, corporate boundaries, land ownership parcels and a variety of other layers—is created in-house by your county or city and most importantly, is maintained over time as new roads and structures are built and as boundaries change. The map data used by Go2It Responder is easily updated on field computers so emergency providers have constant access to the latest GIS mapping data.

Go2It Responder users can load any ESRI shapefiles as reference layers and standard imagery formats including .tif and .sid.  Specific address location relies on road name information in the GIS data being parsed out in the standard NENA format.

The GPS interface included with the Responder software is based on the GPS-server pioneered by SDR in 1998 with our Tao software for ArcView 3.  Clients can utilize any USB or serial GPS device using NMEA format, as well as most Trimble GPS units.  Go2It Responder clients have paired Go2It Responder with Blue Tooth devices, Trimble receivers, inexpensive mini-USB devices and GPS cards.  While the accuracy of the GPS position is dependent on the specifications of the receiver and geographic and atmospheric conditions, even the less expensive solutions, used with accurate GIS data, deliver adequate results.

Area Measurement Tool

Hydrant Closest to Emergency

Fire fighters responding to brush or grass fires can calculate acreage affected with Go2It’s easy measurement tools.  The measurement tools allow linear measurement along roads or other features as well as area calculation in acreage, square feet or square miles.  If a layer showing fire hydrants is loaded, responders can push a button to show the closest hydrants to an emergency location.  As emergency responders
often respond to vehicle
accidents, Go2It Responder
features an easy intersection
location tool as well.
 
The Fire Department of Eunice, New Mexico, recently installed Go2It Responder in its small fleet.  Eunice is a town of about 2500 in Lea County in Southeastern New Mexico, close to the Texas border.  In this land of cattle and oil, rural homes are spread out and many of the runs made by the Eunice Fire Department are not to residential homes or businesses. 

SDR’s Software Trainer and Installer, Kevin Coyne, had the chance to ride with Eunice Fire Chief, Ron Grogen when a call came in while he was training the crew on Go2It Responder.  The department had recently purchased rugged laptops and mounted docking stations for their units. Installing the Go2It Responder software, supported by GIS data provided by Lea County, was the final step in this critical mapping application. 

Says Kevin: “During the afternoon of my installation I was just about done configuring the software to their liking when a call came in for a grass fire out of town. The firemen suddenly came to life and headed out in a fire truck. I was working with Ron, the Chief, on the software. He got up and started running to his vehicle and turned back to me and said “Do you want to go?” So I grabbed the Toughbook and we got in the Chief’s SUV. I plugged in the Toughbook and started up Go2It while the Chief was flying through town with the lights flashing and sirens blaring on the vehicle. After zooming thru many intersections we got out of town and were flying down the freeway at 98 mph. Go2It tracks just fine at 98 mph! We arrived at the fire. It was a small grass fire in the median between the freeway lanes. Fortunately, we got there quickly and put the fire out quickly. It turns out that the fire was started by a seized up bearing that had come out of a wheel that had flown off a trailer.”

As part of his documentation of the fire incident, the Chief tells dispatch and records the township and range of the fire’s location. I had set up Go2It with Lea County’s section layer so he could quickly see and get the township and range. After the fire was declared out, the Chief using Go2It immediately had the information he needed to give to his dispatch and for his records. He was thrilled. Before Go2It, the Chief would drive around the oil fields to the closest oil well with a sign giving the township and range. I figured in this instance we saved 5 – 10 minutes of driving around oil fields.

We started driving back to Eunice when almost immediately we got another call. There was a potential heart attack at the library. Chief Ron is the only paramedic in town. So he turns on the lights and the sirens and we go 98 mph again. They ended up taking the woman with the heart condition in an ambulance to the hospital in Hobbs. But because of Go2It Responder, we were able to get the town’s only paramedic to the patient 5 – 10 minutes faster.”

While it’s evident that Kevin didn’t retire from a career in Emergency Response to come to work for SDR, his excitement was only partially from the adrenaline rush of a fire call.  He was equally excited to see a great product in action.  “It was great working with the Eunice Fire Department,” he said.  “Go2It Responder offers them the opportunity to have the technology the bigger city fire departments have and to benefit from the great GIS data maintained by their county.  It’s a win-win situation.  Even a volunteer fire department with older laptops and inexpensive GPS cards can use Go2It Responder to trim critical response time.”

Kevin Coyne lives in Eureka California where he enjoys fishing, kayaking, napping and collecting banana slugs.  He joined SDR in 2001 and serves as our lead Software Support Engineer and ArcPad Developer.