Mapping for emergencies
How to plan for, respond to and deal with the aftermath of emergencies is an ever present challenge. The Ordnance Survey's Peter ter Haar explains how digital geographic data provides vital location intelligence for the work of emergency services
Thanks to the growth of database technology, the use of intelligent mapping for analysis and data sharing is becoming increasingly helpful in disaster management.
A large number of emergency services, local authorities and central government organisations rely on Ordnance Survey information to support civil contingency planning, public safety and emergency response.
For example, Ordnance Survey's Mapping for Emergencies team recently delivered urgently needed support for emergency planners managing the evacuation of hundreds of people from homes at risk of flooding in South Yorkshire. The team responded to a request from local authorities and other agencies deciding whether to move residents living close to the Ulley dam near Rotherham.
Using highly detailed spatial address and digital height data to identify properties within specific height bands, Ordnance Survey staff offered the planners a sound basis for determining risk and priorities. Address data and mapping were supplied direct to the planners within three hours of the request, building a useful context for action.
OS MasterMap, Ordnance Survey's most detailed dataset, is pervasive in front line emergency response, including crucial emergency service activities such as integrated risk management and contingency planning, command and control, mobile communications and in-car navigation.
It comprises four distinct but related layers of geographic information - topography, addresses, road transport network and aerial imagery. Each feature in the data comes with a set of attribution that provides information on the nature of that feature. Using OS MasterMap as the base, emergency services can attach and view environmental, demographic and historical information about a particular location in a useful real life context. This allows them to predict potential hot spots and ensure that every incident is resourced effectively.
Part of preventing a major incident, whether man made or environmental, is identifying high risk sites. The range and detail of data held on OS MasterMap means that it can be used to precisely pinpoint properties within flood plains or distances from other hazards and identify the most appropriate route and safe access points.
Incident managers can identify schools, hospitals and other locations with special requirements that could prove to be assets in an emergency. This kind of context can help with decisions on turning leisure centres into evacuation shelters or civic offices into emergency command centres.
When responding to an emergency callout, fire and police teams need to know the exact location of the incident. Sending attending officers to the wrong site wastes precious time, prolonging a crime or fire and even risking lives.
Using definitive geographic data, command and control teams can pinpoint a caller's precise position while they are on the telephone, whether at a residential address or in the middle of open countryside. A detailed description can be relayed to attending crews, either via radio or displayed dynamically on in-vehicle screens. If an ambulance or other responding vehicle is fitted with GPS technology, command and control centres can track its progress in real time and keep the caller informed of its progress.
Surrey Police are one of the first police forces in Great Britain to go live with OS MasterMap Topography and Integrated Transport Network (ITN) Layers for operational command and control. They will now be able to be more specific about the location of an incident, the potential risks nearby and attribute any feature with their own information.
Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service are also using OS MasterMap Topography and ITN Layers as part of their Fortek VISION command and control solution.
One of OS MasterMap's key strengths, apart from its depth of detail, is its interoperability with a wide variety of datasets, allowing for complementary datasets such as the OS MasterMap Topography Layer and OS MasterMap ITN Layer to be overlaid and utilised simultaneously.
OS MasterMap enables emergency services to identify locations of unusual or suspicious activities in local areas and the relationships between them, to tie together people, locations, material evidence and events. Using all the layers they can identify significant types of buildings such as garages, storage areas, properties, warehouses and how to access them.
Associating secondary information to geographic data adds a valuable dimension to analytical data holdings. OS MasterMap can be used to provide intelligence regarding patterns of crime, fire occurrence and other incidents for reports and periodic analysis, helping to inform resource planning and incident prediction.
Emergency services are increasingly using geographic data to help join up working practices and improve emergency response. With the intelligence provided by OS MasterMap address and road network information, emergency services can quickly identify the location and best route, taking into consideration road restrictions and known congestion areas. This information can also inform contingency planning, so that the most suitable routes to major public sites or high risk locations can be identified in advance.
OS MasterMap provides a rich resource of information on all the physical parts of our critical national infrastructure, including government buildings, sites of cultural identity or prestige sites where large numbers of people may congregate at high-profile events. Also points of entry into the country, whether by air, sea or tunnel and their surroundings, can be mapped and queried to find information such as the type of businesses in nearby premises or the area of a building's footprint.
Across the emergency services, local authorities and related bodies such as utilities, the growth in the use of geographic information involving OS MasterMap is greatly expanding the opportunities for data sharing and analysis. In maintaining and developing the common framework to which most other geographic data is referenced, Ordnance Survey is playing a vital role in supporting the concept of joined-up government and service delivery. In turn, this promises significant opportunities for a multi-agency approach to public safety, contingency planning and emergency response.
Peter ter Haar is Product Director at Ordnance Survey. For further information visit www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk .
