Public Safety

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Public Safety SecurityStandards
SpecificationPresentation to Seminar on
Canadian and International Standards
inGeographic Information / GeomaticsJanuary
24th, 2008

• Mike Power Powerscourt, C. Douglas
  O'Brien - IDON Technologies Inc,
• Philip Dawe - GeoConnections

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Presentation Outline

• Context for Public Safety Security
• GeoConnections Strategy of Evolving the Canadian
  Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI) to support
  National Situational Awareness
• Public Safety Canadas GeoInfoExchange Project
• Key focus areas for standards and specifications
  work

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Recent Global Trends of Disasters
(Source Munich Re Group (2006) Topics Geo
Annual review Natural catastrophes 2005.
Knowledge Series, Munich.)
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Recent Global Trends of Disasters
(Source Centre for Research on the Epidemiology
of Disasters (CRED) (2008) EM-DAT 2007 Disasters
in Numbers, Geneva)
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Whole of Government Response
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GeoConnections Strategy Location-Information in
Support of National Situational Awareness

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Public Safetys Canada GeoInfoExchange (GIX)
Project

• Three main components to the overall project
• The sharing of data and information between the
  participating government organizations
• The development of a common situation picture
  between the participating organizations that will
  enable data visualization and creation of a
  "National Incident Map within each agencys
  operational environment and
• The proposal of a draft standard for specifying
  the interfaces for sharing data and services
  among the community through adoption and
  profiling of existing CGDI, OGC and OASIS
  standards.

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Example Information Flow in GeoInfoExchange
PHAC
EC
GOC
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• Public safety information resource (PSIR) types

Requirement Analysis indicated that public safety
information resource (PSIR) types need to include
Alerts, Events, Situations, Maps, and
Unstructured Information Products. No existing
standards for information resource types for
public safety applications had been located
therefore the taxonomy of public safety
information resource types was develped.
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Public safety information resource (PSIR)
Metadata Model
Objective of PSIR metadata is to maintain
simplicity in order to provide enough metadata
elements to identify PSIRs so that these
resources can be discovered, their history can be
tracked, and their usefulness, applicability, and
restrictions in use can be indicated. Profile is
based on OGC Core, GOC Core and ISO 19115.
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Common Alerting Protocol
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Analysis of OASIS CAP

• ltareagt element has a specific geographic target
  area for a particular ltalertgt block that may be
  based on existing alerting zones, municipal
  boundaries, etc.
• Or may be completely unique targeting based on
  hazard (e.g., hazmat plume model)
• Requirements were identified to enhance the
  location-based aspects of CAP.
• Through Canadian General Standards Board
  Committee on Geomatics, established formal
  liaison with Industry Canada CAP WG and acquired
  a membership seat on this WG.
• Ad hoc group on geospatial component established
  with Canadian CAP WG.

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Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds with
location information
Simple GeoRSS Example ltgeorsspointgt40.533203
-105.0712lt/georsspointgt GeoRSS GML
Example ltGeoRSSwheregt ltgmlPointgt ltgmlposgt40.53
3203 -105.0712lt/gmlposgt lt/gmlPointgt ltGeoRSSwher
egt
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GML GeoRSS Analysis

• Determined how standard can be implemented for
• Tagging incidents with geospatial information and
  transporting geospatial datasets
• Providing user profiled feeds on information
  resources. Search repositories of feeds. Receive
  notification of new feeds.
• Contributing geo-enabled information resources to
  a common operational picture.
• Recommended
• The creation of a standard dictionary, perhaps
  through code lists, for the Feature Type and
  Relationship tags in GeoRSS for application in
  Canadian public safety community.
• That GeoRSS support multiple geometries of any
  kind (i.e. point list, line list, area list).

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Standard Symbology Importance

• Large-scale incidents often cross jurisdictional
  and geographic boundaries. Personnel from
  different agencies are often brought together
  under a single command structure and need to be
  able to absorb information quickly.
• Support for developing a common operational
  picture
• emergency management requires a to have a common
  understanding of how a map is visualized and
  labelled.
• provide immediate and general understanding of
  the situation.
• new features reflecting the emergency status need
  to be inserted into maps consistently.

• Ambulance A vehicle for taking sick or wounded
  people to and from a hospital.

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What exists now?

• US Federal Geographic Data Committee- Homeland
  Security Working Group (comprehensive review and
  evaluation of existing symbology was performed
  prior to the development of the symbols. (Lead
  Department of Homeland Security)
• US Department of Defense Common Warfighting
  Symbology (and related DGIWG and NATO
  Specifications)
• Public Safety Canada Canadian Disaster Database
  (FGDC Hybrid)
• Forest Fire Domain (ICS standard operating
  procedures)
• Australasian All-Hazards Symbology (FGDC Hybrid)

Wildfire An uncontrolled fire in a wooded area.
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Project Approach

• GeoConnections advisory committee has recommended
  creating and endorsing a Canadian profile of the
  US FGDC HSWG symbology standard and submit to
  CGSB COG
• Advisory committee indicated importance of
  raising the profile of the existing FGDC standard
  and the community should be provided the
  opportunity to provide comments in the 3-4 month
  time frame
• Project should have a duration of 6-8 months

• Bomb Explosion A violent outburst resulting from
  detonation of a chemical or nuclear explosive or
  from the loss of a high pressure vessel's
  integrity.

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Closing Thoughts

• Threats and hazards that have the potential to
  undermine the security and safety of Canadians.
  In managing threats and hazards, there is an
  increasing need for inter-jurisdictional
  co-operation and information sharing.
• Location-based information is a key resource for
  coordinating and assisting agencies from all
  levels, in making crucial decisions related to
  public safety and security.
• Evolving Public Safety/Security Standards and
  Specifications is key to addressing national
  situational awareness.