OGC Disasters Resilience Pilot User Guide: Using Web Enterprise Suite for Flood, Wildfire and Hurricane Disaster Response

The three scenarios that will be explored in this guide are:

Various data providers will be used throughout the pilot. These providers include:

The WES Catalog is built on the OGC Catalogue Service-Web (CSW) standard and therefore inherits the ability to harvest various data services. Those services include catalogs that are also built on the standard. Compusult will integrate and collaborate with existing SDIs and catalog providers which will be harvested into the WES Catalog for disaster resilience planning. These include:

Compusult’s WES CSW has implemented the auto-harvest capability of the OGC CSW standard so harvesting can be scheduled to automatically run hourly, daily, or weekly to harvest any new records from the source CSW.

Standards-based tools such as WES and Go Mobile can be used to analyze and disseminate information to disaster planners and first responders, specifically City and State Emergency Operations Center Managers and Planners.

A Wildfire Operations Center Manager prepares for an upcoming wildfire event by researching and compiling authoritative data about the terrain, vegetation, land use, current and forecasted weather conditions and other factors that are useful for planning purposes. This data would come from a variety of stakeholders such as provincial and federal government agencies, local officials, social media, and private companies.

A City Emergency Operations Center Manager prepares for an upcoming Flood event by researching and compiling authoritative data about the terrain, city maps, land use, transportation networks, current and forecasted weather conditions, rainfall accumulation data and real-time water levels from sensor data. This data would come from a variety of stakeholders such as federal government agencies, local officials, social media, and private companies.

A State Emergency Operations Center Manager prepares for an upcoming Hurricane event by researching and compiling authoritative data about the terrain, city maps, land use, transportation networks, current and forecasted weather conditions, rainfall accumulation data, real-time water levels from sensor data, and health data. This data would come from a variety of stakeholders such as state and federal government agencies, local officials, social media, and private companies.

The metadata for geospatial data services specific to each scenario noted above are published into the WES Catalog, an OGC-compliant CSW catalog, by a geospatial data administrator as outlined below. These geospatial data services may be sourced from a range of providers as mentioned above, and may be comprised of multiple map layers in a variety of data formats. This catalog of geospatial data assets will provide the foundation from which the disaster response is planned.

OGC CSW-based Catalogs such as WES, support many of the OGC services as shown in Figure 4 below:

Geospatial data administrators publish metadata for the above services into the WES Catalog using the "Publish to Catalog" feature of WES. This feature publishes all metadata for the service into the catalog and optionally downloads the associated geospatial data into WES.

During the publication of data, users can select "Automatic Harvesting" which will schedule automatic harvesting of the data service based on a given interval; such as hourly, daily, or weekly.

Once metadata for a geospatial service is published into the WES Catalog, users can discover these services in WES by browsing the WES Catalog. Specific criteria can then be specified using the search field as shown in Figure 6 below.

Once the user discovers relevant map layers they can then add those layers to a WES portfolio for a scenario. These portfolios are dynamic and can be updated to add or remove new geospatial data layers as the scenario unfolds and changes become necessary.

When the data has been added to a portfolio it can be used in WES to view static map layers, view dynamic map layers, and analyzed to make decisions and deliver the appropriate information to planner and first responder. This geospatial data can also be packaged into a GeoPackage, using the GeoPackage Wizard, and downloaded to GoMobile for offline use in a disconnected environment.

Users can also use other collaboration and tasking tools during the disaster’s response as discussed in chapter 5 for each scenario.

Users can then use the mapping tools outlined in Figure 7 below to add the selected data to a WES portfolio for a scenario. These portfolios are dynamic and can be updated to add or remove new geospatial data layers as the scenario unfolds and changes become necessary.

When the data has been added to a portfolio it can be used in WES to display maps and other dynamic data layers. It can also be packaged into a GeoPackage, using the GeoPackage Wizard, and downloaded to GoMobile for offline use in a disconnected environment.

Users can customize the GeoPackage by selecting various layers they want added to a GeoPackage before it’s generated.

In the final step, the user specifies the GeoPackage name and description and generates the GeoPackage which can be added to the portfolio and optionally downloaded. This is outlined in Figure 12 below.

Data can be displayed using predefined symbology sets to provide a consistent map interface based on predefined mapping standards.

While in the field, first responders can use GoMobile to enter details about the current situation on the ground and upload them to WES when they have connectivity. First responders can also communicate with command center using the messaging component of WES and receive and update status information of assigned tasks.

Real-time sensor data based on OGC’s SensorThings API will be integrated into WES and can be displayed using the WES SensorHub Dashboard. This can include data from environmental sensors such as water level, wind speed or wind direction sensors or body worn sensors such as first responder heart rate sensors.

Alerts can be configured in the system based on thresholds so that an alert may be sent, via email or SMS text messaging, based on crossing a threshold. For example, an alert can be sent when the wind speed goes above a certain speed or changes direction, or when a firefighter’s body temperature or heart rate rises above an acceptable level.

3D models can be used to display the terrain, city models or building models in 3D giving the personnel on the ground a 3D perspective and situational awareness that they wouldn’t otherwise have with traditional maps. First responders can view water levels in 3D to get real-time and projected information on what areas of a city will be flooded based on water levels.

3D building models can also be viewed, and routes planned into buildings by first responders to rescue civilians trapped in buildings during a disaster.

Compusult leverages Remote Sensing Data for the base map. In the various scenarios, 3D Terrain maps, land use and land cover data, city maps, is used to help emergency planners gain situational awareness to understand the type of terrain and foliage the response personnel will be entering. This will help them make better decisions when planning the response.

Collaboration tools such as Messaging, Activities, Chat and Tasks have been implemented in WES to enable exchange of information between command center and first responders in the field. These tools use the open MQTT protocol for communications between Go Mobile and WES.

These tools enable tasks and activities to be planned, scheduled and assigned to first responders and status updates to be posted from Go Mobile to WES.

As demonstrated during the flood, wildfire and hurricane disaster responses outlined in this User Guide, providing the right data to the right users at the right time is critical to the success of the response. In the Flood scenario, providing the City Emergency Operations Center Manager with road closures, current traffic information, water levels, and reported incidents will enable them to plan, organize and dispatch first aid personnel to affected areas in a safe, effective manner. In the Wildfire scenario providing the current weather conditions and winds, road closures, forest types, population demographics and reported incidents will enable the Kamloops Fire Emergency Operations Center Manager to safely and effectively dispatch Wildfire response personnel to the scene. In the hurricane scenario, providing the State Emergency Operations Center Manager with environmental data (weather conditions and forecasts) and geospatial data (Satellite / Sentinel imagery, 2D and 3D maps, planned evacuation routes layers) will enable them to plan an effective response and then monitor that response through the use of sensor information, infrastructure status, road closures, hospital / care facility capacity, reported incidents, weather information, field collected data and crowd sourced data.

WES and Go Mobile will do this by providing a platform that disaster planners and organizers can use to compile geospatial resources for each scenario into a portfolio, and provide viewing, analysis, and dissemination of this geospatial information to first responders in the field.

Through collaboration with HSR, Compusult was able to use their health data by ingesting their OGC WMS based health layers into the WES platform. The use of this data was easily added to a standards-based platform such as WES since both HSR and Compusult adhere to the OGC WMS data exchange standards which enabled these two separate systems to work together in a plug and play approach without any extra integration development. This seamless plug and play capability outlines the true value of using Open Geospatial Data standards and Data Exchange standards.

Compusult provided access to sensor data during the pilot by using the open OGC SensorThings and SensorHub technologies. Platforms, such as Compusult’s WES, are able to make use of sensor data from independent sensor data providers who implement the OGC SensorThings API in a plug and play capability.

The Catalog component of Compusult’s WES platform has implemented the OGC CSW standard and therefore has inherited the ability to harvest various open and closed standard based data services including OGC services such as CSW Catalogs, WPS services, WMTS services, and WMS services, and ESRI’s ArcGIS services. Through the implementation of the optional auto-harvest feature WES can offer auto-harvesting of any of these services on a periodical timeframe. Therefore, data services such as other OGC Catalogs can be harvested on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis.

One of the most valuable technologies deployed in the pilot was the use of OGC’s standard-based GeoPackages to bundle Geospatial data into packages which can be downloaded to mobile clients for offline and disconnected use. These GeoPackages can contain a wide range of Geospatial data including 2D base maps, 3D terrain and city maps, 3D building layouts and CAD drawings, weather forecasts, feature coordinates, etc. These GeoPackages can then be updated in a disconnected environment and uploaded back to WES when the user is back online where the updates can be viewed.

According to Webster’s dictionary floods are defined as "a rising and overflowing of a body of water especially onto normally dry land".

Flood is one of the most frequent natural disasters in the world. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, on average, floods cause over $40 billion in damage worldwide. U.S. alone account 20% of the global loss.

Floods cause more than $40 billion in damage worldwide annually, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development cite:[OECD2016]. In the U.S., losses average close to $8 billion a year. Significant death tolls have increased in recent decades.

A wildfire is an unplanned or unwanted natural or person-caused fire which requires suppression action. wildfires burn thousands of acres of land in North America every year, destroying homes and causing fatalities.

Hurricane is one of the major natural hazards around coastal areas. Because of the low-pressure oceanic condition hurricane event cause high precipitation during its landfall Hurricane is one of the most frequent natural disasters in the world. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, on average, floods cause over $40 billion in damage worldwide. U.S. alone account 20% of the global loss.