Operationalising GeoNet

David Johnston hosted a meeting today at GNS Science in Avalon attended by representatives of GNS Science, including GeoNet, Massey University, including researchers from the Joint Centre for Disaster Research Kestrel Group and MCDEM.

The meeting focused on two issues - getting the GeoNet product, primarily the isoseismal maps and realtime shake maps into emergency operations centres to support operational decision making as well as exploring a number of research proposals in the pipeline around conducting NZ Based research into effective EOC decision making informed by scientific advice.

This problem was very well illustrated during Ex Ruaumoko, last year which looked at an increase in activity within the Auckland Volcanic Field and a critical decision point around evacuation. The challenge being an inverse relationship between time available and certainty of eruption.

Interoperability and appropriate standards were also discussed with reference to the current MCDEM procurement of an emergency management information system and the need to ensure a common operating picture can be shared across all agencies.

Thanks to David and Sara at GNS for hosting and organising this meeting and hopefully the work this week with GeoNet will establish a real time WFS server feed to Emergeo that other agencies can utilise as well.

Broadband Global Area Network

I attended the Wellington launch of NZ coverage for Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) services. Inmarsat (who own and launched the BGAN network) and Wrights (who provide satellite technology in NZ) provided some presentations followed by a hands on demonstration of the Thrane Explorer units that provide the voice and data access to the inmarsat satellites.

BGAN coverage has been extended to New Zealand following the launch last year of an additional Inmarsat 4 satellite that meant that the orbits of all three satellites could be reconfigured to provide global coverage. BGAN is mature well proven technology that has been available for a number of years in the rest of the world so it's great to finally have a range of options for satellite broadband in NZ.


A whole host of agencies and companies attended the launch including 'business as usual' customers who have remote monitoring data requirements as well as a range of emergency services and civil defence organisations from as far away as Canterbury, as well as some private companies and media.

The base station kit seemed to do what it said on the tin, all of the units are easily portable and have slightly varying data rates but essentially all support VOIP and data.

As this photo shows WebEOC loaded fine on the smallest base station - it would be good to do some more in depth testing especially with the Emergeo GIS Smart Client.

As well as the usual VOIP, data and streaming video capability it seems someone else had already had my bright idea and as an add-on unit you can establish a picocell within an Emergency Operations Centre in order to allow staff to continue to use their mobile phones even if the land-based mobile phone network is inoperable.

A number of agencies have already bought BGAN base stations in anticipation of coverage becoming available so it will be great to see the first domestic agencies deploying a similar capability to that which I saw Hutt Valley Emergency Management have with IPSTAR a couple of months ago.

I think as the importance of resilient data communications is recognised we will see agencies employing a range of options from ISDN, fibre, microwave, digital radio data, BGAN and IPSTAR depending on bandwidth and deployability requirements.



As an 'EOC in a bag' it would be hard to beat a BGAN, ruggedised laptop, mini printer and mini-data projector, unless you had something like this 4*4 complete with a satellite tracking dish on the roof and a wireless network to establish your VOIP, live video streaming and data links. Whilst this may seem far fetched setups like this are an established capability for many agencies overseas and need appropriate consideration.

Integration of GeoNet data feeds into Emergeo

Last week Jeremy, Martin and I met with Dr Geoff Clitheroe and Dr Paul Grimwood from GNS to discuss integrating GeoNet feeds directly into the Emergeo GIS Browser.

We initially identified two types of content that would be useful; the isoseismal predictions for an event (these use a model to provide indicative Modified Mercalli Intensity levels emanating outwards from an event) and the near real-time shaking intensity from seismographs.

Whilst this mapping is already available on the GeoNet website having it available as a data layer within the Emergency Management Information System means that local Health users on the Emergeo browser can quickly identify health facilities that are within an affected area, whilst those with the Smart Client Emergeo can perform basic geo-spatial analysis, for example identifying the number of people within an affected area.

The screen shot shows an isoseismal layer that has been imported to Emergeo. Over the next month or so Jeremy and I will be working with GNS to establish a WFS server feed so that these data layers can be viewed in real time (rather than imported as a file). There are a number of practical aspects to work through, such as trigger levels and rules around how events such as aftershocks are incorporated into data layers for an incident but we hope to be able to demonstrate a working feed in time for the FOSS4G conference in September.

South Island establishes regular EMIS 'comms checks'

Graeme McColl, the Ministry of Health Regional Emergency Management Advisor for the South Island has established within his region a regular Friday afternoon slot, where agencies can log onto a dedicated WebEOC training incident and practice logging significant events and allocating tasks to other agencies.

Participation is voluntary and can involve as many or as few staff from participating agencies as available. The current 'incident' involves malicious damage to health infrastructure and will allow a range of tasks and reports to be completed over the next couple of months.

The purpose of the session is similar to a weekly radio or sat-phone check and is intended to familiarise staff with the log on procedure, control panel and the boards and forms available rather than to exercise decision making. Each session will only last an hour or so and can be supported by WebEOC administrators via teleconference if required [apologies for last Friday, I was unavailable having concussed myself during my mountain bike commute to work].

This is an extremely easy training event to set up for other regions and areas, allowing EOC staff to participate from their desks or even work from home and compliments the existing sat-phone and Video Teleconference testing regimes recently established.

Well done to all agencies participating!

Wellington Vodafone Homegrown

St John Ambulance used WebEOC during the Wellington Vodafone Homegrown music festival to manage critical events during the day. Whilst the waterfront went off to the likes of Elemeno-P, Supergroove, Shapeshifter and Concord Dawn, St John looked after the medical needs of all the party goers and used the significant event logs and incident details board to maintain a common operating picture of the event.


Pre-planned events like this provide an excellent opportunity for agencies to familiarise themselves with the emergency management information system, and I'd be happy to work with any other agencies to make sure they are prepared to use it for upcoming events this summer.