GIS Used to Manage and Access the Largest Earthquake Drill in U.S. History

GeographyMatters — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:17:00 GMT

At 10:00 a.m. on November 13, 2008, millions of people throughout Southern California participated in The Great Southern California ShakeOut Drill, the largest earthquake preparedness exercise in U.S. history. The ShakeOut was organized by the Earthquake Country Alliance (ECA), a partnership of earthquake professionals, emergency responders, business leaders, and community activists. The drill simulated a magnitude 7.8 earthquake along the San Andreas Fault in Southern California.

GIS technology was used to help build an accurate, continuously updated emergency information repository; aided decision support and resource management; and enhanced multijurisdictional communication.

GIS software developer ESRI supported participating agencies with software, staffing, and resources used during the exercise, which modeled assessment, rescue, relief, and recovery efforts.

"We worked diligently to create a realistic exercise that helps us see where we are with our response capability in the event of a major earthquake," says John Ellison, agency technology officer and geographic information officer (GIO)/California Environmental Resources Evaluation System (CERES) director, California Resources Agency.

The ShakeOut kick-started a weeklong collection of exercises called the Golden Guardian 2008, held November 13-18 and involving 5,000 participants from public agencies around the state.

The goal of the drill was to test and evaluate processes, equipment, technologies, and shared workflows. Results helped determine best practices, opportunities for improvement, and potential new capabilities. "The GIS platform developed for the Golden Guardian 2008 exercise proved to be an invaluable tool," says Paul Hardwick, GIS project manager, San Diego Homeland Security Regional Technology Center. "We were able to post pertinent information to provide situational awareness to the state emergency command center and affected communities as well as areas adjacent to the disaster. The ability to transfer information between systems and to implement server-based tasks for analysis helped make the event a success."

Web-enabled laptops. Mobile GIS helped field crews collect remotely sensed data that was automatically sent back to the comprehensive spatial database.

Related blog posts:

The Great California ShakeOut

The shakedown on the ShakeOut

Geography Matters : The Great California ShakeOut

GIS Used to Manage and Access the Largest Earthquake Drill in U.S. History