Tag Archives: USGS NHSS

10 Steps to Configure the COP Template within Your Organization

by Jeff Baranyi on March 31, 2011

The Public Safety COP Template is designed to be starter application to help you quickly implement the ArcGIS Viewer for Flex to provide situational awareness for your organization.  This download package contains many of the tools and feeds that you have seen in our demonstrations and training.  If you already have ArcGIS Server installed and configured you can go through these steps in about an hour.  Obviously having an ArcGIS Server instance available somewhere within your organization is a prerequisite.  Your data should be well organized and you should have your operational layers and basemaps published.  This blog post contains the 10 basic steps to get this application set up within your organization.

To get started you can download this template from http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=1d90b418b78e40158914bd5178b6892f.  For these 10 steps we are going to basically walk through the main configuration file (config.xml).  More information is in the help documentation – see http://help.arcgis.com/en/webapps/flexviewer/help/mainconfig.htm

Step 1 – Pick your title and subtitle

Up at the top select the title and subtitle for your application.  Often terms like GIS get lost on the broader Public Safety Community.  Terms like Common Operational Picture (COP) or Situational Awareness seem to resonate more.  In some cases specific application names and/or acronyms seem to take on a life of their own.  For example applications like Virginia’s VIPER or Florida’s GATOR applications are great examples of this.  Consider coming up with a good acronym (such as an aggressive animal) for your organization.

Step 2 – Pick your logo

Next find an image to include in the upper left of the application.  This image should be 48 x 48 pixels.

Optionally include your logo over the map as a Static Image Widget – see – http://help.arcgis.com/en/webapps/flexviewer/help/widgets/staticimage_widget.htm

 

Step 3- Pick your colors

There are several color options that you can change quickly.  See – http://help.arcgis.com/en/webapps/flexviewer/help/styling.htm.  I’ve been coached by our graphics department not to go overboard and have colors so bright that they distract from the map.  Setting the colors to match your organizations current web theme or “brand” can be quickly achieved by setting the colors appropriately. 

 

Step 4 – Set your initial extent

Set the initial extent of your map for your jurisdiction.  There is a handy helper utility here – http://help.arcgis.com/en/webapps/flexviewer/help/extenthelper/flexviewer_extenthelper.html – where you can zoom in to an area and copy the initial extent parameters and paste it in to your config.xml file.  Note to make sure you match the aspect ratio of the helper utility to how our app will be normally displayed.

 

Step 5 – Basemaps

In order to provide context to your operational layers select the basemaps that are appropriate for your organization.  New in version 2.2 of the ArcGIS Viewer for Flex you can combine local basemaps with global basemaps like those from ArcGIS Online or Bing.  There are several local government templates for basemaps.  Those include:

Step 6 – Live feeds from other organizations

The COP Template is already configured with live feeds from both the USGS and Pacific Disaster Center.  Add other feeds such as your State or Location Department of Transportation or make your own using the Live Feeds Template.

 

Step 7 – Your operational data

The next step is to organize the data you manage.  From the Emergency Management perspective this can include things like shelters, incidents, damage assessment, and field crew locations.  The COP template provides layers for these.  The other thing to consider is organizing your critical infrastructure data.  Access to other business systems is also important; this is where the “Common” in COP comes in to play and things like Computer-Aided Dispatch, AVL, and Traffic Systems are important to be connected to. 

 

Step 8 – Configure Public Safety COP widgets

The Public Safety COP Templates comes with three custom widgets – the ERG Widget, Report by Exception and Find Closest Facility.  Configure these widgets to point to your own data.  For example you can configure the ERG Widget to point to your own critical infrastructure layer.

 

Step 9 – Get other widgets and organize them

There are many widgets that come with the application out of the box.  There additional widgets from the community – http://help.arcgis.com/en/webapps/flexviewer/gallery.html.  I’ve listed some of the Public Safety related widgets here:

Step 10 – Configure the Splash Screen

Finally configure the Splash Widget for your organization using HTML formatting standards.  You can include hyperlinks.

Now that you have this set up promote this within your organization!  Perhaps you can use this in support of upcoming exercise.  Here’s an example of the COP Template that I have configured in support of the 2011 National Level Exercise:

 

Here are some additional resources that may be helpful as you move forward:

Introduction to the ArcGIS Viewer for Flex – FREE recorded Live Training Seminar – http://training.esri.com/acb2000/showdetl.cfm?did=6&Product_id=983

If you are looking to go from a configurator to a developer here are some good training resources:

 

 

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Configuring the Esri Social Media / VGI Application

by Jeff Baranyi on November 11, 2010

Last week, you may have read about lessons learned developing a web map for volunteered geographic information (VGI) and social media on the ArcGIS Server Blog.  This is an application that has evolved this year and has been used to support many disasters including the Gulf Oil Spill,  hurricanes, flooding in Pakistan and wildfires  This work has been featured in stories by Computerworld, Emergency Management Magazine, CNN and Fox News.  This web application is built with the ArcGIS API for JavaScript and combines ArcGIS Online basemaps, dynamic information from sources like the USGS and Pacific Disaster Center, Social Media and Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) via an ArcGIS 10 feature service. 

The source code for this application is available for download from ArcGIS.com.  You can download and configure this application for use within your organization.  To get started there are a couple of steps that should be fairly straight forward for most web programmers.  These steps are outlined in the documentation that is included with the download.  First, set your extent.  Next, pick you map layers (either rendered as graphics or via dynamic map services).  Then, pick your social media filters, and finally, set up and configure your feature service. 

Here’s an example of the application configured to convey information to the public regarding a train derailment scenario that we’ve used in many of our demonstrations.

 

In this case the Social Media filters have been changed to “Louisville” to pick up Tweets, YouTube, and Flickr photos with that tag.

For more details about the application and configuring it check out the documentation that comes in the download package.

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Public Safety Resource Center Common Operational Picture Template Updated!

by Jeff Baranyi on March 9, 2010

The Emergency Management Common Operational Picture Template on the Public Safety Resource Center has recently been updated.  Here is what’s new:

The workflow has changed slightly where you now select the select the spill location first and then it gives you the option to look up the current wind direction by clicking on the Lookup wind button.

The results tell you the wind direction at the closest weather station as well as the time of the last update.  This is based on the results of another Geoprocessing service which is included in the application.

The results are then displayed as before.

  • The source code for the application is now available in the Flex Community Code Gallery
  • The Report by Exception widgets for both GeoRSS and Live Layer Widgets are now included. This is something that the VIPER application uses and the VDEM folks discuss in their video. Note these are the same tools that are available as a separate entry in the Flex Community Code Gallery.

By clicking on an entry in either the GeoRSS or Live Layer Report by Exception Widget

You’ll query the layers that have been configured to show what’s in proximity.

So in this case you’re not seeing all the schools, just those in proximity to the incident – hence – Report by Exception.  This is something that is highly configurable and you can easily set the layers you want to query and the analysis type (buffer versus drive time, etc.)

We hope you find these updates useful and they help you in your mission.  If you have any comments or suggestions on what we’ve provided as always please either comment below or e-mail us at ArcGISTeamPublicSafety@esri.com.

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Got Live Feeds? The USGS Releases the Natural Hazard Support System based on ArcGIS Server

by Jeff Baranyi on November 18, 2009

The USGS Rocky Mountain Geographic Science Center (RMGSC), based in Denver, CO, recently released their Natural Hazard Support System (NHSS) application based on ArcGIS Server and the ArcGIS API for JavaScript.  This application (http://nhss.cr.usgs.gov/) contains a wealth of dynamic data including Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Hurricanes, Wildfires (from GeoMAC), NOAA Weather Warnings and Watches and much more.

The Data Resources page discusses the sources of each of the data sets as well as the legend.  Also at the bottom of the page you’ll see info on the publicly available ArcGIS Server services:

Three map services were created for use in the NHSS, and each of these services is also publicly available for use by other Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

Map Service Name: nhss_haz

Map Service Content: U.S. Volcanoes, Other Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Hurricanes, Wildfires, Wildfire Perimeters

Map Service Projection: GCS_WGS_1984

Map Service URL’s: http://rmgsc.cr.usgs.gov/ArcGIS/rest/services/nhss_haz/MapServer  

 

Map Service Name: nhss_weat

Map Service Content: Weather Watches and Warnings

Map Service Projection: GCS_WGS_1984

Map Service URL’s: http://rmgsc.cr.usgs.gov/ArcGIS/rest/services/nhss_weat/MapServer  

 

Map Service Name: nhss_info

Map Service Content: Stream Gages, RAWS, Tide Stations

Map Service Projection: GCS_WGS_1984

Map Service URL’s: http://rmgsc.cr.usgs.gov/ArcGIS/rest/services/nhss_info/MapServer

These services can easily be added to the Emergency Management Common Operational Picture Template or Sample Flex Viewer by just adding a few lines to the config.xml file.   Simply copy the following XML in to the livemaps section of the config.xml file above the other layers:

 

<mapservice
     label="USGS NHSS Other Information"  
     type="dynamic"
     visible="false"    
     alpha="0.75">
     http://rmgsc.cr.usgs.gov/ArcGIS/rest/services/nhss_info/MapServer</mapservice>

<mapservice
     label="USGS NHSS Weather" 
     type="dynamic" 
     visible="true" 
     alpha="0.75">
     http://rmgsc.cr.usgs.gov/ArcGIS/rest/services/nhss_weat/MapServer</mapservice>

<mapservice 
     label="USGS NHSS Natural Hazards" 
     type="dynamic" 
     visible="true" 
     alpha="0.75">
     http://rmgsc.cr.usgs.gov/ArcGIS/rest/services/nhss_haz/MapServer</mapservice>

  

 

Furthermore you can leverage the data from and use it within the Live Layers Widgets in the Flex Viewer.  This will allow you to bring more attention to the data layer(s) and bring up some of the record details.

Create an xml configuration file for the Live Layer perhaps by making a copy of the LiveLayerWidget.xml in the comesrisolutionsflexviewerwidgets directory of the web application and call it LiveLayerWidgetWildfires.xml.

Edit the file to include the information needed such as REST End Point to the map layer, the fields to include as well as any hyperlink information.  To do this for the Wildfires layer use the following:

<configuration>
      <layer>http://rmgsc.cr.usgs.gov/ArcGIS/rest/services/nhss_haz/MapServer/4</layer>
      <query>OBJECTID > 0</query>
      <fields>FIRE_NAME, REPORT_DATE, ACRES, HOTLINK, STATE</fields>
      <titlefield>FIRE_NAME</titlefield>
      <linkfield>HOTLINK</linkfield>
      <refreshrate></refreshrate>
      <zoomscale>250000</zoomscale>
</configuration>

Finally add an entry to the config.xml file within the widgets section for this Live Layer Widget:

<widget label="Wildfires" 
icon="com/esri/solutions/flexviewer/assets/images/icons/wildfire32.png" 
menu="menuOplayers" config="com/esri/solutions/flexviewer/widgets/LiveLayerWidgetWildfires.xml">
com/esri/solutions/flexviewer/widgets/LiveLayerWidget.swf</widget>

 

Note that by clicking on the orange arrow that you will be taken to the hyperlink for more information.  In this case the hyperlink leads to the National Interagency Fire Center.  This technique can be used to highlight any of the dynamic data from the NHSS ArcGIS Server layers.

In summary the Natural Hazard Support System provides a wealth of information and you should visit the site often to keep abreast of current hazard information.  For more details about this application click here – http://nhss.cr.usgs.gov/contactus.shtml. Furthermore if you’re already using other applications like the Emergency Management Template COP or the Flex Sample Viewer you can easily add the services from the USGS NHSS application.

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