What Can You Do for Your Country?

Editor’s Note: As Geospatial Solutions rings in a new year, we’re pleased to welcome Art Kalinski to the helm of the GeoIntelligence Insider newsletter. Please e-mail him with your questions and comments about the use of GIS in military and homeland security applications.

By Art Kalinski

I felt honored to receive an invitation to write this monthly column for Geospatial Solutions. I guess when you get to my age, people assume that you finally know something. The only thing I know for sure is that I realize how little I know — and that the learning process never stops.

When my GIS career started, I was a career naval officer who was tasked with performing the U.S. Navy’s 1987 Base Closure study. The complexity of determining which of the 326 Naval Reserve Centers should be closed led me to a new technology: geographic information systems. Once I set up the Navy’s first GIS, I was able to effectively execute ring studies to determine the geographic distribution of reservists and how closures would affect travel times (and the resulting impact on costs and retention).

GIS proved to be such a powerful tool that I pursued a master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, studying under Dr. Dennis Lord and Dr. Wei-Ning Xiang. After completing the degree and retiring from the Navy in 1993, I became the GIS manager for the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC). Several years ago, we started using oblique imagery with our GIS. It spawned an expansion of GIS use that I had never seen, especially among first responders.

Last year, when I was approached by an oblique imagery company to manage military applications, I was surprised that the technology was not already being used by the armed forces, but thrilled by the opportunity. So now I manage a Marine Corps-wide imagery contract, and get a chance to rub elbows with the nation’s finest.

It’s those experiences that lead me to ask the rhetorical question, “What can I, as a GIS professional, do for my country?” As GIS professionals, we tend to think of GIS operations as limited to back rooms populated by computer geeks. Sometimes it seems that the impact of our work doesn’t make it out of those back rooms. Consider the following events, where maps in the field made a big difference to a country in crisis.

September 11, 2001: The New York City GIS operation — housed in Building 7 of the World Trade Center — was destroyed. Luckily the GIS staff was unhurt, but they had no equipment, nor a facility in which to do their work. Many volunteers came together to restore and expand a GIS operation in a west-side pier warehouse. When I spoke with GIS Director Alan Leidner, I was stunned to learn that in the weeks after 9/11, the makeshift GIS operation produced some 7,000 E-size plots and 8,000 smaller plots in response to more than 1,800 requests for support. I told Alan that I couldn’t even imagine that number of requests. He replied that was also surprised, but that fulfilling each request answered a real need, and was greatly appreciated by the recipients.

January 6, 2005: In Graniteville, South Carolina, a train derailment caused a chlorine spill that killed nine people. During the following weeks, the Aiken County GIS Division operated around the clock and produced more than 1,200 GIS plots for the 100-plus agencies that came to “help.”

Labor Day weekend, 2005: Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Local GIS capabilities were eviscerated. The GIS Corps was mobilized and even in Atlanta, ARC’s GIS Division helped by producing more than 200 E-size plots of aerial imagery overlaid with GIS vector data and GPS reference grids. The plots were delivered to the National Guard, where they were used in rescue and recovery efforts.

2006 Atlanta midtown apartment fire.

During the fire, police and firefighters worked together, thanks to GIS.

On a much smaller scale, Atlanta experienced a midtown apartment fire in 2006. Upon seeing the smoke and hearing the news, my GIS staff immediately printed hard-copy plots of the location and delivered the plots to the on-scene commander. The imagery and overlaid street data helped the commander coordinate the plans to cordon off the area. I’ve been told that the picture at right is historic, because it shows police and firefighters actually working together. Such is the power of GIS.

Other than being burned to the ground during the civil war, Atlanta has avoided major disasters — so far. With a regional population of 4 million, one of the largest airports in the world, thousands of truck and rail miles traveled every day, and a major rail yard located next to downtown, Atlanta is fertile ground for potential damaging events. As ARC’s GIS manager, it became clear that it would be a dereliction of duty if we didn’t prepare to support first responders in the event of a major regional emergency. After all, we had the hardware, software, orthorectified and oblique imagery, data, and most importantly, a well-trained GIS staff.

We inventoried our resources and realized that we only needed a few items to build a portable operation that could be trucked to any location in the region to provide GIS support. Our final system consisted of two laptops running ArcGIS, 2 terabytes of portable hard drive storage, two desktop printers, an HP plotter, LCD projector and screen, and an E-size laminator. The laminator permitted us to provide maps and imagery for use in wet field locations. We already had most of the hardware, so our additional purchases were limited to two folding tables and chairs from an office supply store, and a $600 pop-up tent in case we had to set up outdoors. We considered getting a generator, but since we planned to set up shop in schools, churches, public buildings or, most likely, next to a mobile command vehicle, power was not a concern.

We quickly learned some surprising lessons. Although E-size plotters don’t look very large in the office, most of them won’t fit inside a minivan or SUV. Since those vehicles were the most readily available transportation for us, we had the legs of our plotter shortened by 10 inches so that it would fit. Unfortunately, the HP 1055 plotter’s legs have special fittings on each end, so the 10 inches has to be taken out of the middle instead of off the end. I found an auto body shop that “chopped” the legs, welded them, and finished them to look like new for $150. We renamed the plotter “Stumpy.”

Another key lesson was supplies. During our Katrina support we ran out of ink and plotter paper, and had a hard time getting additional supplies during the Labor Day weekend. We subsequently instituted a policy to never fall below a baseline of supplies. For us, that minimum was 10 rolls of plotter paper, two sets of inkjet cartridges, and 10 boxes of E-size foam-core lamination pouches. Rotating our stock ensured fresh supplies at all times. We also obtained emergency contact numbers for several suppliers if the need arose.

Setting up the ARC Portable GIS for UASI Exercise.

Inside the ARC Portable GIS tent.

Some GIS operations may make the decision not to go portable. Each locality is a unique situation, and going portable may not be feasible. Those who do decide to build a portable system must test and exercise the system. It’s easy to assume that you can go portable, but until you work out all the kinks, “Murphy” will be your partner. We took advantage of several training opportunities to set up and demonstrate our system, including an Urban Area Security Initiative command and control exercise observed by DHS. Not only does this type of exercise test the system, but it exposes first responders to its capabilities and what they can expect from the GIS team.

ARC Portable GIS set up next to Atlanta Police Mobile Command Vehicle.

There is a potential to step on the toes of local GIS divisions, so we made it clear to all that we’re not in the business of competing with other GIS operations, but we will go where needed if the local capabilities are overwhelmed. To prevent confusion, we coordinate the requisition of our system through the Georgia Emergency Management Agency Georgia Mutual Aid Group.

I don’t want to overplay the importance of GIS support during a crisis. After all, computer maps and data are just one cog in the emergency response wheel. But GIS can provide the information and tools to give our first responders that little edge that makes a difference. To me, that added support is worth my time. As GIS professionals I feel that we owe this support to our community, taxpayers, and most important to the first responders at the tip of the spear.