Mission Support Alliance Emergency Services - Emergency Management Functionality
Subsystem Description
The Emergency Management (EM) Subsystem represents public safety, emergency management, and other allied agency systems that support incident management, disaster response and evacuation, security monitoring, and other security and public safety-oriented ITS applications. The subsystem includes the functions associated with fixed and mobile public safety communications centers including public safety call taker and dispatch centers operated by police (including transit police), fire, and emergency medical services. It includes the functions associated with Emergency Operations Centers that are activated at local, regional, state, and federal levels for emergencies and the portable and transportable systems that support Incident Command System operations at an incident. This subsystem also represents other allied systems including centers associated with towing and recovery, freeway service patrols, HAZMAT response teams, and mayday service providers.
The subsystem manages sensor and surveillance equipment used to enhance transportation security of the roadway infrastructure (including bridges, tunnels, interchanges, and other key roadway segments) and the public transportation system (including transit vehicles, public areas such as transit stops and stations, facilities such as transit yards, and transit infrastructure such as rail, bridges, tunnels, or bus guideways). The subsystem provides security/surveillance services to improve traveler security in public areas not a part of the public transportation system.
This subsystem monitors alerts, advisories, and other threat information and prepares for and responds to identified emergencies. It interfaces with other Emergency Management Subsystems to support coordinated emergency response involving multiple agencies. The subsystem stores, coordinates, and utilizes emergency response and evacuation plans to facilitate this coordinated response. As the response progresses, situation information including damage assessments, response status, evacuation information, and resource information are shared to keep all allied agencies appraised of the response. Interface with the Transit Management Subsystem allows coordinated use of transit vehicles to facilitate response to major emergencies and to support evacuation efforts. The Emergency Management Subsystem also provides a focal point for coordination of the emergency and evacuation information that is provided to the traveling public, including wide-area alerts when immediate public notification is warranted.
The subsystem tracks and manages emergency vehicle fleets using real-time road network status and routing information from the other center subsystems to aide in selecting the emergency vehicle(s) and routes that will provide the most timely response. Interface with the Traffic Management Subsystem allows strategic coordination in tailoring traffic control to support emergency vehicle ingress and egress, implementation of special traffic restrictions and closures, evacuation traffic control plans, and other special strategies that adapt the transportation system to better meet the unique demands of an emergency.
Functional Area: Center Secure Area Alarm Support
Collection and response to silent and audible alarms received from travelers in secure areas (such as transit stops, rest areas, park-and-ride lots) and from on-board transit vehicles.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | After the alarm message becomes a verified incident, the center shall determine the appropriate response. | Existing |
| 5 | The center shall determine whether the alarm message indicates an emergency that requires the attention of public safety agencies, and forward alarm message data to the appropriate agency as necessary. | Existing |
Functional Area: Emergency Call-Taking
Provides interface to the emergency call-taking systems such as the Emergency Telecommunications System (e.g., 911) that correlate call information with emergencies reported by transit agencies, commercial vehicle operators, or other public safety agencies. Allows the operator to verify the incident and forward the information to the responding agencies.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The center shall support the interface to the Emergency Telecommunications System (e.g. 911 or 7-digit call routing) to receive emergency notification information and provide it to the emergency system operator. | Existing |
| 2 | The center shall receive emergency call information from 911 services and present the possible incident information to the emergency system operator. | Existing |
| 5 | The center shall receive emergency notification information from other public safety agencies and present the possible incident information to the emergency system operator. | Existing |
| 7 | The center shall coordinate, correlate, and verify all emergency inputs, including those identified based on external calls and internal analysis of security sensor and surveillance data, and assign each a level of confidence. | Existing |
| 9 | The center shall forward the verified emergency information to the responding agency based on the location and nature of the emergency. | Existing |
| 10 | The center shall update the incident information log once the emergency system operator has verified the incident. | Existing |
Functional Area: Emergency Early Warning System
Monitors alerting and advisory systems, information collected by ITS surveillance and sensors, and reports from other agencies in order to identify potential, imminent, or in-progress major incidents or disasters. Notification is provided to other ITS centers to notify the traveling public.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The center shall monitor information from Alerting and Advisory Systems such as the Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs), the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC), the Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS), etc. The information may include assessments (general incident and vulnerability awareness information), advisories (identification of threats or recommendations to increase preparedness levels), or alerts (information on imminent or in-progress emergencies). | Existing |
| 2 | The center shall provide the capability to correlate alerts and advisories, incident information, and security sensor and surveillance data. | Existing |
| 3 | The center shall broadcast wide-area alerts and advisories to traffic management centers for emergency situations such as severe weather events, civil emergencies, child abduction (AMBER alert system), military activities, and other situations that pose a threat to life and property. | Existing |
| 10 | The center shall process status information from each of the centers that have been sent the wide-area alert. | Existing |
| 11 | The center shall coordinate the broadcast of wide-area alerts and advisories with other emergency management centers. | Existing |
| 13 | The center shall present the alert and advisory information and the status of the actions taken in response to the alert by the other centers to the emergency system operator as received from other system inputs. | Existing |
| 14 | The center shall support the entry of alert and advisory information directly from the emergency system operator. | Existing |
Functional Area: Emergency Evacuation Support
Evacuation planning and coordination to manage evacuation and reentry of a population in the vicinity of a disaster or other emergency that poses a risk to public safety.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The center shall manage inter-agency coordination of evacuation operations, from initial planning through the evacuation process and reentry. | Existing |
| 2 | The center shall develop and exchange evacuation plans with allied agencies prior to the occurrence of a disaster. | Existing |
| 3 | The center shall provide an interface to the emergency system operator to enter evacuation plans and procedures and present the operator with other agencies’ plans. | Existing |
| 4 | The center shall coordinate evacuation destinations and shelter needs with shelter providers (e.g., the American Red Cross) in the region. | Existing |
| 5 | The center shall provide evacuation information to traffic, transit, maintenance and construction, rail operations, and other emergency management centers as needed. | Existing |
| 6 | The center shall request resources from transit agencies as needed to support the evacuation. | Existing |
| 8 | The center shall provide traveler information systems with evacuation guidance including basic information to assist potential evacuees in determining whether evacuation is necessary and when it is safe to return. | Existing |
| 9 | The center shall monitor the progress or status of the evacuation once it begins and exchange tactical plans, prepared during the incident, with allied agencies. | Existing |
| 10 | The center shall monitor the progress of the reentry process. | Existing |
| 12 | The center shall retrieve information from public health systems to plan for and implement evacuations or in-place sheltering for biological, chemical, radiation, and other public health emergencies. | Existing |
Functional Area: Emergency Response Management
Strategic emergency planning and response capabilities and broad inter-agency interfaces to support large-scale incidents and disasters, commonly associated with Emergency Operations Centers.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The center shall provide strategic emergency response capabilities provided by an Emergency Operations Center for large-scale incidents and disasters. | Existing |
| 2 | The center shall manage coordinated inter-agency responses to and recovery from large-scale emergencies. Such agencies include traffic management, transit, maintenance and construction management, rail operations, and other emergency management agencies. | Existing |
| 3 | The center shall provide the capability to implement response plans and track progress through the incident by exchanging incident information and response status with allied agencies. | Existing |
| 4 | The center shall develop, coordinate with other agencies, and store emergency response plans. | Existing |
| 5 | The center shall track the availability of resources and coordinate resource sharing with allied agency centers including traffic, maintenance, or other emergency centers. | Existing |
| 6 | The center shall allocate the appropriate emergency services, resources, and vehicle (s) to respond to incidents, and shall provide the capability to override the current allocation to suit the special needs of a current incident. | Planned |
| 12 | The center shall provide information to the media concerning the status of an emergency response. | Existing |
| 14 | The center shall provide the capability for center personnel to provide inputs to the management of incidents, disasters and evacuations. | Existing |
| 15 | The center shall collect information about the status of the recovery efforts for the infrastructure during disasters. | Existing |
| 16 | The center shall provide the overall status of infrastructure recovery efforts to traveler information providers and media. | Existing |
| 17 | The center shall provide the capability to communicate information about emergency situations to local population through the Emergency Telecommunications System. | Existing |
| 18 | The center shall provide the capability to identify neighborhoods and businesses that should be informed of an emergency situation based on information collected about incidents including their severity, impacted locations, and recovery schedule. | Existing |
| 19 | The center shall retrieve information from public health systems to increase preparedness for, and implement a response to biological, chemical, radiation, and other public health emergencies. | Existing |
Functional Area: Emergency Routing
Routing of emergency vehicles to facilitate the quickest/safest arrival. Routes may be determined based on real-time traffic information and road conditions or routes may be provided by Traffic Management on request.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | The center shall receive asset restriction information to support the dispatching of appropriate emergency resources. | Existing |
| 6 | The center shall track current emergency vehicle location and status. | Existing |
| 7 | The center shall calculate emergency vehicle routes, under center personnel control, based on the collected traffic and road conditions information. | Existing |