WSP District 3 Communications Center - 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: Emergency Commercial Vehicle Response

Responds to commercial vehicle and freight equipment related emergencies. Includes incidents involving hazardous materials as well as the detection of non-permitted transport of security sensitive hazmat.

IDRequirementStatus
1The center shall receive emergency notification information from commercial vehicles, commercial vehicle check stations, or commercial fleet operators and present the possible incident information to the emergency system operator. This may include detection of non-permitted transport of security sensitive hazmat, hazardous cargo spills, etc.Existing
2The center shall receive details of the cargo being carried by commercial vehicles from their commercial fleet manager for incidents involving potential hazardous materials.Existing
3The center shall forward the verified emergency information to the responding agency based on the location and nature of the emergency.Existing
4The center shall provide the capability to request Fleet and Freight Management to disable a specific vehicle in their fleet.Existing

Functional Area: Emergency Dispatch

Dispatch emergency vehicles to incidents, tracking their location and status. Pertinent incident information is gathered and relayed to the responding units.

IDRequirementStatus
1The center shall dispatch emergency vehicles to respond to verified emergencies under center personnel control.Existing
2The center shall store the current status of all emergency vehicles available for dispatch and those that have been dispatched.Existing
3The center shall relay location and incident details to the responding vehicles.Existing
4The center shall track the location and status of emergency vehicles responding to an emergency based on information from the emergency vehicle.Existing
5The center shall store and maintain the emergency service responses in an action log.Existing
9The center shall coordinate response to incidents with other Emergency Management centers to ensure appropriate resources are dispatched and utilized.Existing

Functional Area: Incident Command

Tactical decision support, resource coordination, and communications integration among emergency management agencies for Incident Commands that are established by first responders to support local management of an incident.

IDRequirementStatus
1The center shall provide tactical decision support, resource coordination, and communications integration for Incident Commands that are established by first responders to support local management of an incident.Existing
2The center shall provide incident command communications with public safety, emergency management, transportation, and other allied response agency centers.Existing
3The center shall track and maintain resource information and action plans pertaining to the incident command.Existing
4The center shall share incident command information with other public safety agencies including resource deployment status, hazardous material information, rail incident information, evacuation advice as well as traffic, road, and weather conditions.Existing
5The center shall assess the status of responding emergency vehicles as part of an incident command.Existing

Functional Area: Service Patrol Management

Dispatch and communication with roadway service patrol vehicles that monitor roads to aid motorists, offering rapid response to minor incidents.

IDRequirementStatus
1The center shall dispatch roadway service patrol vehicles to identified incident locations.Existing
2The center shall store the current status of all service patrol vehicles available for dispatch and those that have been dispatched.Existing
3The center shall share incident information collected by the service patrol with traffic, maintenance and construction, and traveler information centers for incident management, incident notification to travelers, and incident cleanup.Existing
4The center shall track the location and status of service patrol vehicles.Existing