RE: EM Standards List

> One of the 12 major recommendations from the US Academy Report 
> "Successful Response Starts with a Map" was to break down the 
> communication barriers between the EM, GIS, and IT communities 
> and to enhance EM training of GIS professionals that work in 
> EOCs and so forth

Hi Carl,

Is the US Academy Report available online? - it seems to include excellent
recommendations. Attached for interest (and in support of Carls comments) is
a small composite of a satellite image, CAD output and manually drawn
exclusion zone for an evacuation I am coordinating tomorrow. This particular
evac is small and happening in a relatively unpopulated area (only a few sq
kilometres), but still demonstrative of maping systems being used from the
outset of disaster pre-planning and prevention right through to response,
mitigation, impact recovery and rebuilding. In this case the mapping
function is used in support of our other deployed EM tools (seismic
monitoring, evacuation alarms, personnel tracking systems, PPE, comms and
protocols, ICS procedures and structures etc. etc.). 

I guess it's also demonstrative of how EM is no longer limited to govt
emergency response agencies. If the last decade was the decade of building
business continuity through IT systems and backups; this decade is surely
that of building business continuity through implementation of best-practice
emergency planning and management (mostly courtesy of the events surrounding
911 and the tsunami, although in truth strongly reminiscent of the '70's
cold war that saw IBM in Sydney construct an atomic bomb-proof shelter for
it's mainframes, so IBM Au could take over from IBM US when the US was
inevitably bombed by Russia!). Response agency-trained EM personnel nowadays
need only look in the positions vacant columns of local newspapers to find
an array of corporate positions on offer, something unheard of a few years
ago. This fortunately has brought a whole new sphere of financing, support
and professionalism to the EM sector. In my view, welcome additions although
the impact on this project should not be understated. Corporate interests
(national and global) also have a strong vested interest in Emergency
Management systems and compatibilities.

Kind regards,
Don Cameron