COMPUTERWORLD: iPad App Helps Forest Service Distribute Maps for Firefighters

GPS · Sep 28, 2013

CIO - The U.S. Forest Service deploys a mobile map application for firefighters and emergency responders to use in the field and for tactical planning

The Project: Implement a mobile map application for U.S. Forest Service firefighters and emergency-situation units to use in the field and for tactical planning.

The Business Case: As situation unit leader for the U.S. Forest Service, Chris Brenzel oversees production and distribution of the maps (and fire-behavior assessments and weather forecasts) for his 52-person emergency-response team and the camps of 2,000 to 5,000 federal firefighters responding to disasters across the country. While the map-distribution process had improved since the days of cutting up topographic maps from the U.S. Geological Survey, taping them together and running them through the photocopier, it remained labor- and paper-intensive, with Brenzel producing up to 150,000 map pages a day. Because of the time required for printing, the deadline for editing the maps was 9 p.m. the night before a shift. With fast-moving wildfires, the maps distributed to firefighters at 6 a.m. were already antiquated.

First Steps: Brenzel looked at several digital display options and selected Avenza's free PDF map app for its ease of use, display quality and clean functionality. He and his team tested the app for two months over the summer on an iPad purchased with Brenzel's own money (the federal government provides only one rented tablet per situation unit) while responding to incidents at the Cleveland National Forest in San Diego. Brenzel's team compared notes with other situation units experimenting with mobile apps before having others, including the firefighters, download the Avenza app on their personal devices in August. Although Brenzel uses Esri's GIS mapping software, not Avenza's MAPublisher, to build his maps, pushing them to the app as PDFs is as simple as checking a box before export. "We can make edits to the maps up to a half-hour before the morning briefing," says Brenzel, a former fire captain. "It gives us what they call in the military a better common operating picture."

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Source:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/arti...rest_Service_Distribute_Maps_for_Firefighters

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