The Next-Generation Incident Command System (NICS)

Presented to The 2013 National Rural ITS Conference

Gregory Hogan

27 AUG 2013

UNCLASSIFIED

UNCLASSIFIED

Supported by Dr. Robert GriffinDirector of Support to the Homeland Security Enterprise and First Responders (FRG)

DHS Science & TechnologyPOC: Dr. Paul Breimyer: paul.breimyer@LL.MIT.EDU

NICS - 2

Incident and Disaster ResponseCurrent Situation

• Situational Awareness• Scalability• Resource and Asset Tracking• Interoperable Information Sharing• Decision Support• Realistic Training & Exercises

Hurricane SandyOctober 2012

Capability Shortfalls

Mumbai AttackNovember 2008

Gulf Oil SpillApril 2010

…

Need distributed, scalable architecture to enable multi-agency situational awareness and collaborative command and control (C2)

Response is Local: ~ 54,000 local governments

85% of Law Enforcement < 20 staff

FederalRegionStateCounty

LocalTribalNGOs…

First Responder Community

Boston MarathonApril 2013

Slide - 3

Homeland Disaster Response

Technical Challenge: Organize, coordinate, and command the efforts of dozens of agencies and thousands of responders

1 10 100 1K 10K 100K

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Number of Responders

Com

man

d Le

vels

*

Resource Challenges

Command & Control Challenges

“Extreme Events”

Medical Response

Train Wreck

Massive Earthquake

HazMat

Scale

Com

plex

ity

*Assumes 5 person span of command(nominal Incident Command System standard)

• Safety• Rescue• Restore order• Protect property

First Responder Mission

• State All-Risk/All-Hazard agency

• Significant scope of responsibility

• Forward-leaning agency

Partnership with CAL FIRE

(Since 2007)

• Complexity• Scale• Harsh Environments

ChallengesWildland

Fire

Fire Siege

Slide - 4

EO/IR Imagery and Full Motion Video

Internet

Wave Relay

CellularRemote Command Centers• Multiple, distributed servers

NICS System Overview

• C2 displays Position Location

Mobile Displays & Collaboration

Position Location

Imagery Weather Time-Space-Position Info

Geographic Information

SystemVideo Fire History Maps

Services

Communication Backbone

Geo-Referenced Whiteboards

Slide - 5

NICS: Web-BasedCollaborative Online Environment

Challenge: Provide distributed situational awareness for Tired-Dirty-Hungry RespondersApproach: Develop simple, web-based collaborative online situational awareness interface

• Picture is worth 1,000 words• Improves essential human

communication: sketch, gesture, speech

• Incidents

• Maps & Data

• Real-Time Collaboration

• Text Chat

• Field Reports

• Apps

• Tired-Dirty-Hungry Interface

…

Slide - 6

CAL FIRE Video

The Next-Generation Incident Command System(NICS)

February 2011

Slide - 7

CAL FIRE Video

The Lincoln Distributed Disaster Response System

(LDDRS)

February 2011

Slide - 8

NICS Operational Evaluations

• CAL FIRE Operationalizing NICS Statewide─ NICS trained California users in 150+ organizations

─ Leveraged on 250+ operational incidents since 2010

• Transportation Data: 35+ AVL Feeds; traffic cameras; DOT Events

• 2012-2013 Testbeds: FDNY & Massachusetts

2010 CA Flooding 2010-Present Fire Seasons 2013 Blizzard (Nemo)

Slide - 9

Third Party “App” Integration

DARPA sponsoring Metron Inc. to integrate with NICS; 23 CA orgs online

CA Utility provider integrating weather station data into NICS

DeLorme modified their flagship hand-held GPS product to interface with NICS

…

First Responders Driving Industry to Open Interfaces for NICS Compatibility

App Store

Slide - 10

NICS Massachusetts Use

• Key Incidents• Boston Marathon, • July 4th, • Live Ops, …

• 2 August 2012 NY Chemical Fire (live op)

• NY Nat. Guard• MA Nat. Guard• MA Dept. Fire Serv.• MA EMA

MANG deployed

units

MA / NY State Line

Chemical Sampling reports

Chat between MANG to MA Fire Services

Military ↔ Civilian Coordination

Slide - 11

2012 Boston MarathonUsersChat Runner Density Roads Status GPS Tracking

• Road closures coordinated and scheduled using NICS

• Natick Police used NICS SA to coordinate bank robbery response

Partnered with BAA, MEMA, MA National Guard, MA Fire Services, Natick and Hopkinton Police Depts

Slide - 12

2010 Border Incident: Airborne Remote Sensing Platform

8

8• Platform declared operational by CAL FIRE (Sep 2010)

• Tech Transferred 2011

Kneeboard Display

Provides SA for air attack officer and ground support

• Enables observation through smoke

• Real-time video streaming to ground

• Identifies fire retardant drop areas

CAMVU Border(International – US & Mexico)

19 September 2010

• Fire retardant drop coordinated by Air Attack camera• International boundary sensitivities

“I was able to use the IR to guide both fixed wing and helicopter drops into critical areas…We had one critical section of line fire under the smoke column that I was able to observe via the IR. If the fire had crossed this dry river bottom it would have ran up a South Aspect slope into the U.S.A and impact the 500 KV lines located along the border. “ - Chief Marc Hafner

Air Surveillance Officer (ASO)

=2010 Incidents

Slide - 13

AMGEN “Tour of California” Bike Race (May 2013)

Organizations

• Palm Springs Police Dept.• Murrieta Police Dept.• California Highway Patrol• Riverside County Fire• Palm Springs Fire Dept.• AMGEN (Industry)• Murrieta Fire Protection• San Diego County Fire

Organizations

• Palm Springs Police Dept.• Murrieta Police Dept.• California Highway Patrol• Riverside County Fire• Palm Springs Fire Dept.• AMGEN (Industry)• Murrieta Fire Protection• San Diego County Fire

Key Data• Multiple AVL Feeds• Satcom tracking devices

(DeLorme)• Real-time collaboration in NICS

Multi-Organizational Collaboration and C2: Numerous non-race local incidents coordinated using NICS

Slide - 14

Successful Capstone Event with FDNY and West Point

HSEEP-EP

NICS

HSEEP-EP and NICS Integration: Bridging Preparedness And Response

West Point Operators

“White Cell”

FDNY Exercise “Storm Trax”

April 17, 2013

• Based on Hurricane Sandy• West Point Cadet counter-terrorism

capstone exercise coordinated by FDNY• Participants impressed with injects into

an operational tool

Slide - 15

US Coast Guard Pilot: Mobile Situational Awareness and C2

• Shared SA• Personnel Tasking• Alerting• …

Map view Video view

Maritime Map Markups

As A Sensor SA & C2• PLI/GPS Tracking• Real-time Video & Imagery• Field Reporting• …

Slide - 16

NICS Evolution

Limited ObjectiveExperimentRiverside, CA

All Hazards Response

2009 2010 TodayNational Guard

• MA Joint Operations Center• HQ and other states (in discussion)

• DHS S&T continues as technical innovation sponsor

• Technical vision developed through broad engagement across the Homeland Protection enterprise

- First Responders, National Guard, USCG, FEMA, …

Fire Department of New York• ‘Higher Command’ SA

Emergency Management Agencies• Massachusetts, California

CALFIRE ‘Operationalizing’• Statewide, San Diego node• Diverse operations

Wildfire Response

US Coast Guard• Mobile

applications

Slide - 18

FDNY West Point Cadet ExerciseActive Incidents & StatusIncident Quick Look

Incidents Documents &

Snapshots

Incident Meta-Data

2012 & 2013 FDNY Exercises with West Point Cadets and NORTHCOM

Demonstrated Military-Civilian Coordination During a Hurricane Sandy Based Exercise

Slide - 19

NICS Use: Search & Rescue - April 2013 (CA)

Search Areas

ICS Lead: Riverside County Sheriff Department

• DARPA sponsored• Free Search and Rescue

mobile apps for Apple/iOS and Google/Android

• Tracking integrated with NICS

Slide - 20

Looking Ahead

NICS goal is to develop a national platform that:─ Is as inexpensive as possible─ Is scalable at a national level─ Provides a common platform in support of NIMS ICS─ Encourages vendor participation (i.e. “Apps” Model with Open Standards)─ Provides an open platform to develop and evaluate novel capabilities

Status

• CA operationalizing statewide; “NICS Users Group” leading transition• Currently in initial stage with MA• Primary MA partners: National Guard, DFS, MEMA

─ In process of reaching out to other organizations

Slide - 21

2003 “Cedar” Fire Video

Slide - 22

NICS Use:2013 Boston Marathon

MA NG Deployments

Explosion 1Explosion 2

Marathon Data

Marathon Route

Health Stations

Evacuation Zone

MA National Guard leveraged NICS for SA prior to the bombings, and to track and coordinate resources during the extended response

Suspect #1 Fatality

Race-Day Response

Lockdown & Search