Sandia’s Chuck John uses the SUMMIT iPad app to visualize calculated building damage during NLE 11 exercise conducted in Jonesboro, Arkansas. (Photo by Steffan Schulz) Click on the thumbnail for a high-resolution image. |
Using
iPad mobile devices, emergency preparedness officials and first responders
participating in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Level
Exercise 2011 (NLE-11) were able, for the first time, to make use of a new,
science-based software tool that allows them to view and modify accurate models
of building damage and other post-event disaster effects.
With
funding and direction from the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and
Technology Directorate (DHS/S&T) and support from FEMA’s National Exercise
and Simulation Center, Sandia National Laboratories has
developed the tool, known as the Standard Unified Modeling, Mapping and
Integration Toolkit (SUMMIT). It was piloted at the NLE-11 exercise.
“Say
you’re a fireman, medic, or police officer and you’re participating in an
annual exercise to hone your preparedness skills,” said Karim Mahrous, the SUMMIT project lead at
Sandia. “Such drills, you realize, are vital in mitigating the damage that
might arise from natural disasters or terrorist events.”
“Almost
by definition, however, exercise planners have an inherent challenge in
creating drill scenarios that can be vividly imagined and thus acted upon by
participants,” Mahrous continued. “Typically, first responders playing in an
exercise must pretend and dream up how a damaged building might look. With SUMMIT, there’s no more
pretending.”
“The SUMMIT software tool, I believe,
will be a phenomenal training aid for all responders within our county,” said
David Moore, director of emergency management for Craighead
County in Arkansas, which played a key role at NLE-11. “By having a graphical view of damaged areas, it’s much easier to comprehend
what’s going on in the exercise and thus make smarter, firmer decisions.”
New level of realism and
‘best-of-class’ models
NLE
2011 took place May 16-20. First responders role-playing in the exercise in Jonesboro, Ark., could
utilize iPads with the SUMMIT software, while
others in a Washington, D.C., central command post were able to see
the visualization software on large screens. This enhanced, 3-D virtual view of
damage available to participants in the field is expected to create a new level
of realism and a common operating picture for players in future exercises at
national, regional, and local levels.
“Preparing
responders to work within a rapidly evolving, diverse and multijurisdictional
environment – often with limited or quickly changing situational understanding
– is a major challenge,” said Jalal Mapar, the DHS/S&T program manager who
oversees the SUMMIT
program.
SUMMIT links together models and provides an integrated view of data results. The software offers a graphical view of damaged areas, making it easier for exercise participants to comprehend what’s going on in the exercise and make better decisions. |
SUMMIT significantly improves
the cycle of activities that emergency response teams undertake, including
pre-event planning and equipping, training and exercises and evaluation and
improvement. By creating a collaboration environment that allows dynamic
linking of “best-in-class” modeling and simulation tools and underlying data,
SUMMIT enhances the effectiveness of preparedness activities while reducing the
time and cost needed to train for, analyze and respond to real or potential
incidents.
“Many
organizations and government agencies have already made significant investments
in modeling and simulation, so this is not meant to be yet another modeling
tool,” Mapar said. “What is urgently needed then is not a whole new set of
models, but an easy, quick and user-friendly way to access and link together
the most appropriate models for a given emergency drill.”
Though
current modeling tools are effective, they all incorporate different
assumptions that currently require a large amount of time, resources and human
effort in order to properly synchronize each model’s output.
Making
SUMMIT a
pervasive part of emergency response
SUMMIT’s architecture will
help a range of emergency preparedness professionals from the federal, regional
and local levels tap into existing models to ensure consistency, accuracy and
robustness when exercise scenarios are developed and played out.
Using
various models and calculations, SUMMIT
can input details on buildings and infrastructure, casualties and other key
pieces of information. During exercises, it will visualize an integrated
“story” that can be made available for all players in a master control cell,
much like what occurred in Washington,
D.C., during NLE-11.
The
broader goal, said Mapar, is to make SUMMIT
a pervasive part of preparedness and response for emergency managers,
responders and exercise teams in the federal, state and local government.
