Department of Homeland Security hosts training summit for flood preparation

The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) gathered together first responders and public safety professionals earlier this month for a summit focused on flood resiliency.

It was the third annual gathering of the National Geospatial Preparedness Summit (NGPS). It was held at the University of Alabama and engaged capacity building training. In terms of training, it brought in the S&T First Responders Group for workshops and preparing attendees with a real world scenario based on the 2015 Memorial Day flood in Texas. More than 200 people participated in the exercise.

“Flood is the leading cause of death by natural disasters in the U.S., Rebecca Harned, director of the National Alliance for Public Safety GIS (NAPSG) Foundation, said. “This past year, as part of our role under S&T’s Flood Apex program, we focused on identifying core information requirements needed to support better decision making prior to and during flood events. We validated that information in the exercise we conducted, and even put it into action by decision makers.”

Preparedness followed response periods over the course of the exercise, with operators, decision makers, as well as technical and GIS staff on hand to communicate needs and share data between them to guarantee the best path forward. The S&T Flood Apex program team intends to use the information gathered from the event and comments from participants to further reform their research and projects in the future.

The occasion was also used to introduce a recent report from S&T known as Project Responder 5, which discusses emergency response capability needs resulting from current demands, current threats, environmental conditions and recent technology advancements, as noted by First Responder Resource Group members.