IBM Analytics

IBM Intelligent Operations Center

for Emergency Management
Adapt rapidly to complex, changing environments
2 IBM Intelligent Operations Center for Emergency Management

Incidents and emergencies that impact public safety happen

Highlights in every community. Ranging in size and scope from traffic
accidents, water main breaks, power outages, and criminal
• Prepare for, respond to, recover from, and establish effective mitigation activity to mudslides, typhoons, building collapse and
tactics for unexpected events ranging from daily incidents to complex
emergencies
earthquakes; all of these events can create a strain on police
and emergency management personnel. Limited resources drive
• Collect, consolidate, analyze, visualize and share critical information a continuous need to ensure operations personnel, responders
among multiple agencies and first responders through a common
operational picture
and managers act and react in the most effective and timely
way. Lack of integration across systems and agencies, and a
• Increase situational awareness and help identify adverse conditions lack of understanding of the situation based on near real-time
by integrating many disparate data sources
information can impede effective resolution, resulting in risks
• Improve time-to-action with “what if” consequence analysis to understand to human life and damage to critical infrastructure.
cascading impacts on critical infrastructure and key resources

• Integrate weather data to increase lead time and activate rapid response Public safety authorities require solutions that address each
of the four key phases of emergency management:
• Choose an on premise or cloud deployment approach best suited to
budget, security and timeline requirements
• Plan and prepare. Develop, simulate and manage action
plans to address unplanned and planned events, incidents
or disasters.
• Command and respond. Coordinate and collaborate the
efforts of emergency services and first responders when
crises arise.
• Recover. Restore order and services after an incident or
emergency situation.
• Mitigate. Implement strategies that prevent hazards from
turning into disasters.
 IBM Analytics 3

Effective information management is vital. Organizations need to Progressing toward smarter public safety
collect and organize information from disparate sources; deliver For many cities and regions, improving the efficiency and
it in near real time to key emergency management stakeholders, effectiveness of public safety is an ongoing, multifaceted
decision makers and first responders; and analyze it to improve process. By relying on the following capabilities and
preparedness and reduce the time for recovery. The IBM® competencies, authorities can incorporate the value of
Intelligent Operations Center for Emergency Management integrated data analytics when addressing crises:
includes best-of-breed software technologies to assist
organizations in collecting, consolidating, analyzing, visualizing, • Agencies can integrate relevant data from diverse sources,
interpreting and sharing critical information among multiple existing systems and external providers.
agencies and first responders. • The integrated information can enable a trusted common
operational picture that improves situational awareness
Intelligent Operations Center for Emergency Management and facilitates a coordinated cross-agency response.
is an integrated command, control, and communication • Streamlined, role-based information access for the
solution. Using data visualization, real-time collaboration front-line emergency management personnel can
and “what if” analysis, this software solution provides a rich accelerate a tactical response.
opportunity to streamline and integrate preparation, response, • Planners and commanders can use “what if” analytics to
recovery, and mitigation of daily unexpected incidents as develop preventive tactics and identify factors that improve
well as emergencies and disasters. Emergency management successful outcomes.
agencies can transform from a reactive, ad-hoc approach to • By optimizing responses and enhancing collaboration
a proactive, prescriptive approach that creates a safer strategies, authorities can more effectively assess and
environment for citizens and businesses. proactively respond to threats.
4 IBM Intelligent Operations Center for Emergency Management

Integrating systems and sources

The Department of Science and Technology of the Incident commanders and emergency managers need to access
Philippine Government speeds disaster relief deployment many sources of information to understand and adapt to
rapidly changing situations. The Intelligent Operations Center
The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) of the
Philippine Government provides central direction, leadership
for Emergency Management software can integrate disparate
and coordination of scientific and technological efforts in the data sources such as first responder solutions, computer-aided
Philippines. The DOST is headquartered in Quezon City, the dispatch systems, weather data, camera feeds, social media and
Philippines, which is a part of the capital city of Manila. more. By correlating and analyzing many types of data, the
solution provides these kinds of command and control
A timely, coordinated response is critical to saving lives and
capabilities (Figure 1):
livelihood when natural or man-made disasters strike. By having
an integrated emergency management solution, the DOST and
other governmental relief agencies now have a common, • Integrates with existing systems to create a common
shared view of critical information that is needed for decision operating picture that reduces the complexity of managing
making. Integration and analysis of disparate data sources in information across agencies.
near real time, combined with ongoing scenario planning, help • Increases situational awareness in near real-time to help
streamline and focus the government’s response to disasters. identify adverse conditions.
In addition, the solution facilitates advanced, coordinated • Models the cascading impacts on critical assets that are
communications for first responders and emergency personnel. affected by emergencies or other incidents, improving an
When a disaster unfolds, such as a typhoon, decision makers understanding of asset dependencies during response and
can use the solution to deploy resources at the right times and recovery operations.
to the right locations. They can proactively evacuate expected
• Provides a “what if” operating mode to simulate actions and
impact areas, and set up medical and other disaster recovery
responses before they are implemented, which can reduce
operations where they are needed most.
unexpected consequences and enable more efficient
The IBM emergency management solution provides capabilities allocation of resources.
to streamline and integrate the many government response • Speeds collaborative responses through unified dashboards,
processes, helping agencies perform better in order to protect
near real-time, mission-specific alerts and notifications,
the lives of citizens. The disaster operations center gives the
decision support analytics and mobile accessibility.
DOST and its agencies an integrated, near-real-time view of all
disaster-related information to facilitate a coordinated and timely
disaster response.
 IBM Analytics 5

To deliver these capabilities, the Intelligent Operations Center

for Emergency Management provides different stakeholders
with user interfaces that are tailored to the user role:

• Executive dashboard. Executive users, such as mayors,

ministers or city managers who are not directly involved in
IBM Intelligent Operations Center for Emergency Management
operations, use the web-portal interface to view operational
Executive First Responders
Dashboard
Command Center Field Operators and nonoperational statuses, including mission readiness for
Situational Awareness Analytics Collaboration
emergency response. They can also drill down to a read-only


Alerts
Pattern detection


Mission performance indicators
Consequence impact analysis
 Standard operation
procedures for missions
version of the mobile interface to get a high-level view of the
Social Media integration 3D line of sight  White boarding
common operational picture.
 
 Reports and exports  Decision support

• Workstation. The command center staff uses the workstation

Common Operating Picture and Data Stores
client, which has rich GUI functionalities and supports the
use of multiple screens and video wall display. It also helps
911 emergency professionals to perform real-time analytics or
Event 911 CAD Weather Social GPS and Public Works
run “what if ” scenarios in all phases of the emergency
Video Data Traffic Data
Calendar Dispatch Services Media Sensors Data
management cycle.
• Field operator (mobile device). Field operators and first
responders use the mobile browser-based interface to interact
Figure 1: Intelligent Operations Center for Emergency Management. bidirectionally with command center personnel or other field
operators who share the same common operating picture.
6 IBM Intelligent Operations Center for Emergency Management

By using a common operational picture (Figure 2), emergency Creating situational awareness through
personnel in the command center or in the field, managers and analysis and collaboration
decision makers can all share data and critical information and Situational awareness is the key element in managing operations,
collaborate in real time regardless of where they are located. whether it is during normal day-to-day monitoring, special
events, man-made security threats or natural disasters. Within
the common operating picture, the following functions of
Intelligent Operations Center for Emergency Management
help create situational awareness so that users can collaborate
and make better, faster decisions.

Alerts and incident management

Real-time event information is sent into the Intelligent
Operations Center for Emergency Management as alerts.
These alerts include information from police dispatch that
is generated from computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems,
GPS, sensors from critical infrastructure, or from other key
resources, surveillance or traffic cameras. These alerts are
categorized and prioritized automatically, or can be manually
triaged by the operator. Significant alerts can be grouped
together and escalated into an “incident” for managing additional
information as it is acquired, and for tracking and logging
Figure 2: The common operating picture (COP) aggregates information from actions taken as the incident evolves.
disparate sources into a single, shared view.
 IBM Analytics 7

Automatic alert pattern detection Whiteboarding

Based on geospatial relationships, alerts can be tracked to The tactical data layer provides a near real-time collaboration tool
automatically detect patterns of events that happen over a period that enables users to create layers of markups, such as drawings,
of time. When patterns are detected, an operator can be notified annotations or comments, by using the map as a canvas. Users
to investigate in more detail. This tool can be used to identify can then share these markups with other users in the command
precursor activities that can indicate more serious and imminent center or field operators by using the mobile interface.
threats that might not be obvious.
Key performance indicators
Social media integration A mission construct is used to track critical tasks and their
Where access to social media data streams is available, social readiness (Figure 3). Staff can create and maintain the rules to
media feeds can be used to supplement systems data and add govern the states of missions according to the statuses of critical
context to situational awareness. Live data feeds can be displayed infrastructure and key resources (assets). Each of the defined
on the map canvas. Social media records can also be searched missions has a corresponding key performance indicator (KPI)
by keywords that might be relevant to an incident. Then, any and business monitor model. Mission status changes will
relevant findings can be dragged and dropped from the trigger an update to the corresponding KPI. KPIs can help
on-screen map canvas into an incident log. accomplish the following tasks:

Standard operation procedures • Summarize an executive-level status for a single domain

Standard operation or mission procedures can be aligned or across domains for emergency services readiness and for
with predefined preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery other city statuses (for example, citizen sentiments and
plans, regardless of how complex. This enables emergency city financials).
responders to successfully coordinate incident and mission • Highlight potential issues and identify problems.
responses across disciplines and jurisdictions. • Investigate further by drilling down into the KPI details.
8 IBM Intelligent Operations Center for Emergency Management

Consequence analysis tool

The IBM Intelligent Operations Center for Emergency
Management is an all-hazards solution. The consequence
analysis tool is a built-in simulation engine that enables the
user to switch to a “what-if” state to simulate various emergency
or disaster events, such as explosions, storm surges and high
winds. The resulting analysis can be used can be used to
evaluate the cascading impacts on critical infrastructure and
help decide what type of response or standard operations
procedures should be initiated.

Decision support tool

The decision support tool can be used to help an organization
better understand and optimize the recovery process. Recovery
Figure 3: KPIs can show trends, highlight potential issues, and summarize simulations can be run based on resource availability and
mission status for stakeholders.
positioning, in addition to recovery priorities. The resulting
Critical infrastructure and key resources reports can be used to evaluate whether the recovery plan
Critical infrastructure and key resources, such as hospitals, power meets the organization’s objectives and if any additional
stations, water filtration plants, fire stations, police stations, resources are needed. This tool can be used during the planning
bridges and tunnels, and vehicles and vessels, are assets essential stage to optimize the use and staging of resources based on an
to a city or region’s security, public health and safety. These organization’s recovery priority. Alternatively, this tool can
assets can be identified and their operational state tracked be used to generate an initial recovery plan after an emergency
in the IBM Intelligent Operations Center for Emergency or disaster happens.
Management. Each asset has a set of properties that describes
its operational states, interdependencies on other assets, 3D line of sight analysis
vulnerability, operational parameters and other information. By using the 3D mapping capability, the line of sight analysis
tool helps a user to determine locations that are within a specific
distance and are in a direct line of sight from any point. This
function can be used to decide how resources can be positioned
and in the planning of transportation or evacuation routes.
 IBM Analytics 9

Integrate weather data to increase lead • Utilize scenario planning: Access to The Weather
time and activate rapid response Company’s proprietary ensemble forecast system helps
Overall losses from natural catastrophes totaled US$110bn government agencies create multiple, realistic scenarios
in 2014 and more than nine out of ten (92 percent) of the regarding a particular weather event, like a major
loss-related natural catastrophes were due to weather events.1 snowstorm. For example, determining locations that are
For emergency management directors and community leaders, getting hit the hardest and where the heavy rain or snow
highly accurate, timely and hyper-local weather data is at the line will be. This approach shifts the paradigm from
center of protecting critical infrastructure and citizens more using an explicit forecast that can lead to less insightful
rapidly, more thoroughly, and as far ahead of severe weather decisions, to expressing the forecast in probabilities, which
events as possible. leads to more informed decision making.

By integrating The Weather Company data into the IBM Additionally, real-time weather data from The Weather
Intelligent Operations Center for Emergency Management, Company incorporated into the common operational picture
local governments and emergency response organizations of Intelligent Operations Center for Emergency Management
will be able to: provides emergency planners and responders with the speed
and ability to pinpoint situational awareness to respond quickly
• Increase lead time: The integration of The Weather to areas with the most critical needs.
Company’s 15-day probabilistic tropical forecast, which
delivers 1.5 days lead time over publicly available hurricane Rapid 15-minute updates deliver critical forecast changes
forecast information, will help government officials around up to four times faster than the most frequent updating
the world to make better planning, resource positioning and weather models. Additionally, using the high-density
logistical decisions. observation network of The Weather Company’s worldwide
network of weather stations, the ground truth of disaster areas
• Activate rapid response: Weather alerts, data feeds,
can be assessed at a 500 square meter current conditions grid.
visualizations and algorithms can track and predict storms
around the clock so that emergency response teams can Weather has an integral role in everything from retail sales
use advanced analytics to activate rapid response to the to hedge funds to your utility bill; indeed, weather plays a
worst hit areas first. very big part in our economy. The effects of weather hit
closest to home and create the most captivating headlines
when it puts our families, homes and communities in peril.
Nowhere is weather more important than in the area of
emergency management.
10 IBM Intelligent Operations Center for Emergency Management

Choose on premise or cloud deployment

Video analytics Intelligent Operations Center for Emergency Management
offers multiple deployment options to meet a variety of budget,
Communities and regional authorities are increasingly installing
security and timeline requirements for the following scenarios:
video cameras in strategic locations to provide the visual
information that law enforcement and emergency management
• Emergency management agencies that have security
personnel require for enhancing preparedness and rapidly
responding to incidents. For example, video feeds help cities requirements or IT guidelines requiring onsite software
to monitor storm preparation by enabling decision makers to installation can implement the solution on premise.
see how rising waves are affecting ships in a harbor, whether • Agencies that need rapid provisioning, user onboarding,
people are leaving beaches, and whether evacuation routes and quicker time to value can subscribe to a secured
are ready for thousands of people. However, as the number cloud implementation.
of cameras increases, relying on human operators alone to • Billing model options help address operational expense
view and analyze the information captured is inefficient and versus capital expense cash flow.
ineffective. Agencies require ways to increase the value of
video content by using new technologies that analyze video
information, identify threats and provide real-time alerts to the Realizing the value of
right personnel. analytics for public safety
IBM public safety solutions are designed to bring together
The IBM Intelligent Video Analytics solution provides a
comprehensive solution for capturing, analyzing and searching information from a wide variety of sources. These solutions can
large volumes of video content from across a city or region. also help coordinate coordinate efforts among a diverse set of
To help identify and quickly respond to potential problems, the agencies to help mitigate, plan and prepare, respond to and
Intelligent Video Analytics solution enables efficient real-time recover from small-scale and large-scale emergencies. By
video analysis to produce alerts. Video information can be offering a full range of information management, collaboration,
processed and analyzed without human intervention, enabling visualization and analytics capabilities, the IBM Intelligent
agencies to cost-effectively monitor numerous locations Operations Center for Emergency Management can deliver
around the clock. immediate value with its built-in components and provide a
To bolster emergency preparedness, IBM Intelligent Video foundation for adding further competencies over time. With this
Analytics can be integrated with Intelligent Operations Center solution, public safety agencies or security departments can
for Emergency Management. The video analytics capabilities build an analytics infrastructure that helps improve operational
can convert field-of-view data into a common format that can efficiency and encourage a safer environment.
be analyzed along with a range of other data in the Intelligent
Operations Center for Emergency Management solution.
Enhanced Enhanced forensic capabilities enable unique
indexing and attribute-based searching of previous video
events. Operators can rapidly search millions of archived
records, view summaries and identify patterns to improve
emergency preparedness and planning.
 IBM Analytics 11

For more information

To learn more about the IBM Intelligent Operations Center for
Emergency Management, please contact your IBM representative
or IBM Business Partner, or visit the following website:
ibm.com/software/products/en/ioc-emergency-management

IBM Global Financing

Additionally, IBM Global Financing can help you acquire
the software capabilities that your business needs in the
most cost-effective and strategic way possible. For credit
qualified clients, we can customize a financing solution to
suit your business and development requirements, enable
effective cash management, and improve your total cost of
ownership. Fund your critical IT investment and propel
your business forward with IBM Global Financing. For
more information, visit ibm.com/financing.
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1 Review of natural catastrophes in 2014: Lower losses from weather

extremes and earthquake

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