Common Operational Picture Research Articles

An Innovative System to Enhance Situational Awareness in Disaster Response

Abstract A collaborative decision support system has been developed to enhance situation awareness in case of complex disasters. It includes three modules: (1) UAV carrying multiple sensors; (2) Computer-based expert system (CES); (3) 2D-plume dispersion model. This research focuses on how contemporary technology, combined with commercial off-the-shelf-technology, can be used to fuse information and speed up decision-making. The system provides a context based common operational picture for first responders on scene, and incident commanders in control rooms. The research was conducted in close collaboration with different first response teams, to develop an end user oriented system. We present the design process the regulatory requirements, and the end user needs that will help future developers of such systems. We also highlight some of the areas where further research effort is required. The core system has been evaluated by local police and fire departments, and an EU review team including medical and firefighting practitioners.

Design of procedures for rare, new or complex processes: Part 1 – An iterative risk-based approach and case study

The paper describes a proposed approach for operationalizing the Common Operational Picture concept introduced in the EU FP 7 TOSCA (Total Operations Management for Safety Critical Activities) project, in order to jointly integrate and enhance safety, quality and productivity in the production environment. The approach combines different methods for the description and analysis of plant and operations, including Task Analysis, 4D process simulation, hazard analysis and Pareto optimization, and iterates through them to generate a final procedure. The proposed approach has been demonstrated on an industrial case study related to planning of infrequent cold water pressure testing of LPG storage tanks, and the process and results of this case study are presented and discussed. The plant management was provided with a detailed list of the main tasks (22), sub-tasks (115), the specific risks identified (26, considering procedural delays, occupational safety and process safety) and the specific recommendations (20) for safety and time optimization of the planned testing procedure. The approach was successfully demonstrated as a suitable vehicle for the analysis and planning of rare, complex, unconventional work tasks that are hard to visualize, where the establishment of a Common Operational Picture (COP) among all relevant personnel in the hazardous operations is a must.

COMMERCIAL OFF THE SHELF GROUND CONTROL SUPPORTS CALIBRATION AND CONFLATION FROM GROUND TO SPACE BASED SENSORS

Abstract. The need for rapid deployment of aerial and satellite imagery in support of GIS and engineering integration projects require new sources of geodetic control to ensure the accuracy for geospatial projects. In the past, teams of surveyors would need to deploy to project areas to provide targeted or photo identifiable points that are used to provide data for orthorecificaion, QA/QC and calibration for multi-platform sensors. The challenge of integrating street view, UAS, airborne and Space based sensors to produce the common operational picture requires control to tie multiple sources together. Today commercial off the shelf delivery of existing photo identifiable control is increasing the speed of deployment of this data without having to revisit sites over and over again. The presentation will discuss the processes developed by CompassData to build a global library of 40,000 control points available today. International Organization for Standardization (ISO) based processes and initiatives ensure consistent quality of survey data, photo identifiable features selected and meta data to support photogrammetrist, engineers and GIS professionals to quickly deliver projects with better accuracy.

COMMERCIAL OFF THE SHELF GROUND CONTROL SUPPORTS CALIBRATION AND CONFLATION FROM GROUND TO SPACE BASED SENSORS

The need for rapid deployment of aerial and satellite imagery in support of GIS and engineering integration projects require new sources of geodetic control to ensure the accuracy for geospatial projects. In the past, teams of surveyors would need to deploy to project areas to provide targeted or photo identifiable points that are used to provide data for orthorecificaion, QA/QC and calibration for multi-platform sensors. The challenge of integrating street view, UAS, airborne and Space based sensors to produce the common operational picture requires control to tie multiple sources together. Today commercial off the shelf delivery of existing photo identifiable control is increasing the speed of deployment of this data without having to revisit sites over and over again. The presentation will discuss the processes developed by CompassData to build a global library of 40,000 control points available today. International Organization for Standardization (ISO) based processes and initiatives ensure consistent quality of survey data, photo identifiable features selected and meta data to support photogrammetrist, engineers and GIS professionals to quickly deliver projects with better accuracy.

The humanitarian common logistic operating picture: a solution to the inter-agency coordination challenge.

Although significant progress has been made in developing the practice of humanitarian logistics, further improvements in efficiency and effectiveness have the potential to save lives and reduce suffering. This paper explores how the military/emergency services' concept of a common operating picture (COP) can be adapted to the humanitarian logistics context, and analyses a practical and proven approach to addressing the key challenge of inter-agency coordination and decision-making. Successful adaptation could provide the mechanism through which predicted and actual demands, together with the location and status of material in transit, are captured, evaluated, and presented in real time as the basis for enhanced decision-making between actors in the humanitarian supply network. Through the introduction of a humanitarian logistics COP and its linkages to national disaster management systems, local communities and countries affected by disasters and emergencies will be better placed to oversee and manage their response activities.

Grasp of Disaster Situation and Support Need Inside Affected Area with Social Sensing – An Analysis of Twitter Data Before and After the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster Occurring –

There are increasing expectations that social sensing, especially the analysis of social media text as a source of information for COP (Common Operational Picture), is useful for decision-making about responses to disasters. This paper reports on a geo-information and content analysis of three million Twitter texts sampled from Japanese Twitter accounts for one month before and after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake disaster. The results are as follows. 1) The number of Twitter texts that include geotag (latitude and longitude information) is too small for reliable analysis. However, a method of detecting the tweet’s location from the tweet’s text using GeoNLP (an automatic technology to tag geo-information from natural language text) is able to identify geo-information, and we have confirmed that many tweets were sent from stricken areas. 2) A comparison of Twitter data distribution before and after the disaster occurred does not identify clearly which areas were significantly affected by the disaster. 3) There were very few Twitter texts that included information about the damage in affected areas and their support needs.

Internet of Things (IoT) – A Technological Analysis and Survey on Vision, Concepts, Challenges, Innovation Directions, Technologies, and Applications ( An Upcoming or Future Generation Computer Communication System Technology )

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been inscription in this review paper. Internet of Things is a keyword to cover various challenges related to internet and the web to the real physical world. We know that, today internet has already taken an important part of everyday life and it has also dramatically changed the lives of human being. The most important factor of this invention is, integration or combination of several technologies with the communication system solutions. The most applicable factors of IoT is the identification and tracking various factors for smart objects. The universal sensing networks is enabled by Wireless Sensing Networks (WSN) and these technologies cuts across many areas of modern day living. The escalation of these devices in a communicating and actuating network will create the Internet of Things (IoT). Here the sensors and actuators combine easily with the environment around us and the information is shared across various platforms in order to develop a common operating picture (COP). Internet of Things predicts the future that, the advance digital world and the physical world will get linked by means of proper information and wireless communication system technologies. In this survey paper we have mentioned the visions, concepts, technologies, various challenges, some innovation directions, and various applications of Internet of Things (IoT).

GENERALIZED CARTOGRAPHIC AND SIMULTANEOUS REPRESENTATION OF UTILITY NETWORKS FOR DECISION-SUPPORT SYSTEMS AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT IN URBAN ENVIRONMENTS

Abstract. Cartographic visualizations of crises are used to create a Common Operational Picture (COP) and enforce Situational Awareness by presenting relevant information to the involved actors. As nearly all crises affect geospatial entities, geo-data representations have to support location-specific analysis throughout the decision-making process. Meaningful cartographic presentation is needed for coordinating the activities of crisis manager in a highly dynamic situation, since operators’ attention span and their spatial memories are limiting factors during the perception and interpretation process. Situational Awareness of operators in conjunction with a COP are key aspects in decision-making process and essential for making well thought-out and appropriate decisions. Considering utility networks as one of the most complex and particularly frequent required systems in urban environment, meaningful cartographic presentation of multiple utility networks with respect to disaster management do not exist. Therefore, an optimized visualization of utility infrastructure for emergency response procedures is proposed. The article will describe a conceptual approach on how to simplify, aggregate, and visualize multiple utility networks and their components to meet the requirements of the decision-making process and to support Situational Awareness.

Study on an Online Communication and Task Management System for Disaster Response Utilizing Natural Language Processing

The development and implementation of online-based disaster management information processing systems advance communication among disaster management communities. Many such communities communicate using general-purpose natural language messaging. Online disaster informationprocessing systems should process such communication for making common operational picture and managing tasks and resources. We are thus developing online disaster information management support systems that use natural language processing. In doing so, we compare conventional paper-based and online-based systems for implementing online-based systems and develop task management support systems that use natural language processing.

Augmented Command and Control Table to Support Network-Centric Operations

The success in network-centric warfare requires information superiority to obtain dominant battlespace awareness. The time required to take a decision has been reduced by orders of magnitude, while the volume of accessible data has been increased exponentially. When this volume is displayed to an operator, the risk of reaching a state of information overload is real and great care shall be taken to make sure that what is provided is actually information and not noise. In this paper we propose a novel interaction environment that leverages the augmented reality technology to provide a digitally enhanced view of a real command and control table. The operator equipped with an optical see-through head-mounted display controls the virtual context, a synthetic view of the common operational picture, remaining connected to the real world. Technical details of the system are described together with the evaluation method. The results showed effectiveness of the proposed system in terms of understanding perception, depth impression, and level of immersion. A relevant reduction of the reaction time and of the number of errors made during the execution of complex tasks, have been obtained.Defence Science Journal, Vol. 65, No. 1, January 2015, pp.39-45, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.65.6713

What Should Be Considered to Realize ICT Support for Effective Disaster Response and Recovery?

Recently ICT has been improved rapidly, and it is likely to make a contribution to effective disaster response. However, ICT is not utilized effectively in disaster response because the environment for ICT management is not considered enough. In this paper, we retrieve lessons learned from actual response at the past disasters in Japan, and introduce them following disaster response process model based on human psychological manner. In another point, we suggest significance of Common Operational Picture with spatial information following advanced case study in the United States of America, and identify two essential issues for effective information and technology management. One is information status, such as statics or dynamic information. The other one is five elements for ICT management in disaster response: Governance, Standard Operating Procedures, Technology, Training and Exercise and Use.

COPE – Common Operational Picture Environment

COPE – Common Operational Picture Environment

The Evolution of Applied Geographic Information Systems for Oil Spill Response in California: Rapid Data Dissemination for Informed Decision Making

ABSTRACT Computing technology has advanced to the point where it is now standard practice to employ complex Geographic Information Systems (GIS) within the Incident Command Post (ICP). Simultaneously, field data collection has been migrating to mobile computing applications which output GIS files that are quickly displayed for real-time situational awareness. From the initial emergency response through clean-up and sign-off much data with a spatial component is generated and many disparate data sets are collected. More efficient data integration, management and visual analysis affords Incident Commanders and Section Chiefs the ability to make informed and timely planning, operational and strategic decisions. Traditionally GIS maps were created in the ICP from field sketches, field notes and verbal reports. Processing of these data by the GIS Unit is very time consuming and prone to error. Preliminary efforts to streamline and automate field data collection by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW, formerly the California Department of Fish and Game), Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) utilized Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers to record waypoints and track lines. Since then more elegant electronic field data collection applications installed on small, handheld computers have been developed including those for “Wildlife Recovery and Transport”, “Resources at Risk” over flights, and the “Shoreline Cleanup and Assessment Technique” (SCAT). Other recent advancements allow for real-time aerial remote sensing for oil slick detection and detailed mapping of its properties, and displaying the output from coastal High Frequency (HF) radar installations for real-time visualization of local ocean surface current fields. These field data collection applications are explained in more detail in the body of this paper. Once these data are incorporated into the GIS a web-based Common Operational Picture (COP) is utilized for timely dissemination of relevant geospatial data. OSPR has worked closely with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) to develop “Southwest ERMA” (Environmental Response Management Application) as California's COP for web-based data dissemination and incident situational awareness. At the Deepwater Horizon (MC-252) Incident Command Post (ICP) in Houma, Louisiana many responders were from outside of the region and unfamiliar with the local geography. Area base maps with a standardized coast line and place names were not readily available for several days which added unnecessary confusion to the mix. As a lesson learned and in order to avoid this situation for an oil spill response in California, OSPR and NOAA have pre-loaded Southwest ERMA with pertinent base maps, charts and spill response planning data from the three California Area Contingency Plans (ACPs). These data are deliberately made freely available to the general public via the Southwest ERMA web-viewer without any user login credentials required.

Mobile GIS and Real-Time Data Display in a Common Operating Picture

ABSTRACT Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has become an integral component to the data management, analysis, and presentation needs during an emergency response. GIS allows for the rapid integration of multiple data sets and is a tool utilized throughout the Incident Command System to aid in timely, informed decision making. Advances in mobile and hand-held devices, such as smart-phones, tablets and GPSs have provided new capabilities in field GIS data collection and dissemination. In addition to GIS data, live streaming data feeds, such as vessel Automatic Identification System (AIS) and video from remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), have become increasingly important to situational awareness. Prompt broadcasting of this data in a Common Operating Picture (COP) framework has become critical as the demand for real-time incident information increases.

Web Based Oil Spill Response System

When oil is spilled in a marine environment the impact can be catastrophic to a sensitive region damaging natural resources. It is important to respond quickly and efficiently to maximize the response effort and minimize the impact. In order to plan and train for incidents within the Shannon Estuary in Ireland, The Shannon Estuary Anti-Pollution Team (SEAPT) required a centralized system for its members to allow for remote collaboration and effective response. SEAPT required the ability to seamlessly run and share oil spill models in conjunction with their response planning assets and sensitivity and vulnerability information. RPS ASA leveraged OilmapWeb, a web based oil spill modeling system, as a platform to build a custom oil spill modeling and response system. This customized system allows remote users to run and retrieve oil spill models and relate the output to GIS and multimedia response information. This decision tool is designed to produce fast and accurate results to improve response times and deploy the most effective response plans. The system provides a common operational picture for this region allowing for greater response collaboration and increased preparedness. This helps SEAPT to improve their response planning and facilities the sharing of information remotely in the case of an incident.

The Common Operational Picture as Collective Sensemaking

The common operational picture is used to overcome coordination and information management problems during emergency response. Increasingly, this approach is incorporated in more advanced information systems. This is rooted in an ‘information warehouse’ perspective, which implies information can be collected, sorted and exchanged in an accessible and univocal form. In practice, however, professionals interpret similar information differently. Therefore, we focus on how emergency responders develop collective sensemaking from information. We employ a ‘trading zone’ perspective, in which information is negotiated, to study information management in an ethnographic study of disaster exercises in the Netherlands. Our analysis shows how professionals attribute different meanings to information that distorts the coordination process. We end by stressing the importance of actionable knowledge and reflexivity.

Implementation and Operation of a Cloud Based Participatory Damage Recognition System to Obtain a Common Operational Picture that Supports a Quick Disaster Response

A cloud-based participatory damage recognition survey system using WEB-GIS was implemented and operated to collect comprehensive and fundamental information that could be utilized to generate a common operational picture, which are essential for the recovery and reconstruction efforts during widearea, complex disaster responses. The extent of damages due to buildings that were washed away by the tsunami that occurred during the Great East Japan (Tohoku) Earthquake of 2011 was captured using aerial views. The objective of this research was to develop the cloud-based participatory WEB-GIS system constructing the common operational picture in order to facilitate the decision-making process of disaster response. The team set the research aim to create the web service of certifying property damage due to Tsunami. Using developed service the team conducted the demonstration experiment to survey to identify buildings that were washed away in the three afflicted prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima by Tohoku Earthquake.

Disaster Response to the 2011 Tohoku-Oki Earthquake: National Coordination, a Common Operational Picture, and Command and Control in Local Governments

The author was a participant-observer in the Iwata Prefecture's Emergency Operations Center during the response to the Tohoku-oki earthquake and tsunami. He provides his observations, analysis, and recommendations for the response phase, with an emphasis on command and control and information management. Issues addressed include (1) national coordination, (2) multiple hazard operations, and (3) coordinated relief operations.

Internet of Things (IoT): A vision, architectural elements, and future directions

Ubiquitous sensing enabled by Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) technologies cuts across many areas of modern day living. This offers the ability to measure, infer and understand environmental indicators, from delicate ecologies and natural resources to urban environments. The proliferation of these devices in a communicating–actuating network creates the Internet of Things (IoT), wherein sensors and actuators blend seamlessly with the environment around us, and the information is shared across platforms in order to develop a common operating picture (COP). Fueled by the recent adaptation of a variety of enabling wireless technologies such as RFID tags and embedded sensor and actuator nodes, the IoT has stepped out of its infancy and is the next revolutionary technology in transforming the Internet into a fully integrated Future Internet. As we move from www (static pages web) to web2 (social networking web) to web3 (ubiquitous computing web), the need for data-on-demand using sophisticated intuitive queries increases significantly. This paper presents a Cloud centric vision for worldwide implementation of Internet of Things. The key enabling technologies and application domains that are likely to drive IoT research in the near future are discussed. A Cloud implementation using Aneka, which is based on interaction of private and public Clouds is presented. We conclude our IoT vision by expanding on the need for convergence of WSN, the Internet and distributed computing directed at technological research community.

Localization Services for Online Common Operational Picture and Situation Awareness

Many operations, be they military, police, rescue, or other field operations, require localization services and online situation awareness to make them effective. Questions such as how many people are inside a building and their locations are essential. In this paper, an online localization and situation awareness system is presented, called Mobile Urban Situation Awareness System (MUSAS), for gathering and maintaining localization information, to form a common operational picture. The MUSAS provides multiple localization services, as well as visualization of other sensor data, in a common frame of reference. The information and common operational picture of the system is conveyed to all parties involved in the operation, the field team, and people in the command post. In this paper, a general system architecture for enabling localization based situation awareness is designed and the MUSAS system solution is presented. The developed subsystem components and forming of the common operational picture are summarized, and the future potential of the system for various scenarios is discussed. In the demonstration, the MUSAS is deployed to an unknown building, in an ad hoc fashion, to provide situation awareness in an urban indoor military operation.