RE: Article mentioning CAP, EDXL

Alternative data communication key to emergency response, 
Perennial Awareness

 

News footage of last December’s Asian tsunami 
was horrifying. As reports filtered out of the disaster – 
tragic stories of slow response, of missing persons and searching relatives – 
discussion centered on communication failures and all the things that should 
have been done. Few imagined that in the U.S., four years after September 
11th, we would be so unprepared for another large-scale disaster of 
our own.

  The aftermath of Hurricanes 
Katrina and Rita underscored our country’s need for significant improvement in 
emergency response.  That emergency personnel and agencies of all kinds on 
the Gulf Coast could not communicate with one another until the fourth day after 
Katrina hit the region – and not well after that – places the job of improving 
reliable contact for first responders at the top of that 
list.

  Fortunately, Congress has 
quickly recognized this need. New appropriations bills include funding to 
rebuild and improve communications technology as well as policies to facilitate 
coordination. Policy-oriented legislation is also in the works, with bills to 
enhance emergency communications (such as S. 1725) or to create 
a new all-hazards warning system (S. 
1753). 

  Yet for the most part, 
legislation dealing with first responder contact is focused on communications 
via radio. But radio, an emergency response necessity, is not all-encompassing. 
To complement it, data communication – or the exchange of information by 
computers of all kinds – is being championed by emergency response and 
technology leaders as a critical emergency information-sharing 
technique.

  “First responders rely on radios – it is what they use under most 
day-to-day situations.  So, in disasters where they may run into others who 
can't share radio frequencies, or they lose connectivity due to disaster 
conditions, this becomes a serious concern,” says Jeff Flading of Anteon, a 
Virginia-based corporation that provides mission, operational and IT enterprise 
support to the U.S. Government. “Whether or not radio communication is 
available, passing information in standardized computer formats reduces the 
amount of information that may be needed to be exchanged verbally by radio, and 
therefore allow for more effective use of radio for those types of communication 
that are interactive and dynamic in the emergency 
response.”

  For most of us these days, 
using an electronic network to gather information or to send information to 
another party has become second nature.  Whether using the Internet or an 
internal corporate network, data communications makes jobs quicker, easier, and 
more fluid.  One notable exception, however, is in the emergency 
arena.

  Alert and warning procedures 
for data communications have become more complex since the baby boomer-era’s 
nuclear attack warning sirens. Because there are currently many devices 
consumers use for communications, agencies now maintain an array of disparate 
alerting systems and equipment, causing emergency managers to try to operate 
many different alert systems at the exact same time. The problem? Getting the 
right message out on disparate systems. Sometimes small mistakes occur, like 
messages with word discrepancies, but much worse are the times that warning 
messages contradict one another, or don't get through because there is not a 
human being on duty to retype the alert into a new format. 
  

  In order to continue using 
this valuable data-exchange, but make it easier and less error-prone, the Common 
Alerting Protocol (CAP) was created. Approved in 2004, it provides a simple and 
standard format for sending out emergency alerts and warnings.  CAP allows 
a single message to be broadcast simultaneously over many different warning 
systems.

  CAP works for any data 
network, including those that don’t usually communicate well with others.  
Now, information can be shared among diverse agencies ranging from local police 
to the National Guard to local hospitals.  More than 50 vendors and state 
and federal agencies have publicly announced support for CAP, and many are using 
it today. The National Weather Service uses a CAP format version of its weather 
warnings, and the U.S. Geological survey is incorporating it into warnings for 
earthquakes, volcanoes and wild fires.  The Bush Administration has 
mandated that all agencies become CAP-compliant.

  CAP was created by a 
cooperative, open process of many emergency experts. It was then sponsored by 
the Emergency Interoperability Consortium (EIC), and a broadly representative 
group of emergency response leaders. It was approved as a formal international 
standard by the international Organization for the Advancement of Structured 
Information Standards (OASIS). In January of 2005, the EIC entered into a formal 
Memorandum of Agreement with the Department of Homeland Security Disaster 
Management (DHS/DM) to work together to promote the development and 
proliferation of open emergency management standards. The EIC now references the 
emerging body of standards as the "Emergency Data Exchange Language" or 
EDXL.

  A new version, CAP 1.1, was 
just approved by OASIS; it allows agencies to contain more warning 
information.  A new "EDXL distribution element,” now published for public 
comment by OASIS, allows users to target more specifically the areas and 
agencies to which emergency messages of any kind should go.  A set of 14 
“resource messages” has been developed by emergency leaders and EIC and 
submitted to OASIS for turning into standards.  These describe all forms of 
requests and responses for people and things that emergency agencies need in 
emergencies. 

  These standards allow data to be delivered over any type of network, and 
any type of communications technology, from a sophisticated fiber network to a 
hastily assembled Wi-Fi network.

  In an attempt to get Congress to recognize officially, through 
legislation, the value of data networks and open standards as vital components 
of emergency communication, the EIC submitted testimony to the Senate Commerce 
Committee on the data and standards issues and 
is striving to make certain that policymakers recognize the importance of 
interoperable emergency data communications. EIC has noted that grants to states 
and localities need to allow the funds to be used for all forms of emergency 
communications, including information technology and software, not just 
"equipment" or hardware. 

"Interoperability for data 
communications is an issue whose time has come," said EIC Chairman 
Matt Walton. "The EIC is pleased to have worked with its partners DHS and 
OASIS to bring quickly bring forth CAP 1.0 and the emerging family 
of open standards under the framework of EDXL for emergency management and 
Homeland Security. With focus and commitment, the day is not far off when 
everyone involved in responding to disasters should be able to access the 
information they require when and how they need it."

  In a year of unparalleled 
disasters, Americans owe it to themselves and their communities to demand 
proven, up-to-date technologies to help responders do their jobs to the best of 
their abilities. No one is beyond the reach of a crisis, but there is no reason 
we need be beyond the reach of timely warning and prompt 
relief.

Art 
Brodsky is a freelance writer based in 
the Washington, D.C. area and has worked as a consultant to the 
EIC.

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Carl Reed, PhD
CTO and Executive Director Specification 
Program
OGC

 

The OGC: Helping the World to Communicate Geographically

 

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