3.4: Flagship Initiative
Expand Virtual USA (vUSA), an innovative information-sharing initiative that draws on practitioner input to help Federal,
State, local and Tribal first responders collaborate to make fast, well-informed decisions
Other Information:
On December 8, 2009, Secretary Janet Napolitano publicly launched Virtual USA (vUSA), an innovative information-sharing initiative
that draws on practitioner input to help Federal, State, local and Tribal first responders collaborate to make fast, well-informed
decisions. vUSA integrates existing frameworks and investments to provide real-time access to operational information—such
as weather conditions; traffic; the location and operational status of critical infrastructure; fuel supplies; availability
of emergency shelters and medical facilities; and other critical information—that allows users to improve situational awareness
and to respond quickly in emergencies. vUSA conforms to Incident Command System (ICS) principles, the foundation doctrine
for emergency management and the basis for the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the National Response Framework
(NRF). ICS provides a scalable incident response that is applicable to the smallest local event or the largest national catastrophe.
In all incident response, rapid information sharing is a key requirement for emergency response to save lives, limit property
damage, and improve efficiencies of recovery operations. In addition to supporting State and local homeland security partners,
vUSA provides users with access to key emergency management information to support DHS’s strategic goals for strengthening
preparedness and emergency response capabilities. vUSA currently operates as two pilots – one in eight southeastern states:
Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Virginia and Tennessee; and the other in five states in the northwest:
Alaska, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. In Virginia alone, vUSA reduced response times to incidents involving hazardous
materials by 70 percent. Open Government Flagship Initiative DHS chose the expansion of vUSA as its Flagship Initiative because
it impacts each pillar of the Open Government Directive– Transparency, Participation, and Collaboration. Transparency: The
vUSA framework enables real time information sharing on the status of key data for emergency responders who can customize
exactly what they need to see, utilizing information available at all levels of government. The vUSA framework allows each
agency to maintain control of its information and to determine with whom it will be shared and for how long. Shareable data
is easily located through the vUSA framework. This provides transparency to State and local emergency management on incident
response and recovery operations at all levels of government. As the system matures, information such as the location of resources
shipped to disaster areas, shelter capacities, and status of road closings will become increasingly transparent to emergency
management personnel. While not all data within vUSA will be releasable to the public, vUSA examines ways to provide citizens
with access to data on disaster declarations, public spending on disaster assistance, and other information. The end result
is geographically searchable data, viewable through an intuitive mapping application. Collaboration: vUSA provides an innovative
approach to sharing information that allows for collaboration between governmental units responding to emergencies. For example,
access to local incident reports, digital road maps, and locations of fire, rescue, and law enforcement units allows multiple
jurisdictions to collaborate and rapidly plan and implement the most effective response. In the past, the segregation of such
types of data prevented accessibility and collaboration. This initiative provides a technology framework through which each
jurisdiction’s datasets are easily discoverable. Cross-agency benefits include the sharing of data to optimize limited first
responder and emergency management resources to support incident response and recovery. Enhancing optimization of the resources
used in the emergency management community contributes to saving lives, reducing property damages and decreasing the costs
of recovery. Participation: vUSA efforts include many members of the State and local emergency management community. Comprised
of national and regional working groups the vUSA team welcomes additional input and feedback from stakeholders at all levels
of government, the private sector and the public. Developing capabilities include: stakeholder outreach, additional citizen
services, and mechanisms for dialogue, innovation and feedback. Exploration of geospatial Web 2.0 tools continues to allow
for feedback on issues ranging from post-disaster damage reports to requests for corrections to flood insurance rate maps.
Measures of Improved Transparency vUSA will provide for improved transparency metrics including numbers and diversity of datasets;
number of data downloads and Web page views; and variety of site users. As vUSA matures, outcome-based measures, including
improvement in disaster response and recovery activities and accuracy of damage estimates, will reveal progress in the program.
Indicator(s):
|
