Esri announced Monday, April 13, 2020, its collaboration with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as it navigates the landscape amid this pandemic. The aforementioned agencies reportedly pooled resources and technologies in response to the pandemic.
Esri is a company which provides services in mapping and location intelligence, as well as creates geospatial data.
In its press release, both Esri and FEMA’s contributions centred on providing data and mapping technology to support the geospatial platform initially created by Esri.
The new software platform reportedly allows FEMA and its respective partners access to data-sharing capabilities as its battles and addresses the pandemic that hit the world, states StateScoop. The platform has already been rolled on in select government units earlier this month.
FEMA-partnered agencies are said to have contributed information regarding public health units and emergency management agencies. In particular, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has created a GIS hub site intended for data sharing and a more efficient way of collaborating.
The Hub’s resources include local, national, and state data. These are supposedly aimed to provide lawmakers and authorities to make decisions regarding the best testing locations, as well as shed insight on the current mitigation measures undertaken by the government.
The Hub also intends to provide aid towards identifying facilities that can accommodate patients, access to companies or organizations in need of personal protective equipment (PPE), tracking vulnerable locations, and giving public awareness on food distribution and availability.
Apart from the platform, Esri is also providing technical support services as well as virtual training for respective agencies. In addition, the firm is also making a number of geospatial applications available to provide enlightenment in response to the outbreak.
Esri president Jack Dangermond via its press release said, “While it has always been our policy to support impacted communities during incidents of national emergencies, this crisis is special.”
“More than ever it is requiring an integrated multi-organizational response. Our partnership with FEMA will help provide its partners with an integrated multi-agency platform for data sharing and supporting a host of mapping and geospatial applications. We appreciate this opportunity to serve and are hopeful our collaboration will result in a more effective response,” states Dangermond.
In a statement to StateScoop, Esri director for global public safety Chris Albert said, “One of the things FEMA’s looking for is where are the gaps in the data?”
Albert also said, “So by having folks contribute their information in what they know and what’s going on, it starts to create this sort of shared awareness of what we know but also helps to identify what we don’t know.”
The software platform gives national agencies the tools and data to help understand the pandemic and its repercussions to the country. At the same time, the platform extends a data technology tool that allows the country to make smarter decisions as it responds to the pandemic.
