Geo Tools for First Responders - including the slides i skipped at SOTM US 2014

1. Geo Tools for
First
Responders
Richard Welty
SOTM-US 2014
1Sunday, April 13, 14

2. Relevant Types
of Geo Data
• Enhanced 911 Addressing for GPS
• Hydrant data (location)
• Hydrants on water systems (capacity)
• Dry Hydrants (lift, seasonal issues)
• Ponds, Streams
• Landing Zones for Medical Evacuation
• Hazmat
• PrePlan data
2Sunday, April 13, 14

3. CAMEOfm
• from the EPA
• PC based
• need a laptop in the field
• lots of interesting capabilities for
Hazmat in an aging format
3Sunday, April 13, 14

4. Alternatives
• “Data Terminals”
• Princeton Project
• Active911.com
• CAMEOfm
• Others
4Sunday, April 13, 14

5. Existing Data Terminals
• Fire Department terminals derived
from long standing Police models
• Many functions require radio link to
Dispatch
• GPS from commercial map data
• Expensive
5Sunday, April 13, 14

6. iPad/iPhone apps
• One from Princeton for iPad (student
project)
• Data in Cloud, needs Cell Service
• Active911 - Commercial App
• Started as messaging app
• GPS capabilities from Google Maps
6Sunday, April 13, 14

7. How to Deliver
• The data is usually already
“somewhere”
• County, City GIS departments
• Often unwieldy
• One Capital District department used a
rolodex in each truck for hydrant data
• Albany NY hydrant data on paper maps
7Sunday, April 13, 14

8. OpenStreetMap Changes
Things
• Project to build a free map of the world
• Open Data project
• A Wikipedia of maps, if you will
8Sunday, April 13, 14

9. Project Inception
• Considering potential for Emergency
Services Application since 2009
• Summer 2012 - realized the near term
potential for a usable GPS map of
Albany
• Digital Maps of US have common
problems
• Urban Street grids have issues too
9Sunday, April 13, 14
Common problem: old TIGER

10. Street Grids in Old
Cities
Cortland Street Not Cortland Street
10Sunday, April 13, 14

11. Commercial GPS Issues
• All digital maps of the US derived from
Census Bureau TIGER data
• Lots of errors (much better recently)
• Commercial map vendors fix lots of
errors, but not all of them
11Sunday, April 13, 14

12. Commercial GPS Issues
• TIGER errors not fixed in less
populated places
• Long delays in updates
• Release schedules typically quarterly
• Limited motivation to deal with issues
in less populated areas
12Sunday, April 13, 14
Rensselaer bridge over RR tracks

13. OSM GPS Maps
• Potentially way better
• Continuous updates
• Apps usually offer opportunities for
consumers to pull/build current maps
• Wiki - Errors can be fixed by users
13Sunday, April 13, 14

14. OpenFireMap
14Sunday, April 13, 14

15. Geo Data Assistant
• WiFi only Android Tablet (Nexus 7)
• OsmAnd GPS application
• Plugin to support Emergency response
specific features
• Additional data may come from
elsewhere
15Sunday, April 13, 14

16. Advantages To Approach
• Commodity Hardware
• 32G Nexus 7 is $300 pretty much
everywhere
• OsmAnd is Open Source
• OpenStreetMap for base database
• No major IT infrastructure
requirements
16Sunday, April 13, 14

17. Internet/Cell Access
not a requirement
• Poor to non-existent service in many
rural areas
• Good tablets have more than enough
storage to support application & data
17Sunday, April 13, 14

18. Mutual Aid
• Primary use case (at least initially) is
Mutual Aid
• Departments/Engine companies
responding outside of their normal
operational area
• Firefighters experience many problems
responding out of area
18Sunday, April 13, 14
addressing in large apartment complexes
lack of knowledge about neighborhoods
water system issues - private hydrants, no way to determine capacity of hydrants

19. Out of Area Response
• Do not know neighborhoods
• Do not know water system
• Apartment Complexes
• Private Hydrant systems
19Sunday, April 13, 14

20. Extreme Mutual Aid
• 9/11
• Hurricane Sandy
20Sunday, April 13, 14

21. Hydrant Gallery
21Sunday, April 13, 14
dry barrel - discuss features
Steamer vs hose connections
color schemes contain no real information

22. Hydrant Gallery
• Wet Barrel
• West coast
• UCLA colors
22Sunday, April 13, 14

23. Hydrant Gallery
• Wynantskill, NY
• AWWA color scheme
• Blue Caps & Bonnet
• Class AA Hydrant
• > 1500 GPM
23Sunday, April 13, 14
capacity helpful, but you don’t know the capacity until you see the hydrant

24. AWWA Classification
Class Flow (@ 20PSI)
Cap &
Bonnet Color
AA More than 1500 GPM Blue
A
Between 1500 GPM and 1000
GPM
Green
B
Between 1000 GPM and 500
GPM
Yellow
C Less than 500 GPM Red
24Sunday, April 13, 14
distinguish between static (head) pressure and pressure while operating hydrant

25. Capacity
• Why is capacity important?
• Big fire, need lots of capacity
• Drawdown of water in main can
damage appliances in residences
(notably hot water heaters)
• Risk of main collapse
25Sunday, April 13, 14

26. Hydrant Gallery
• Bethlehem, NY
• Green = large main
• Orange = medium
main
• Red = small main
26Sunday, April 13, 14

27. Hydrant Gallery
• Tag on Steamer
connection
instead of paint
for flow
capacity
27Sunday, April 13, 14
problem with painters

28. Hydrant Gallery
28Sunday, April 13, 14
no Steamer connection on left, only steamer connection on right

29. Snow
• “If I have to dig one
out of the snow it
better be a good
one”
29Sunday, April 13, 14

30. Out of Service
• Not all Hydrants
are operational
30Sunday, April 13, 14

31. Out of Service
31Sunday, April 13, 14
can’t see out of service condition until you see the hydrant

32. Out of service
(But it’s a secret)
• NYC “Stubby”
hydrant
• High pressure
system operated
from ca 1905
through 1979
• Stubby hydrants
still around in
NYC
32Sunday, April 13, 14
reference extreme mutual aid

33. Is this a hydrant?
• Rural VFD, no
pressurized
water system
• Lawn
Ornament
33Sunday, April 13, 14

34. Hydrant Gallery
34Sunday, April 13, 14
Sources: ponds, lakes, streams
seasonal issues, lift

35. Dry Hydrant, but...
35Sunday, April 13, 14
water source is higher than hydrant

36. Wrench Types
36Sunday, April 13, 14
also apparently triangular and conventional hex heads

37. Hydrant Display
37Sunday, April 13, 14
OsmAnd+ screenshot

38. Building Footprints
38Sunday, April 13, 14

39. Color Code extension
39Sunday, April 13, 14
color code for capacity
Use case: observing hydrant capacity while riding in to the scene, stopping to
start laying hose on the way in

40. OSM Tagging
• Some current tags
• emergency=fire_hydrant
• fire_hydrant:type={pillar,pond,underground}
• colour={red,yellow,green,blue,...}
• diameter=12 inches
40Sunday, April 13, 14
pillar - used in Germany, correct in US usage but not common. not used in UK.
diameter - main diameter
pressure - in bar (head pressure?), not relevant to US operating practice
pond - inappropriate conflation

41. Tagging Issue
• fire_hydrant:type conflates
physical type of hydrant and water
source
• pillar vs pond
41Sunday, April 13, 14

42. Tagging Issue
• Add new tag
• fire_hydrant:water_source={pond,stream,main}
• evolve fire_hydrant:type values
• retain pillar,underground
• deprecate pond
• add pipe, dry_barrel, wet_barrel
42Sunday, April 13, 14

43. Capacity Tags
• Proposed, not currently official
• fire_hydrant:capacity=700 GPM
• fire_hydrant:class={AA,A,B,C}
• fire_hydrant:water_source={main,
pond,stream}
• Capacity on streams?
43Sunday, April 13, 14
LPM for non-US jurisdictions

44. Additional Tags
• More proposed tags
• color:reflective={white,blue,yellow}
• color:bonnet={red,blue,green,white,...}
• color:cap={red,blue,green,orange,white}
• color:cap=grey;yellow
• in_service={yes,no}
44Sunday, April 13, 14

45. Examples
emergency=fire_hydrant
fire_hydrant:type=dry_barrel
fire_hydrant:water_source=main
colour=yellow
colour:cap=blue
colour:bonnet=blue
emergency=fire_hydrant
fire_hydrant:type=pipe
fire_hydrant:water_source=pond
colour=red
colour:reflective=white
45Sunday, April 13, 14

46. Other Properties
• Outlet sizes, threads
• Wrench type and size
• triangular, square, pentagonal,
hexagonal
46Sunday, April 13, 14
• Orientation
• Steamer valve perpendicular to curb vs 45 degree angle
Orientation probably not that important

47. Dry Hydrant Tags
• Dry hydrant conditions
• weeds
• low water levels (winter)
• lift
47Sunday, April 13, 14

48. Landing Zones
• Landing Zones (Med Evac)
• current tags that are relevant
• name
• operator
• need to characterize additional
information
48Sunday, April 13, 14
don’t want to use the existing aviation tagging, as that is for general purpose landing
facilities, not for emergency LZs

49. Hazmat Data
• In the US, this actually information of
public record
• Probably not be appropriate in OSM
• Candidate for private data store
49Sunday, April 13, 14

50. Hazmat Use Cases
• Materials in building that’s on fire?
• Materials in adjacent buildings
• Plume direction/danger based on
prevailing winds
• CAMEOfm capability that may be
easy to integrate
• Potential interaction with GPS
50Sunday, April 13, 14

51. Other Considerations
• Policy on overriding One Way, Turn
Restrictions
• Do we need different maps for different
classes of emergency vehicles?
51Sunday, April 13, 14

52. Making It Happen
• Find a department or group of
departments that wants to spend grant
money on a pilot
• Need to control size, ambition of pilot
52Sunday, April 13, 14

53. Making It Happen
• Need to complete TIGER review for
pilot area
• Import E911 addresses (and building
footprints whenever available)
• OsmAnd needs improvements to
handling of US addresses
• Test, Test, Test
53Sunday, April 13, 14

54. Test, Test, Test
• Select random addresses and verify that
you arrive at the right place via a
sensible route
• Replay actual calls from prior days
• Simulate mutual aid by using prior calls
from different stations
54Sunday, April 13, 14

55. Requirements for the
Department
• Desktop or laptop to extract and build
maps. Mac vs PC not important
• Need to train a few department staffers
on the system
• Figure out who the map geeks are
and train them
55Sunday, April 13, 14

56. Private Data
• May need to support data that is not
appropriate for OSM
• OsmAnd supports layers of data from
elsewhere
• May want to extend in plugin
• May need to provide a low cost support
service for departments
56Sunday, April 13, 14

57. Emergency Services
Plugin
• Add features to OsmAnd that aren’t
needed for the general public
• Special handling for POIs of interest to
emergency responders
• Hazmat support
• popup dialogs on emergency services
features with additional information
57Sunday, April 13, 14

58. Measure Success
• Response Times
• How good is current response time
data?
• How much data is enough to be valid?
• Perception of users vs. hard data
58Sunday, April 13, 14

59. Data Integrity
• Vandalism & Mistakes (OSM is a wiki
project after all)
• Monitor changes to map
• Only extract new GPS maps after
validating changes
• Not a burden if you just stay on top of it
59Sunday, April 13, 14

60. Indemnification
• OSM and its volunteers do not have
resources to fight a lawsuit
• How do we protect them in a modern,
lawsuit prone environment?
60Sunday, April 13, 14

61. Contact Info
• primary: rwelty@averillpark.net
• secondary: nfgusedautoparts@gmail.com
• OSM: nfgusedautoparts
• Twitter: @nfgusedautopart
61Sunday, April 13, 14

62. Bonus Hydrant Image
• Dry Barrel
• Valve at water main
• Safety Flange
designed to fail
• at grade level
62Sunday, April 13, 14