RE: Announcement WRT FGDC EM Map Symbols Review

All 
-

 

As requested 
during our GIS SC concall today.

 

Carl

 

[Below is the 
announcement for the review of the emergency management map symbols that were 
discussed at the last Coordination Group meeting.  My apologies if you 
receive this more than once. -Scott McAfee]

Your organization and 
membership are invited to review a standard set of map symbols.  The 
symbols are intended for use by the emergency management and first responder 
communities at the National, State, Local, and Incident Levels.

These 
symbols were developed through the cooperation of a number of Federal government 
agencies and the National States Geographic Information Council under the 
auspices of the Federal Geographic Data Committee's Homeland Security Working 
Group.  An eventual goal of this project is to have the symbols become an 
official standard through an accredited standards' organization.

The 
draft set of symbols are available for review by the community of intended 
users: emergency managers, first responders, and others involved in disaster, 
hazard, or incident mapping.

The review period will conclude on January 
31, 2004.  After the review period, the comments will be compiled in a 
report and appropriate changes will be made to the symbols.  We expect the 
report to be available in the early summer of 2004.  There will likely be 
another period of public review as part of a formal standardization 
process.

Please provide comments using the web-based form 
at:

http://www.fgdc.gov/HSWG (case sensitive).

The review takes about 
an hour to complete.

- Background -

The Federal Emergency 
Management Agency, now part of the Department of Homeland Security, began an 
initiative in 2001 to develop standard map symbols for use in emergency 
management mapping. The standard is intended primarily to help first responders 
and emergency managers at the incident and local levels. The resulting symbol 
set, when completed and endorsed as a standard, will support disaster response 
and homeland security efforts by reducing the confusion that can arise from 
unintuitive, ambiguous, and/or inconsistent use of map symbols.

Since 
mid-2002 the initiative has been developed collaboratively within the Federal 
Geographic Data Committee's Homeland Security Working Group. A Symbology 
Subgroup has been very active in defining the symbol set and developing related 
products. The U.S. Census Bureau has coordinated digital symbol production. 
Other active members of the group include representatives from the Defense 
Information Systems Agency, the Department of Energy, the National 
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (formerly the National Imagery and Mapping 
Agency), the National States Geographic Information Council, the National 
Weather Service, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The symbology 
subgroup activities include:

      -  
Defining and refining a list of map features relevant to emergency and homeland 
security incident managers;

      -  
Developing a symbol set for these 
features;

      -  Soliciting feedback from 
the user community (emergency managers and 
others);

      -  Evaluating the best 
collaborative path for accreditation as a 
standard;

      -  Developing 
interoperability specifications and a prototype for graphical display through 
the Open GIS Consortium;

      -  Designing 
the standard so as to ensure scalability and cross-disciplinary/cross-cultural 
flexibility.

Additional information about the activities of the Homeland 
Security Working Group is available at http://www.fgdc.gov/fgdc/homeland/index.html.

For more information, please 
contact:
Scott McAfee (202) 646-3317;   
or
Jeff Booth (703) 317-3056; 

Scott McAfee
Department of Homeland Security
EP&R/FEMA - Risk 
Identification Office
500 C Street SW
Washington, DC 20472
(202) 
646-3317
fax: (202) 646-2577