March 16, 2016 –

NAPSG Foundation is pleased to announce that we will be hosting the 2016 National Geospatial Preparedness Summit (NGPS), the Nation’s only preparedness Summit dedicated to advancing the use of location-enabled decision technology and data. The Summit will be held September 13th and 14th in Washington, DC with leadership from the US Department of Homeland Security, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the International Association of Emergency Managers, the Association for Public Safety Communication Officers International, and the National States Geographic Information Council.

NGPG will bring together 150 public safety leaders and GIS responders from across the Nation – to gain new skills in applying location-enabled decision support tools, share best practices, and participate in work session for advancing use in local and state agencies. The Summit will feature multiple tracks of hands-on training, simulations, a tabletop exercise, and a national work session.

Learn more about the 2016 National Geospatial Preparedness Summit Today!

• Visit the Event Webpage
• NGPS Final Agenda 2016
• 2016 NGPS Scholarship Application
• NGPS Sponsorship Guide

March 3, 2016
10:00am EST

Washington D.C. – NAPSG is pleased to inform our members that the US Department of Homeland Security’s Geospatial Management Office (GMO) announced that it is making important infrastructure data more accessible and in highly usable open data formats to the public safety community.

The announcement was made on February 24, 2016, at the Esri Federal GIS Conference. At the Conference, Mr. David Alexander, Director of the GMO, made public the launch of HIFLD Open – which takes what was formerly known as HSIP Freedom (distributed via DVD) and creates a single point of entry to both view and download these 274 data sets, using Esri’s ArcGIS Online.

HIFLD Open is accessible to the public here: https://hifld-dhs-gii.opendata.arcgis.com/

In addition to making these data sets publicly available in a user-friendly format, the GMO is creating an opportunity for local and state public safety agencies to provide feedback on data quality – further ensuring regularly updated and evaluated data.

According to NAPSG’s Regional Leadership Team member Eric Fisher of Fairfax County Fire & Rescue: “Using these important data sets, any time, augments my local authoritative data with regional and other data that may not currently be available.  And even better, I can access and download that data in real time, so that it truly is a useful part of our agency’s planning and preparedness efforts.”

NAPSG Board Member Dan Bout of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CalOES) said that from a State perspective “open access to authoritative infrastructure data sets is an enormous step forward that will enable public safety officials at the federal, state, and local levels to more effectively plan for and respond to natural and manmade disasters.”

For media inquiries, contact Peter O’Rourke at porourke@publicsafetygis.org or by phone at 202-895-1711

To download a copy of this press release, click on the below.

NAPSG_HIFLDOpen_2016_Press_Release