To aid Incident Management, GIS is most commonly used within the framework of a Common Operational Picture (COP). Whether paper or digital media based, it is a single identical display of operational information of the current Situation Status (what is going on) and Resource Status (position and status of Public Safety resources supporting the incident).

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Crawl Perhaps the best start using GIS to support Incident Management is to adopt Standard Operating Procedures. This SOP creates consistency in information delivery of GIS products and services. There are variations of the SOP that will be adopted by your agency to suit your mission, but a good foundation describes the types of maps, data structure, methods to support an incident, data archiving, and transition to other teams. Much of this standard GIS work was established for the wildland fire community, but is equally applicable for any focus within incident management.	Walk While paper mapping is very suitable for incident management support and sometimes preferable in austere IT environments, it is important to begin to collaborate with all parties supporting extended incidents. Using the same SOP foundation, the data should begin to be shared within the sphere of the incident via digital means. Web-based common operational pictures are by far the most common means by which to achieve this. This is also an important moment in developing GIS capability – because it integrates principles of information management and recognizes it as an important part of the process on the same level as people and equipment. Attention in this phase should be paid to integration with internal dynamic systems (CAD, RMS, AVL, staffing) and integration with external partners.	Run Support of Incident Management matures when you focus on using mobile devices and field observations. Incorporating mobile into these workflows allows updates to situational awareness to flow into the system as it is happening and allows incident management to communicate the latest updates into a visual layout instantly. This has obvious impact on the speed in which information can be understood and acted upon. It supports incident management at both the strategic and tactical/operational levels by giving context to the hard decisions that experienced Public Safety personel must make.
Example: GIS Standard Operating Procedures	Example: Search Common Operational Picture at ArcGIS Online	Example: Florida State Geospatial Assessment Tool

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