Near real-time snaps

At last we have solved the challenge of transmitting photos from the field to the decision makers in the Group Emergency Co-ordination Centre. We've had the components for a while now but have finally put them together. Here's how it works...

The Ricoh Caplio 500SE camera has a GPS unit mounted on the hot shoe. This means that when we take photos outside we get a GPS fix embedded in the photo tag. The camera has bluetooth capability and can send the photos as they are taken to a computer that is nearby.

We've partnered the camera with an Asus eeePC which is a very small, lightweight, solid state laptop. We've connected a vodem to the laptop to get us on the internet whilst in the field. The laptop has Microsoft Groove 2007 running on it (as do all our EM PCs).

So... as we take a photo, we press OK to send a copy of the photo by bluetooth to the laptop. The folder that the photo ends up in has been set up to synchronise via Groove. You can invite as many Groove contacts as you like to share the folder but I would limit that list. At the moment we only use one other computer in the ECC to receive images.

Once in the ECC we copy the images out to another folder (to prevent circular synchronisation) and then process the photos using the software that comes with the camera. GPS Photolink takes each photo with a GPS location embedded in it and creates a number of user determined outputs including GIS, web and Google Earth outputs as well as watermarked photos (like that above). This means that within a few minutes of the photos being taken, we can see where it was taken plus the photo itself.

We'll be demonstrating this process at the conference next month in Rotorua along with some more info on Groove as an ECC/EOC collaboration tool.

Group Plan... a work in progress

At yesterday's CEG meeting I presented a 'warts and all' version of the Group Plan. This is very much a work in progress but given the nature of the material to date and the fact that it doesn't sit neatly in a single chapter, it was just as easy to give members the whole document. Now this might come back to haunt me but ces't la vie. Clearly we haven't addressed some areas yet and really we've only workshopped our strategic direction and management & governance material. I'm currently working on readiness and response but haven't quite finished these yet (another workshop next week).

The CEG signed off on the Management & Governance chapter and the Background, recognising that we will see the entire Plan again before fully endorsing it before the Joint Standing Committee puts it out for public consultation and Ministerial comment. We may tweek the background a bit but we are confident in the M&G chapter.

If you'd like to have a sneaky peek, here it is.

A rainbow of rainfall for the region

Here is the link to a recently completed science report that provides some detailed maps of annual rainfall for the region. The maps provide at a 500m2 resolution, the rainfall for region based on interpolation between Horizons and NIWA long term rainfall sites. It is suggested that this information be used in place of previously generated rainfall isohyets for the region. The data is available as a GIS dataset.

Funded via Envirolink the report was generated as a part of the One Plan development process to provide rainfall inputs for nutrient management. However, the data has already been put to use by Jeff Watson in the flood modelling project.

This project was made possible through the efforts of many in the organisation, in particular Raelene Hurndell and Brent Watson have worked hard to coordinate this project with the NIWA climate team. If you have any questions about this project please do not hesitate to contact Raelene, Brent or Jon Roygard at Horizons Regional Council.

Group web site

Work has begun on the development of a CDEM Group web site. At the last EMO meeting, we talked about what this might look like. I outlined some of my ideas for a site, received some feedback and ideas from the EMOs, and told the team that we have some in-house expertise working on how we can achieve this.

Typically, web sites push information to people... we want to get clever and provide a push/pull element to the Group site. This means that regular visitors to the site can set up pages with information that they want to see. Hopefully this will help create site loyalty to the CDEM Group site. Users of Google homepages will be familiar with the pull features provided by Google. We are pretty confident we can do this for minimal cost.

We've had a bit of a look around at the other sites in New Zealand and... to be honest, they're really boring!!! (ours included). Now I might be a somewhat frustrated designer but I'm sure we can do better. First up, the address: ours is www.mwcdemg.govt.nz (WOW) and several of the local councils sites have emergency management pages too. How about some feedback on the following options:

• www.EMNet.govt.nz
• www.EM.govt.nz
• www.CDNet.govt.nz, or
• www.reallygoodemergencyinformation.govt.nz (said with a Jeremy Clarkson tone), or...
  
• www.EMIntelligence.govt.nz

So gone on... post some feedback.

Staff in the field

It is really good to know that staff in the field think to call in when there are issues that might have an impact on others. Blair Sowman called in this morning with news that the Gorge was closed due to a slip. This was soon followed by by a message via the Police e-mail notification system. If you are intersted in subscribing to the Police notification system, go here. Here is a picture that Blair sent through to us... good on you mate!

Open day - Feilding Fire

The team from Horizons were loud and proud at the Feilding Fire Brigade this past Saturday (but not as loud as the Fire Service). The Green RIG and earthquake cubes were staffed by the two Ross' and Environmental Education team. Emergency services, including fire, police, ambulance and the recsue helicopter were the main attraction but Vector, the Air Force and HeliPro were also present.

The open day was well attended by members of the public with displays of Fire Service skills and equiment. The weather packed it in later in the day but not before a lot of visitors to the site. As the wind picked up we were lucky not to see a big orange dome become airborne over Feilding.

Another good example of the services working together... thanks to Peter and the team at Feilding Fire for the invitation to be involved.

Last paper in course

Last Friday the final unit standards for the Level 2
Certificate in Emergency Management being conducted by EMANZ for the Manawatu-Wanganui CDEM Group took part. The last paper was on aircraft safety and the team spent time in the classroom followed by practical lessons provided by the staff of the Square Trust Rescue Helicopter.

Some of the team hadn't had the opportunity to participate in aircraft safety training or go for a helicopter flight. This was good practical experience for some of the team that might be called on to do aerial reconnaissance, extreme event data collection, or welfare support flights.

Good response at response workshop

The fourth of our Group Plan review mini workshops was held this week... response is going to be our focus for a while so it was good to get some of the basics sorted. There won't be any startling changes but there is a move for consistency and best practice. The Co-ordinating Executive Group will be providing greater clarity on expectations and then following through to ensure that we a walking the walk and talking the talk.

After a shorter period of discussion than usual, the participants at the mini workshop recommended that we prepare the readiness, response and recovery chapters of the Plan and then bring them to the CEG for discussion. The basic understanding is in place following the first two workshops and the response discussions at this workshop have given us a good lead for the content of the Plan. Watch this space... things are happening.

Back on deck

Well, it's good to be back and refreshed ready for the run up to Xmas. I've had a weeks leave and a week on an UNDAC refresher course and was in Taupo yesterday for the second Central Plateau Volcanic Advisory Group meeting. With only 1,124 e-mails in my inbox I'm sure I'll be getting to the one you sent me any day now!

First of all, let's welcome Stewart Davies QSM to the managers role previously filled by Matthew Smith at Palmerston North City Council. Stewart brings a wide range of experiences to the emergency management scene including that of a Director of Land SAR New Zealand and a local SAR advisor.

The CPVAG meeting in Taupo provided a good opportunity for members to be updated on activities over the past 6 months. Further work is on-going with the review of the monitoring networks and the development of the Volcanic Strategy for the Group. I'm pretty sure that the Group will continue to refine the arrangements for a co-ordinated response to activity as well as day-to-day initiatives of members.

The first of the CDEM Group Plan review response mini workshops is being held tomorrow for CEG members. This meeting will set the direction for the preparation of the response chapter of the plan. A Welfare Advisory Group meeting is scheduled for next week to get officer input to welfare response issues. This will all be written up in time for a further response workshop to confirm the chapter before it goes to CEG. Here is a link to all the posts about the Plan review.

The Horizons EOC was activated on two occasions while I was away. The team managed events well including an opening of the Moutoa Floodgates. I also heard good reports of the new equipment in the EOC. Well done team!

Task Force Green work continues to be co-ordianted by Ross Brannigan in the Manawatu and Rangitikei districts. There is still a little bit of clean up work to do from the storm event of July.

OK - that's a quick update... more regular posts to come.