EmerGeo Version 3.6 Released
EmerGeo Announces New Mapping Features for Emergency Managers
Adding Global Positioning System (GPS) Tracking — Simulation Replay — File Attachments to Features
VANCOUVER, B.C. November 22, 2007
EmerGeo Solutions of Vancouver, B.C. is please to announce a major new release of its EmerGeo emergency mapping software application in December 2007.
EmerGeo is used by many government and industry organizations to collect, analyze, track and communicate critical information before, during and after any type of emergency or disaster. Its unique workflow engine ensures that the right mapped information is published to the right people or groups in the field, EOC or around the world.
“Several requests from our customers for product-enhancement have been integrated into our latest release Version 3.6. New functions include the ability to:
- Track resources in the field using Global Positioning technology (GPS);
- Replay a historical or forecasted event (e.g. oil spill) on a map; and,
- Quickly capture, link and upload (share) pictures and other files to events and facilities on maps.
We have also advanced the integration of EmerGeo with the WebEOC crisis management software, allowing WebEOC to be launched from within the EmerGeo Smart Client. EmerGeo delivers all these capabilities in a single, simple mapping application. We are bringing all the pieces together through OpenGIS® technology and alliances with industry leaders such as ESRI and ESi (WebEOC®)”, states
Mike Morrow , EmerGeo Solutions’ Director of Business Development.
“Version 4, due out in Q1 2008, will further advance EmerGeo’s capabilities and bring us much closer to our goal of delivering a true Common Operating Picture application that leverages OpenGIS® and ESRI standards to enable seamless access and sharing of spatial data (GIS) among field staff and site support organizations”, states Morrow.
EmerGeo Version 4 will offer a tight integration with the latest ESRI ArcGIS® technology, giving users a familiar web client user interface and integrating EmerGeo’s emergency layers with their organization’s existing ESRI ArcGIS® and SDE data.
EmerGeo Solutions, Inc. is an authorized Value-Added Reseller of the WebEOC® software, a member of the Open GIS Consortium and developer of emergency mapping applications that leverage open web standards. EmerGeo continues to expand its implementations globally with a new installation in Wake County (NC) and planned implementations in Sempra Energy Utility’s EOC’s in Los Angeles and
San Diego, California.
EmerGeo Solutions, Inc. provides consulting services and fully integrated situation awareness technology solutions to help manage risk in Emergency Management, Environment Health & Safety, Security and Business Resilience for government and industry. Our EmerGeo software application provides all decision-makers with timely access to critical information and the decision-support tools needed before, during and after emergencies and major events.
EmerGeo’s unique managed Common Operating Picture (mCOP™) technology allows information stored in siloed systems to be shared securely and in a controlled way among work groups so that all decision-makers are working from the most up-to-date, accurate and validated information available. Our hosted Learning Management System (eLearning) ensures customers can implement our technology and best practices in a cost-effective manner.
EmerGeo Implementing an Enterprise Emergency Management System in Large Gas and Electric Utility
WebEOC and EmerGeo software selected by Sempra Energy to support enterprise emergency management.
VANCOUVER, B.C., October 23, 2007
EmerGeo Solutions of Vancouver, B.C. is please to announce that Sempra Energy Utilities has contracted with EmerGeo Solutions to implement a corporate emergency information management system.
Sempra Energy is a Fortune 500, energy services holding company whose subsidiaries provide electricity, natural gas and value-added products and services and is the largest publicly held company headquartered in San Diego (in terms of revenues and net income). With nearly 13,000 employees, Sempra Energy is the parent company of Sempra Energy Utilities (SEu) and Sempra Energy Global Enterprises.
In February 2007, initiated a public tendering process to select an emergency management software solution. The system had to provide real-time information sharing and collaboration among key stakeholders, rapid processing and tracking of requests, and efficient communication among internal and external key stakeholders such as City and County of San Diego, Los Angeles and the State Office of Emergency Services personnel. The system also had to also be utilized for managing “non-energy” related incidents such as terrorism, hazardous material spills, major outages, customer or employee injuries, and damaged gas/electric infrastructure. Flexibility was a key requirement to allowing Sempra to configure the system for use by multiple businesses (gas and electric) for day-to day and large events.
After careful analysis and testing, the integrated WebEOC® and EmerGeo™ software applications were selected.
It is imperative to SEu that resuming business in the shortest time frame possible is critical for the safety of its communities, customers and employees. This project provides for the replacement of obsolete stand-alone Emergency Services applications with a more streamlined, secure and manageable architecture applications to maximize business and system agility. The application(s) replacement will deliver needed functionality with newer, modular off-the-shelf integrated solutions. This project will also create an environment to enable integration of multiple applications and interfaces to existing legacy system data. This project will enhance SEu with the ability to manage responses and recovery processes and supporting activities from local or remote sites, supporting the concept of a “Virtual EOC”.
“We are extremely pleased that Sempra has selected EmerGeo Solutions Inc. to implement the WebEOC crisis management and EmerGeo mapping software. Sempra is a leader in the gas and electric markets and we see great opportunities to leverage this technology to help them meet corporate preparedness, response and recovery objectives. A great deal of lessons have been learned over the past 20 years that we have been designing and implementing these systems and our team of experts will apply those lessons and best practices to ensure Sempra streamlines and improves business processes before, during and after an incident occurs”, states Mike Morrow , a Director at EmerGeo Solutions Inc.

EmerGeo Solutions, Inc. is a Value-Added Reseller of the WebEOC software and also develops emergency mapping applications based on OpenGIS® standards. EmerGeo continues to expand its implementations globally with recent installations in Canada, the USA, Australia and the Middle East.
EmerGeo Solutions, Inc. provides consulting services and fully integrated situation awareness technology solutions to help manage risk in Emergency Management, Environment Health & Safety, Security and Business Resilience for government and industry. Our EmerGeo software application provides all decision-makers with timely access to critical information and the decision-support tools needed before, during and after emergencies and major events.
EmerGeo’s unique managed Common Operating Picture (mCOP™) technology allows information stored in siloed systems to be shared securely and in a controlled way among work groups so that all decision-makers are working from the most up-to-date, accurate and validated information available. Our hosted Learning Management System (eLearning) ensures customers can implement our technology and best practices in a cost-effective manner.
EmerGeo Participates in National Disaster Simulation Project
EmerGeo Mapping a Key Component of an Interoperability Framework for Municipal-Provincial-Federal Collaboration.
September 28, 2007
VANCOUVER B.C. – EmerGeo Solutions Inc. is collaborating with key Canadian federal agencies and industry partners in a three-year disaster simulation project led by CAE and funded by the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Research and Technology Initiative (CRTI).
CRTI was launched in May 2002 as the federal science community’s response to providing science solutions to CBRNE terrorist threats. It has been very successful in building linkages among non-traditional partners and across organizational boundaries. These new communities have increased Canada’s knowledge and preparedness for countering CBRNE threats by working together on a common mission.
Like most major emergencies and disasters, CBRN threats demand a collaborative response from diverse municipal, provincial, and federal stakeholders. Collaboration can only be achieved when common and compatible standards, processes, protocols, and tools are used by responders at the scene to provincial-federal agencies supporting the response effort.
The project, announced in December 2006 by CAE, is to develop a simulation-based emergency management experimentation capability to support analysis, training, and operational rehearsal for Canadian homeland security organizations. The project team will build an operational architecture based on the critical incident responses of organizations to selected scenarios. Simulated CBRN events will unfold within the selected geographical area of Vancouver and the Vancouver-Whistler corridor.
EmerGeo mapping software will integrate a high-resolution map (geospatial dataset) as the basis for a Common Operating Picture Environment (COPE).
Simulated incidents, resources and activities will be injected onto 2-D and 3-D maps used by municipal-provincial-federal decision-makers.
The simulation environment will test strategies and tactics used to protect people and property. Outputs from CBRN models used at Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) Suffield, chemical plume “foot prints” produced by Environment Canada’s “urban canyon” dispersion algorithms, and simulated movement of police, fire and other resources will be displayed on EmerGeo’s planning and situation overview maps as the scenario unfolds.
Three simulation-based scenarios will test the municipal-provincial-federal responder interfaces in terms of command, control, shared awareness, and the extent to which operational interoperability can be achieved.
The simulation-based analysis will be used to validate the current operational architecture, investigate potential challenges, and establish a platform to enhance municipal-provincial-federal interoperability.
The project participants include:
FEDERAL PARTNERS:
- DRDC Ottawa and DRDC Suffield
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police – E-Division
- Environment Canada – Canadian Meteorological Centre
- Department of National Defence – Canadian Forces Experimentation Centre
INDUSTRY LEAD
- CAE
OTHER PARTNERS:
- EmerGeo Solutions, Inc.
- Justice Institute of British Columbia
- Vancouver Police Department
More information on the CRTI 05-0058TD Project can be found here.
EmerGeo Solutions, Inc. provides consulting services and fully integrated situation awareness technology solutions to help manage risk in Emergency Management, Environment Health & Safety, Security and Business Resilience for government and industry. Our EmerGeo software application provides all decision-makers with timely access to critical information and the decision-support tools needed before, during and after emergencies and major events.
EmerGeo’s unique managed Common Operating Picture (mCOP™) technology allows information stored in siloed systems to be shared securely and in a controlled way among work groups so that all decision-makers are working from the most up-to-date, accurate and validated information available. Our hosted Learning Management System (eLearning) ensures customers can implement our technology and best practices in a cost-effective manner.
EmerGeo provided installation and onsite training services.
EmerGeo provided installation and onsite training services.
July 23, 2007
VANCOUVER B.C. – The National Emergency Management Agency Tobago Office was looking for a replacement of its Lotus Notes® based emergency management information system called EM2000. It needed a system capable of providing real-time messaging and event tracking during major emergencies such as hurricanes. WebEOC was selected as the replacement solution and EmerGeo was selected as the implementation services provider. Installation and training was conducted the week of July 9th 2007.
WebEOC is designed to deliver real time emergency information to the Tobago Emergency Operation Centre and improve the emergency management agency’s capacity to serve the island of Tobago with greater efficiency.
Read the story on NEMA Tobago’s website by clicking here.
EmerGeo Solutions, Inc. provides consulting services and fully integrated situation awareness technology solutions to help manage risk in Emergency Management, Environment Health & Safety, Security and Business Resilience for government and industry. Our EmerGeo software application provides all decision-makers with timely access to critical information and the decision-support tools needed before, during and after emergencies and major events.
EmerGeo’s unique managed Common Operating Picture (mCOP™) technology allows information stored in siloed systems to be shared securely and in a controlled way among work groups so that all decision-makers are working from the most up-to-date, accurate and validated information available. Our hosted Learning Management System (eLearning) ensures customers can implement our technology and best practices in a cost-effective manner.
Washington State and Benton County Exercise EmerGeo (CSEPP)
EmerGeo emergency mapping software was used last week to support communications and interoperability during a major exercise.
June 7, 2007
VANCOUVER B.C. – shortly after EmerGeo Solutions installed its EmerGeo™ emergency mapping software in the State of Washington and Benton County Emergency Operation Centers, the software was put to the test during a multi-agency Chemical Stockpile Emergency Protection Program (CSEPP) exercise on May 22, 2007.
The U.S. Army has safely stored chemical warfare agents for decades at seven U.S. Army installations around the United States. One of these installations is the Umatilla Chemical Depot near Hermiston, Oregon. In 1985, Congress ordered the destruction of these weapons and subsequently ordered “maximum protection” of the public near the installations until the chemical weapons were gone. Emergency Operations Centers in Umatilla, Morrow and Benton counties (Washington) as well as the states of Oregon and Washington, maintain readiness to coordinate response activities through regular exercising of state-of-the art computer software to track and forecast toxic plumes.
The Washington State Division of Emergency Management, Benton County Emergency Services along with several local hospitals, fire and police agencies, and volunteers participated in the annual exercise of the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Plan (CSEPP).
“In the Benton County EOC, during this exercise, we were able to use EmerGeo to allow our Law Enforcement and Shelter representatives to input their own locations on the Incident Map. This freed up our mapping person to keep the Plume data current on the map. Resulting in an up-to-date incident map that was available on each desk top in the EOC”, states Lyle Ball, Department of Energy Planner.
The State of Washington had a similar experience with the EmerGeo software. Allen Jakobitz, Science & Technology Program Manager for Washington State Emergency Management reported “I am very satisfied with the use of EmerGeo during this first exercise. I didn’t have any problems with the application”.
The Umatilla area is safer today, thanks to the foresight of Benton County and the State of Washington Emergency Management Division to implement an OpenGIS® based emergency mapping application to support CSEPP’s public safety program.
EmerGeo Solutions’ participation with these organizations will continue to strengthen their emergency readiness capabilities for residents and businesses in the immediate vicinity around the Depot until the chemical munitions are eliminated forever.
More information on CSEPP can be found at http://www.csepp.net/frcsepp.html.
EmerGeo Solutions, Inc. provides consulting services and fully integrated situation awareness technology solutions to help manage risk in Emergency Management, Environment Health & Safety, Security and Business Resilience for government and industry. Our EmerGeo software application provides all decision-makers with timely access to critical information and the decision-support tools needed before, during and after emergencies and major events.
EmerGeo’s unique managed Common Operating Picture (mCOP™) technology allows information stored in siloed systems to be shared securely and in a controlled way among work groups so that all decision-makers are working from the most up-to-date, accurate and validated information available. Our hosted Learning Management System (eLearning) ensures customers can implement our technology and best practices in a cost-effective manner.