The Honolulu Unified Assessment (HONUA) system - A Situational Awareness Viewer for Emergency Management

Jon Hodge
Susan Vogt
City and County of Honolulu, Honolulu, HI

Disaster Management and Emergency Response III
Tuesday March 6, 2012 - 1:30 to 2:45 pm

Honolulu faces a number of significant emergency management events each year: floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, fires - and less frequently, large special events, such as the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. Consequently, a great deal of thought and effort has gone into planning and emergency response preparedness. The City was an early adopter of GIS and has developed a comprehensive GIS for the city to support emergency operations, including the development of critical GIS layers, such as evacuation zones, flood zones, and critical infrastructure locations.

Traditionally, the standard operating procedures for City emergency managers included limited utilization of GIS tools and technology. The City and County of Honolulu Department of Emergency Management (DEM) received a grant for Geospatial Technology Enhancements (GTE) to improve emergency planning, response, and operations to more fully leverage existing City GIS data and systems. The project began in June of 2010. The goal was to install an advanced situational awareness viewer technology that supports the planning activities and emergency response operations that occur in the DEM Emergency Operations Center (EOC). The outcome was the deployment of the Honolulu Unified Assessment (HONUA) system. The system was put to the test during the recent APEC summit.