Emergency management and public safety agencies are increasingly looking to digital technologies and social media to enhance situational awareness. Furthermore, these technologies are extremely effective in improving communications with the communities they serve.
This session will outline the use of multiplatform information sharing and information gathering strategies, including the leveraging of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs), enabling emergency responders to now be able to see clearer and further into the chaos surrounding natural disasters and emergencies.
During this session we will discuss how the real-time acquisition of aerial imagery after a disaster can allow for the rapid deployment of personnel to assess damage and save lives.
We will also introduce delegates to Virtual Operations Support Teams (VOST) as applied to emergency management and disaster recovery. VOST is a field-tested, innovative solution that has been successfully used around the world by emergency response agencies, which makes use of new communication technologies and social media tools so that virtual teams can lend support via the internet to those on-site who may otherwise be overwhelmed by the volume of data generated during a disaster or crisis situation.
The demand and desire for problem-solving solutions and technologies that assist in all phases of prevention, preparedness, response and recovery is apparent as emergency response teams search for strategies to accomplish tasks more easily and efficiently. The convergence and advancement of technologies, including UAVs, will provide first responders opportunities to save more time, money and lives.