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The Emergency Management Take: Winter 2022
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The Emergency Management Take with Bruce Fitzgerald
How FirstNet helps mitigate disasters
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The four phases of emergency management all benefit from FirstNet’s advanced communication capabilities. In past newsletters, I’ve outlined FirstNet’s role in the phases of preparedness, response, and recovery. Now I’d like to look at how FirstNet helps with mitigation.
New tools for mitigation
The mitigation phase of emergency management includes all the steps we take to minimize the impact of disasters. In the past, disaster mitigation might have stopped after digging a bigger culvert or moving critical infrastructure outside a flood zone. Today mitigation encompasses more.
Smart cities and remote sensors are two ways that technology is advancing mitigation efforts and disaster management. FirstNet provides the prioritized and secure connectivity that public safety needs for these technologies.
Sensors and disaster detection
The Internet of Things helps emergency managers to always have eyes on developing situations. That’s because the Internet of Things is an ever-growing network of objects with sensors and software that share data with each other and with emergency managers.
Smart cities use data collected from the Internet of Things to improve their operations. For example, a smart city traffic management system can make a city safer in many ways, including by preventing accidents using communication between vehicles, pedestrians’ smart phones, and the traffic control system. These safety benefits require a reliable broadband connection that FirstNet provides.
Sensors are especially helpful in mitigation, including flood gauges, air quality monitors and structure monitoring sensors. More than half of bridges in the U.S. are older than 50 years, so structure monitoring sensors are a vital mitigation strategy for protecting lives and property. These sensors measure cracks and tilts and issue alerts when necessary. FirstNet can provide the prioritized connectivity for these sensors.
Climate change
Extreme heat, drought, flooding, and wildfires are often exacerbated by climate change. As emergency managers incorporate climate change into risk management plans, technology will play a big part in mitigation efforts.
For example, FirstNet-enabled sensors can help in wildfire mitigation. These sensors can be added to existing infrastructure like transformers to create an always-on monitoring canopy. Time is of the essence when it comes to wildfire mitigation. When sensors report wildfire conditions from the field, emergency managers can foresee emerging issues before they result in a wildfire.
Cities can also use sensor technology to mitigate other effects of climate change by monitoring risks for hazards like air pollution and flooding.
Benefits and challenges
Remote sensing improves situational awareness and gives advance warning so that emergency managers can make better-informed and more timely decisions.
One of the limits of sensors can be the requirement of connectivity. Coverage, especially for rural and remote areas, is a priority in the FirstNet Authority’s contract with AT&T to build, deploy, and maintain the FirstNet network. As of February, AT&T has said FirstNet covers 2.81 million square miles nationwide, reaching more first responders than any network in the country. Over 95% of the initial nationwide buildout for FirstNet has been completed.
As part of FirstNet’s buildout plans, we worked with public safety leaders in all 50 states, five territories, and the District of Columbia to identify areas of coverage. The result? Coverage and capacity are expanding with dedicated public safety spectrum added to existing sites and new sites in strategic locations prioritized by local public safety officials.
Looking ahead, the advent of 5G is bringing new capabilities for public safety communications. 5G will bring faster data speeds, higher throughput capability, and improved latency – providing connectivity for the trillion of sensors expected to power the Internet of Things. With more 5G-enabled sensors available for emergency management, the data they provide will become even more useful for predicting risks and reducing the impact of disasters.
In April 2021, the FirstNet Authority Board directed investments to upgrade FirstNet to enable initial access to 5G for FirstNet. Now subscribers have access to AT&T’s 5G spectrum in 20 cities and 5G+ (mmWave) spectrum in parts of 44 cities and more than 30 venues. AT&T continues to deploy additional 5G spectrum across the country.
Your experience
What is your experience with using technology for mitigation? I’d love to hear from you. Email me or find me or one of my colleagues at these events:
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We’re celebrating 10 years of FirstNet! The legislation that established the FirstNet Authority and FirstNet was signed into law on February 22, 2012. We made a promise to the public safety community to create a nationwide public safety broadband network. Today we’re delivering on that promise.
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Watch this video to see how the public safety community made FirstNet a reality. Learn about the past decade of massive progress for public safety communications and how the first nationwide public safety broadband network was built and deployed.
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Want to see FirstNet’s unique features in action? Check out these live demos of Z-axis for finding the vertical location of responders and priority and preemption for keeping first responders connected during network congestion.
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Hear stories from public safety leaders in our series From the Command Center. In the first installment, Pete Landon, Director of Homeland Security and Chief of Staff for the Governor of Maryland, talks about advancing public safety communications and tools to first responders.
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New FirstNet Authority Board Chair Steve Benjamin, who is the former mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, joins our podcast to talk about his experience supporting public safety services at the city and state levels as a government leader and his goals for the future of FirstNet.
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Tech, Innovations, and Hot Topics in Emergency Management
Read what we’ve been hearing from public safety in the field about trends and drivers for emergency management and emergency communications.*
High school students from Texas recently went to Disaster City to get hands-on experience in robotics and artificial intelligence for disaster management as part of a certification program. Disaster City is 52-acre training facility for emergency response managed by the TEEX Testing and Innovation Center at Texas A&M University. The FirstNet Authority has supported disaster exercises hosted by TEEX, including using FirstNet during a simulated earthquake and a cyberattack scenario.
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When the pandemic hit, the New Hampshire Department of Safety (DOS) worked with private healthcare organizations, and state and local agencies to set up testing sites. As soon as vaccines became available, the DOS set up a major facility at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon in an effort to vaccinate New Hampshire residents quickly and efficiently. With many logistical challenges ranging from weather to traffic, DOS turned to FirstNet to coordinate and monitor operations.
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Bruce Fitzgerald is the First Responder Network Authority Emergency Management Subject Matter Expert. Learn more about Bruce or email him with your questions. |
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Top photo: As vaccines became available, the New Hampshire Department of Safety set up a large vaccination clinic in Loudon. “Go-kits” with cameras, battery packs, routers with FirstNet SIM cards, and other internet-based devices were used to oversee and coordinate the operation, and the ability to stream video footage to unified command was critical to decision-making..
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*FirstNet Authority may provide hyperlinks for third-party, non-governmental websites in order to offer additional context and added value for our users. FirstNet Authority does not endorse any product or service and is not responsible, nor can it guarantee the validity or timeliness of the content on hyperlinks outside of the federal government. In addition, users may wish to review privacy notices on non-government sites since their information collection practices may differ from ours.
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