SIMPLIFYING SITUATIONAL AWARENESS Continued from page 31 Booms are tubular floating barriers that can be made of porous material to absorb as well as contain oil. In addition to booms, sandbags, and HESCO baskets (deployable jetty structures made of mesh front and filled with rocks) were put in place by the guard. Planners and incident commanders needed access to current information on the type and location of the barriers being deployed along the beaches in various counties and parishes to stop oil from reaching the shore. This was a formidable task, given the Gulf's approximately 47,000-mile U.S. coastline (a figure that includes the shores of barrier islands, wetlands, inland bays, and inland water bodies that was developed using mean high water line digitized from NOAA's nautical charts). As of the end of August, approximately 1.81 million feet of containment boom and 9.16 million feet of sorbent boom had been deployed. Response crews from various federal and state agencies and teams within BP used mobile units and ArcGIS Mobile to collect data about the location and condition of booms and other barriers. The Alabama Marine Police used Panasonic Toughbooks mounted in their boats to map booms that had been deployed. Subsequently, booms were mapped as they were being deployed, eliminating the need to revisit sites. Using the BGAN network, maps, data, images, and video were transmitted to Incident Command. This gave command staff a very high level of situational awareness. They could view information on the placement of barriers in near real time. In addition to monitoring where barrier devices were being placed, the mobile data collection also helped with staffing because the information on the personnel deployed was so current and widely available. Recording Survey Information Areas contaminated by oil spills are surveyed to determine the best response strategies. That survey information is gathered by Shoreline Cleanup and Assessment Technique (SCAT) team members who record this information on standard SCAT forms. Esri's ArcGIS Mobile team created a data model for the short version of the SCAT form for use by responders with GPS-enabled handheld mobile devices. The intelligence in the data model was directly leveraged through an application developed in a prerelease version of ArcGIS Mobile 10. Responders could use the GPS capabilities of the mobile device to capture segment lines and zone points. The application was used 32 ArcUser Fall 2010 This operations map shows the division boundaries established on along the Louisiana coast. Jim Hawkins of USFWS holds a rescued pelican that will be sent to a rehabilitation center. USFWS staff used the application to document oiled birds and other species recovered in Louisiana marshes. Pelican rescue efforts were representative of these activities. Approximately 15 to 18 oily pelicans were captured every day and transported to rehabilitation centers so wildlife biologists could work on them. As of mid-July, 681 pelicans had been rescued. Mapping the locations where pelicans were captured updated previous wildlife surveys, identified breeding areas, and supplied baseline data for comparing the recovery of www.esri.com to fill out a form that meets SCAT specifications and transmit this data to the command center via a wireless connection. Simple to deploy, the application was well received and required little or no training for the responders using it.