{"id":6955,"date":"2016-04-18T10:54:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-18T17:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/?p=6955"},"modified":"2016-04-18T10:54:00","modified_gmt":"2016-04-18T17:54:00","slug":"what-runs-behind-the-scenes-at-the-boston-marathon","status":"publish","type":"insider","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/what-runs-behind-the-scenes-at-the-boston-marathon","title":{"rendered":"What Runs Behind the Scenes at the Boston Marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jessica Wyland
\nRunners (and race fans) take your mark. Today is the 2016 Boston Marathon, held every April on the Massachusetts holiday Patriots\u2019 Day, which commemorates the start of the American Revolutionary War. It\u2019s a spirited race, one that attracts about 30,000 runners, half a million spectators, and international media coverage.
\nAmid all the excitement, and new shoes, lurk safety concerns.
\nTake yourself back to spring 2013, the 117th running of the Boston Marathon. That day two bombs exploded at the finish line killing three people and wounding 260.
\nThe following year marked record-high participation from runners and spectators under the rally cry: Boston Strong. By 2015, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency had produced the Boston Marathon Dashboard, an online map that tracks every aspect of the event as it happens.
\n\"\"<\/a>
\nThe Boston Marathon Dashboard will help keep people safe today.
\nThe technology behind the dashboard itself is remarkable: layers of real-time data, information that\u2019s clickable and zoomable, a map that can be viewed and updated from any device by hundreds of people. But what matters most, even to the people who built and use the dashboard, is security assurances.
\nIf the bombing attack left participants and spectators fearful, if it made police and public officials feel powerless, the Boston Marathon Dashboard could take away some of that fear and give people back a sense of control.
\nDesiree Kocis is the geographic information system (GIS) professional who built the Boston Marathon Dashboard. She is GIS coordinator for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.
\n\u201cThe Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 showed us what data we needed to have online and not just on paper,\u201d said Kocis. \u201cI had never used ArcGIS Online, but I knew it was the only way to build the dashboard and push out all that information to so many different people.\u201d
\nIn just six weeks, Kocis learned how to use ArcGIS Online to build what turned out to be the highly successful Boston Marathon Dashboard. She used Operations Dashboard for ArcGIS, one of the apps included with ArcGIS Online.
\nThe Boston Marathon Dashboard gives security personnel and emergency responders a real-time view and common operating picture, complete with live data feeds on runners, weather, traffic, emergency vehicles, and medical situations. It hosts 20 static layers that can be turned on or off as needed to show helicopter landing pads, National Guard staging areas, or medical facilities. In case of an emergency, all responders involved can quickly zoom in to emergency shelters to see status changes, capacities, key contacts, and phone numbers.
\nOn race day, 300 people from 60 different agencies, including state and local police and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, use the dashboard at the Multi-Agency Coordination Center (MACC). Additional crews on the ground use Collector for ArcGIS app (also included in ArcGIS Online) on iPhones to locate nearby medical facilities when a runner falls or gets injured.
\n\u201cPeople at the MACC genuinely care and are passionate in their duties,\u201d Kocis said. \u201cI’ve never felt so proud to be a part of something.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10862],"tags":[4381,157432,163382,203322,157412,241,160632,1251],"class_list":["post-6955","insider","type-insider","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-esri","tag-apps","tag-arcgis","tag-arcgis-online","tag-boston-marathon","tag-data","tag-gis","tag-maps","tag-public-safety"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Runs Behind the Scenes at the Boston Marathon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/what-runs-behind-the-scenes-at-the-boston-marathon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Runs Behind the Scenes at the Boston Marathon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Jessica Wyland Runners (and race fans) take your mark. Today is the 2016 Boston Marathon, held every April on the Massachusetts holiday Patriots\u2019 Day, which commemorates the start of the American Revolutionary War. It\u2019s a spirited race, one that attracts about 30,000 runners, half a million spectators, and international media coverage. 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