case study
For Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, keeping the community safe and prepared for any emergency is a top priority. The county uses geographic information system (GIS) technology to enhance emergency preparedness plans by visually communicating data to residents. When the Eau Claire County Emergency Management Department updated its extreme-weather preparedness plans, staff wanted to create new applications that help stakeholders make data-driven decisions in real time.
The first application the department built was focused on severe weather alerts and warnings. It would pull data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to inform department staff that extreme weather was developing. The application would inform the emergency management team, partners, stakeholders, and the public of any forecasted or impending threat.
Figure 1: Weather Outlook Dashboard
To address concerns around flooding from the Chippewa River, the emergency management team, using ArcGIS Dashboards, created a dashboard to show real-time areas that are at higher risk from flooding. Behind the scenes, river gauges monitored by the National Weather Service (NWS) have been placed along the river to detect changes to the river’s water level. The data automatically is fed into the dashboard whenever there is a change.
“If all of a sudden the indicator for Chippewa River turns yellow, we know it has reached action stage and we need to start monitoring this closely and alert key partners in case there are any potential threats to constituents and our county’s infrastructure,” said Valerie Desio, emergency management specialist for Eau Claire County.
To help the community prepare, the emergency management team is also working to create an indicator that shows whether conditions are such that the river is safe for recreational activity or if the public should avoid it completely.
Figure 2: Screenshot of Flood Outlook Dashboard
In 2023, the Eau Claire County emergency management team members conducted a long-term power outage exercise. During that exercise, they used a mapping application to visualize the situation and mark the locations of shelters and other key critical infrastructure. During this exercise, stakeholders wanted information:
The team members realized they also wanted this data to be interactive and shareable with more than just department staff.
“When I saw the demo of the Emergency Management Operations solution, powered by ArcGIS Solutions, I saw everything that I wanted to be able to share,” said Desio. “We ended up adopting the solution; have tested it during multiple exercises and incidents; and now use it as a core tool for our Emergency Operations Center.”
This solution allows the Eau Claire County Emergency Management Department to list active incidents, weather watches and warnings, evacuation notices, critical response and infrastructure sites, open shelters, and even data on animal shelter locations. The solution also displays information that enables department staff to prevent capacity limits being exceeded at certain shelters. This helps the team members know whether to notify mass care units that more shelters are needed. Also, a form included in the solution interface allows users to update the status of community lifeline conditions, presenting them on an incident status dashboard.
“One of my favorite stories is [that] before we used GIS, I had a board that listed out all the community lifelines,” continued Desio. “If the lifeline was impacted in any way, you had to go up and [use] Velcro [to attach] your lifeline circle to the wall, and there was no way to understand [the] what and why a lifeline was being affected.”
Before: Community Lifeline Velcro Board
The Eau Claire County Emergency Management Department’s next initiative is to use similar technology to modernize and digitize the department’s hazard mitigation plan. Leveraging GIS will allow staff to share project information with internal stakeholders as well as the public. Future plans will follow the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) hazard mitigation planning process, showcase grant and funding information, and share documents for upcoming and pending hazard mitigation projects. The department is also implementing a solution that will allow the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to communicate more efficiently, through either a hybrid or virtual EOC, to allow for better integration into the department's public information portal.
“I am really looking forward to how we can continue to use GIS across all emergency management phases,” said Tyler Esh, emergency manager for Eau Claire County. “It has been a unique tool that has allowed us to be efficient [and] transparent and act intentionally based off real-time information.”
When I saw the demo of the Emergency Management Operations solution, powered by ArcGIS Solutions, I saw everything that I wanted to be able to share. We ended up adopting the solution; have tested it during multiple exercises and incidents; and now use it as a core tool for our Emergency Operations Center.