I know that GIS is so much more than maps, and I would love to help emergency managers better understand what capabilities the technology has.
case study
How Highlands County Is Transforming Emergency Management with GIS
With increasingly severe weather events nationwide, local counties face complex challenges in coordinating responses, allocating resources, and maintaining a clear, real-time picture of evolving situations to ensure community safety and well-being.
In central Florida, Highlands County is taking a revolutionary approach by bringing geographic information system (GIS) technology from the background to the forefront of their operations, transforming how critical decisions are made during emergencies.
At the helm of this innovation is Carley Fitzgerald, the county’s GIS manager, who saw an opportunity to elevate the role of GIS within the county’s emergency management operations. Through persistence, Fitzgerald and her colleagues developed a dynamic, real-time situational awareness dashboard that puts critical data at officials’ fingertips during the moments that matter most, setting a new standard for emergency operations.
Filling a Vacant Seat at the Table
During emergency activations, Emergency Operations Centers (EOC) serve as the central hub where teams coordinate and direct critical response efforts. Rather than accepting delays in accessing and sharing critical information, Highlands County saw an opportunity to leverage spatial technology to bridge this gap.
A pivotal moment during Fitzgerald’s first EOC activation for Hurricane Dorian in 2019 set a transformation in motion. With a small display monitor brought in to the EOC, the team showcased a dashboard with real-time data on county shelters and weather conditions. Fitzgerald remembered hearing her colleagues’ surprise when they said, “Wow, GIS can do that?”—realizing for the first time how GIS could drive emergency decisions, not just create maps.
That moment of realization elevated GIS from a support tool to a core component within the incident command system, becoming essential to establishing situational awareness for emergency response operations.
Now, the team takes advantage of real-time, authoritative data from sources such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the National Weather Service, the Florida Highway Patrol, and local weather stations to develop a solution that would transform their operations.
Building a Data-Driven Emergency Response
Highlands County saw GIS as more than just a mapping tool—it could become the backbone of modern emergency response. Their vision was simple but powerful: Give emergency managers a complete, up-to-the-minute view of any crisis through interactive maps and real-time data dashboards.

This system evolved rapidly, incorporating real-time weather forecasts, damage reports, power outages, conditions of roadways, shelters and their capacity, and live camera feeds. What began as a single-page dashboard grew into a comprehensive, multi-tabbed system that serves as the eyes and ears of the county’s emergency response.

To enhance the county’s capabilities, Fitzgerald and her team developed innovative tools for disaster assessment and management. The team created the Citizen Damage Reporter Survey using ArcGIS Survey123, allowing constituents to submit and help pinpoint community damages. This tool provides immediate insights into affected areas, streamlining response efforts. During a hail incident in 2022, public submissions gave field teams precise locations to investigate, demonstrating the system’s value to the common operating picture.
The GIS team further expanded their county’s response capabilities by building a suite of field assessment applications with Survey123 and ArcGIS Experience Builder. These apps allow rapid damage assessments to be conducted across the county. A Rapid Impact Assessment (RIA) app developed on Experience Builder divides the county into one-square-mile assessment zones for efficient damage evaluation. County road closures, public facility damage assessments, flooded areas, and more are collected utilizing ArcGIS Survey123 mobile apps.

“The RIA app has a drop-down field to collect a flood and wind rating for each assessment tile, with an additional field to mark the tile as completed,” Fitzgerald explained. “As soon as they submit their assessment of the area, the zone turns gray on their field map and gets color coded based on severity on a map displayed in the EOC war room.” This streamlined process allows field teams to capture and communicate impacts quickly, creating a holistic view of affected areas.
Bridging Interagency Collaboration
The comprehensive nature of Highlands County’s GIS system established a common operating picture that extends far beyond local emergency management. “I saw this potential for bringing in other departments and integrating our services with the entire county,” Fitzgerald emphasized.
This system now serves as a unified platform for multiple agencies responding within Highlands County, including state agencies, nonprofits, Duke Energy, FEMA, the National Guard, and local fire departments.
The value of this approach became particularly evident when FEMA’s Disaster Survivor Assistance teams arrived after Hurricane Ian in 2022. “When they asked for a paper map, I told them, ‘I could do you one better,’” Fitzgerald recalled. “I made them a copy of this data in an interactive application showing citizen-submitted damage photos and hot spots of priority neighborhoods.”

This GIS approach allowed FEMA teams to quickly identify priority areas, streamline their assessment process, and allocate resources more efficiently, bridging the gap between local knowledge and federal resources.
Sharing Innovation
The success of Highlands County’s approach has garnered attention beyond FEMA. State agencies, the National Guard, and neighboring counties have expressed interest in the county’s GIS capabilities.
As natural disasters intensify nationwide, Highlands’ innovative approach demonstrates how data-driven decision-making transforms emergency response and paves the way for the future of emergency management.
Fitzgerald remains committed to sharing this approach with other communities.
“I have this goal of training and educating other emergency managers across Florida—and potentially across the US—about what’s possible in the EOC,” she shared. “I know that GIS is so much more than maps, and I would love to do training sessions across the state to help GIS managers better understand what capabilities GIS has.”
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Esri offers multiple product options for your organization, and users can use ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Enterprise, ArcGIS Pro, or ArcGIS Location Platform as their foundation. Once the foundational product is established, a wide variety of apps and extensions are available.