HOMELAND SECURITY

16 Dec 10. Torrejon de Ardoz – The solution facilitates coordination in the event of simultaneous emergency situations which may occur in different locations across the country. It is an avant-garde system which enhances cooperation in joint responses between the military bodies and the civil organizations. It has been a year since SIMGE (Integrated Emergency Management System) started up. It was developed by the Information Technologies company, Indra, and it facilitates the control, direction and coordination of the actions of the Military Emergency Unit (UME). This command and control solution was conceived to manage all sorts of emergencies, from fires to snowfalls, industrial accidents, hurricanes or earthquakes. Its main advantage and what makes it an avant-garde solution is its interoperability. It is also compatible with the systems employed by the military bodies and civil organisations, thus both parties can act jointly. The solution offers a unique vision of the different ongoing operations. For instance, during the summer campaigns (2009 and 2010) it helped manage the UME responses to fires which occurred simultaneously in different locations. Besides this, it contributes to the assessment of the situation few minutes after detection and thus to a better planning of the operation. SIGME’s core is located at UME’s headquarters at Torrejon de Ardoz Air Base. The centre consists of a situation room, another room for the management of operations and another one which assists with geographic information. From the situation room, contact can be established with different organisations which provide information about any parameter associated with security: meteorological and seismic data, traffic situation; and nuclear and radiological security, etc. If the unit were to intervene, all this information would be immediately transmitted to the directions room to decide the actions to be implemented and the resources to be employed. The upper management of the unit supervises the information through a video wall and coordinates the operations with the autonomous regions, authorities or the central government. Finally, the command centre is equipped with a Geographic Information System (GIS) which experts use to render specific maps for each mission. The maps include information layers regarding the location of: nearby hospitals, electrical installations in the crisis area, water supply facilities, sewerage, etc. In addition to this, the evolution of the situation can also be simulated. The system contains command centres which can be deployed in the field. This feature allows onsite follow up and management of the emergency without detriment to its operational capacity as compared to performance at fixed centres like headquarters. The system can be deployed on communications vehicles so that the intervening units can have all the necessary information and receive the orders directly. Furthermore, they can submit information about the status, position and progress. In order to favour coordination between the civil authorities and external organisations, Indra incorporated a portal into the Integrate Emergency Management System, which can be accessed from the IRIS and SARA networks. The portal provides information about the ongoing emergency operation with strict security levels and ciphered transmission. (Source: ASD Network)