Module # 6
Mid Term Paper – From Crisis to the Map
Due at the end of Module # 6
Background:
It is your first month as the Emergency Manager for your County. The County is in a mostly rural area and really does not have significant EM resources or plans available. The County population is about 45,000. A large F3/F4 tornado has just torn through your community.
You still have internet access and power. You have PC’s, printers, projectors and copiers. All of the staff from city hall have just shown up at your small facility ready to help. Your job is to coordinate the information flow and start an assessment of the situation.
You know that one of the first priorities of Emergency Management, after an incident has occurred, is to complete a rapid damage and needs assessment. The disaster declaration and the mutual aid assistance request, are measured against the damage assessment and requests for assistance.
Deliverable
For this paper, you will write about the importance of surfacing key information on a map in the Emergency Management environment / EOC. What information should politicians, responders and EM’s have at their disposal to make quick disaster declaration decisions?
Using the subjects, we have studied so far:
Emergency Management and Large Data (Module # 2), Social Media (Module # 3), Radio and Satellite Communications (Module # 4), GIS (Module # 5) write a paper that discusses what information EM would want to be able to surface in the EOC and on a GIS map to help with the damage assessment, disaster declaration and assistance requests.
Answer these Questions:
- What are the different ways that you think data could come in?
- What types of technology are involved?
- How do we represent this information on the map?
- How do we use that information on the map to communicate with our senior elected officials and others about the severity and scope of the situation?
- Can you build this kind of situational awareness without technology?
This should be a 10 – 20 page paper. You can go over that limit but by no more than 5 pages.
Only Peer Reviewed Sources (less than 10 years old) can be used for the primary 5 sources.
Additional sources may be used but five (5) peer reviewed sources are required as primary – other sources are considered secondary.
Basics Writing Requirements:
Submitted with a file name following the format:
Watkins_Robb_EMAN_620_Mid_Term_Paper.doc or (.docx)
APA Format – 12pt. – Times New Roman – Double Spaced – 1” margins – with title page – with outline – with in text citations and a works cited – first line of each paragraph indented.
Writing Style and Citations: All written work for this class should be well organized, written, and edited. If you have concerns about your writing or struggle with writing consider working with UMUC’s Writing Center:
https://www.umuc.edu/current-students/learning-resources/writing-center/index.cfm
https://www.umuc.edu/current-students/learning-resources/writing-center/online-guide-to-writing/index.cfm
Additional Notes:
Example EOC Call Sheet Attached to the Assignment
Rubric:
Attached to the Assignment
