HazCollect
Update: September 12, 2008
NWS is working together with DHS and FEMA through what we believe
are the final issues to make HazCollect available nationwide by January
2009. NWS has installed a backup HazCollect server at Mt. Weather
and connectivity has been established with a DHS Data Center. NWS
and FEMA are working jointly on a Non-Weather Emergency Message (NWEM)
training module designed for emergency managers and other responsible
for writing and issuing NWEMs. NWS will conduct a HazCollect
Follow-on Operational Test and Evaluation from late September to
December 5, 2008. FOTE goals include
- Test the end-to-end NWEM dissemination from emergency managers'
computer to NOAA Weather Radio using the DMIS emergency message
creation tool and,
- Demonstrate dissemination of a NWEM from a third-party incident
response system using the DM Open Platform for Emergency Networks
(OPEN) interface functionality.
NWS expects to open in December a web-based HazCollect registration
process to be completed by emergency managers.
January 11, 2008. In 2007, NWS and DHS went
through a number of program office transfers, staff changes, physical
hardware moves and resulting communications infrastructure changes. The
prudent course of action is to wait until NWS and FEMA are reasonably
certain of system stability and reliability.
October 31, 2007. The DMIS and OPEN
projects have moved from DHS Office of CIO back to FEMA and
server location decisions have been made. The HazCollect project
has moved from its project development phase in NWS Office
of Science and Technology to its Operations and Maintenance “home” in
the NWS Office of CIO. The team is also addressing concerns
expressed by NWS management before the system can be fully
deployed, including policy issues and resolution of Test Trouble
Reports.
March 30, 2007. NWS continues working with
DHS to demonstrate the HazCollect Applications Program Interface
(API) necessary for Commercial Off-the-Shelf and Government
Off-the-Shelf systems to interface with Disaster Management
(DM) Open Platform for Emergency Networks (OPEN). To
send NWEMs through HazCollect and other NWS systems, government
and commercial incident management applications must interface
with DM OPEN and be Common Alerting Protocol-enabled (CAP).
DM OPEN enables secure data exchange for sharing emergency
alerts or incident-related information through the use of standards-based
messages. There is no charge for the use of these Federal
government interfaces.
January 11, 2007. Information
about, pre-requisites for, and a request for third-party
system and emergency management client OPEN NWEM API functionality
demonstration candidates was emailed to the Emergency Interoperability
Consortium (EIC) and the OASIS Emergency Management Technical
Committee (EM-TC), for distribution and posted here: http://www.weather.gov/os/hazcollect/resources/OPEN_NWEM_API_Test_Request.doc. Interested
parties that able to demonstrate and test OPEN NWEM API functionality
may still respond to this request.
Emergency managers familiar with the DMIS Toolkit in California
, Florida and Kentucky took part in a successful November 2006
follow-on HazCollect demonstration of the DMIS Toolkit and
HazCollect server software. The demonstration was held
to ensure that the discrepancies identified during the HazCollect
Operational Acceptance Test (OAT) last summer were fixed and
demonstrate end-to-end HazCollect server functionalities between
the DHS's DMIS NWEM Toolkit and NWS dissemination systems. During
the testing, emergency managers and NWS staff sent test messages
using the DMIS Toolkit, including national test messages broadcast
nationwide on NOAA All Hazards Weather Radio and other NWS
dissemination systems.
October 23, 2006. DHS released a draft of
the DM OPEN NWEM API specification on September 19. Significant
progress has been made since September in testing the DM
OPEN API.
October 18, 2006. DMIS Web Services
v2.3.3 was released. The release announcement listed the
Non-Weather Emergency Messages (NWEM) creation tool as one
of the updates/enhancements in the new DMIS version. This
DMIS feature will not be available until NWS acceptance testing
is complete and HazCollect declared ready for national operations.
NWS will open HazCollect registration after NWS acceptance
process is complete. Registration will be accessible from this
web page.
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HazCollect Overview
The National Weather Service is developing the All-Hazards Emergency Message
Collection System, HazCollect , to collect and efficiently distribute non-weather
emergency messages (NWEM). NWEMs, commonly known as Civil Emergency Messages
(CEMs), will be sent through the NWS dissemination infrastructure, other
national systems, and to the Emergency Alert System (EAS).
To originate NWEMs, emergency managers will use the desktop client of DHS's Disaster
Management Interoperability Services (DMIS) or other commercial or government (COTS/GOTS/MOTS)
incident management software applications to write and post (send) NWEM text messages.
DMIS will then relay the NWEM to the HazCollect server for message authorization
and dissemination through DMIS and the NWS dissemination infrastructure (and to
many other dissemination services), NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards, and the Emergency
Alert System. The COTS/GOTS/MOTS incident management applications must be
CAP-enabled and interfaced with DHS's Disaster Management Open Platform for Emergency
Networks (DM-OPEN). DM-OPEN is an interoperability infrastructure enabling
secure data exchange for sharing emergency alerts or incident-related information
between disparate systems through the use of standards-based messages.
Emergency management organizations may learn more about DMIS and register
to use DMIS now by visiting the DMIS web site given below. Registration to
use HazCollect is expected to start in January-February 2008 with national
availability of the HazCollect service before the end of winter. Visit this
web site for updates and to register for HazCollect after registration opens.
Resources
- October
2007, HazCollect
System Update and FAQ, including overview diagram (pdf)
- HazCollect
Presentation, IAEM 2005 Annual Conference, November 2005, Pheonix ,
AZ. View with "Notes" for full presentation (ppt)
- Disaster
Management eGov Initiative (DM) Presentation Common
Alerting Protocol (CAP) Demonstration: HazCollect , IAEM 2005 Annual
Conference, November 2005, Pheonix , AZ (ppt) (download
audio
asset for Slide 8)
- Introductory Presentation: HazCollect:
Speeding Emergency
Messages to the Public. View with "Notes" for
full presentation (ppt)
- Full Page
Flyer: HazCollect:
To Speed Your Emergency Message (pdf)
- Trifold Brochure: HazCollect:
To Speed Your Emergency Message (pdf)
- HazCollect
System Overview Diagram (ppt)
Disaster Management Interoperability
Services Information: DMIS
enables the first responder and emergency management staff to
share information seamlessly by providing free software
to responder organizations. DMIS is one of two major components
of the Disaster Management (DM) E-Gov Initiative, part of the President's Management
Agenda for making government more focused on people and results.
The
DM E-Gov Initiative goal is to provide easy-to-use, unified access
to disaster management knowledge, services and toolsets. The end goal is
to achieve an accelerated and improved quality of disaster mitigation and
response. The second component, the DisasterHelp.Gov portal, provides information
and services to citizens, business, federal, state, and local government
and non-profit organizations relating to disaster and emergency response. DM
E-Gov Initiative is managed by the Department of Homeland Security.
DMIS
Web Site: http://www.dmi-services.org/
DM-OPEN
Special Interest Group Website: http://www.emforum.org/OPEN/
Contact Information
Questions about HazCollect? Contact:
Herbert.White@noaa.gov,
NWS Dissemination Services Manager
Joel.Williams@noaa.gov,
HazCollect Project Manager
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www.nws.noaa.gov 
