The Emergency Provider Access Directory (EPAD), as a routing directory, is the cornerstone of the E-Safety Vision because without it, the routing of geographically targeted emergency messages could not occur. The idea is simple: create a directory that allows authorized emergency response organizations (not individuals) to register so they can receive information about emergency events for which they have a need or interest. Registration enables agencies to receive the right information when they need it; it prevents the receipt of unwanted or irrelevant information. This simple act of EPAD registration supports the automatic routing of vital information about a mass emergency or a single event quickly and securely.

During registration, entities choose what information they want to receive for which geographic areas. They indicate when and how they want to receive it and they classify their information so that only those with the proper authority can access it. Once entities are registered, messaging systems can query EPAD to determine to which agencies they need to send information. EPAD returns a list of agencies along with their computer addresses and prioritized contact information so that messages can be automatically routed to responsible agencies based on their geographic areas of responsibility and their incident information preferences.

THE NEED

There is currently no accurate, comprehensive printed or electronic directory of telephone numbers, Internet addresses, street addresses and other relevant contact information for all federal, state and local emergency response agencies in the US.  Typically during an emergency, each agency is responsible for identifying and contacting additional agencies which may provide assistance.  This process is very customized per agency and prone to error. 

The need for an electronic directory was identified during the National Mayday Readiness Initiative (NMRI) when COMCARE and the US Department of Transportation brought together a diverse group of more than 30 national organizations for over six months to develop and address the primary issues arising from the interaction of private Mayday “telematics service providers” and the nation’s public emergency response agencies. Recognizing the nation’s emergency communications infrastructure lacked an accurate, comprehensive directory of the tens of thousands of local, state and federal emergency response agencies, much less their incident information interests, boundaries and electronic contact points, NMRI recommended “a national program to create an up-to-date set of linked electronic contact directories, containing full contact information for all public and private emergency response agencies in the United States.”

COMCARE’S APPROACH

COMCARE and its members refined the directory concept identified by NMRI and DICE Corporation, a COMCARE member, developed a prototype so that the concept could be tested. Additional refinements were made and in 2003, COMCARE was awarded a Department of Justice grant to further develop the idea for a nationwide, geospatially-based directory of emergency response agencies. Calling it the Emergency Provider Access Directory (EPAD), COMCARE worked with practitioners to develop detailed functional and technical requirements and issued a Request for Proposals for EPAD in mid-2004.  Vendor partners were selected and there is now a fully designed EPAD ready to be built for production use.

EPAD is a geospatially-enabled electronic directory that contains emergency and administrative contact information for all emergency response agencies in the US and all authorized private entities capable of distributing information to the public. When queried, EPAD returns a list of agencies based on incident type and geography so the message can be sent simultaneously to ALL requesting agencies.

EPAD has been designed as a service-oriented, open architecture with reusable Web service components and open standard interfaces. It is designed to resolve the agency communications challenge by providing the following services:

1. Directory Services for housing agency information.
1. Directory functionality is independent of other tool functions to ensure flexibility and robustness in features.
2. The directory enables multiple emergency communications uses by
   multiple emergency organization users.
2. Administration Services for agency and user set-up.
1. Information profiles are established and maintained by the agencies themselves.
1. Agencies choose what information they receive
2. Agencies choose when and how they receive it
3. Agencies choose who has access to its information
3. Identity Rights Management Services for authentication and authorization.

FROM VISION TO REALITY

With the detailed design complete, COMCARE is now working with a broad coalition of emergency response organizations to make EPAD and the E-Safety Vision available to all emergency agencies in the nation. This coalition called the National Emergency and Alerting Response Systems (NEARS) Initiative is now seeking the funding needed for this purpose.

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