NIMS COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT STANDARDS 
 
 
This NIMS Alert provides information for all NIMS Stakeholders on the FEMA Incident Management Systems Division’s (IMSD) recommended standards that support interoperability among communications and information management systems. Through evaluation and practitioner reviews conducted in 2007, IMSD identified and recommends that emergency management/response organizations and private sector vendors voluntarily adopt the following five standards: 
 
• ANSI INCITS 398-2005:  Information Technology – Common Biometric Exchange Formats Framework (CBEFF). 

• IEEE 1512-2006:  Standard for Common Incident Management Message Sets for Use by Emergency Management Centers. 

• NFPA 1221:  Standard for Installation, Maintenance, and Use of Emergency Services Communications Systems. 

• OASIS Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) v1.1. 

• OASIS Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL) Distribution Element v1.0. 


 
These standards support a common operating picture, which requires the use of common interfaces among disparate communications and data management systems.  These interfaces integrate information to facilitating decision making during an incident, and are established through the development and use of common communications plans, interoperable communications equipment, processes, standards, and architectures.  In FY 2008, compliance activities are linked to the standardization of data and information management processes.  
 
The Recommended Standards List (RSL) also includes two programmatic and incident management standards recommended by IMSD in 2006 – NFPA 1600: Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs (2007 Edition); and NFPA 1561: Standard on Emergency Services Incident Management System (2005 Edition). 
 
Additional information on NIMS Recommended Standards can be downloaded and/or accessed on the FEMA website at: http://www.fema.gov/emergency/nims/standards