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These research projects work to improve and increase the nation's preparedness for and response to natural and man-made threats through superior situational awareness, emergency response capabilities and critical infrastructure protection.
Project Overview: This project develops an advanced first responder locating system. It builds off efforts in previous years by including integrated sensor components and software for visualizing locations and tracks for incident commanders, using building diagrams, floor maps, and office/apartment location;, and securely connects to emergency operations centers (EOCs). This system will enable incident commanders and decision makers to visually track responders to enhance overall situational awareness. This project is part of the Preparedness and Response Thrust Area and the First Responder Technologies Program of the Infrastructure and Geophysical Division.
Project Overview: This project develops the next-generation incident management enterprise system that will revolutionize the way our nation’s responders handle incidents. It builds upon the (Unified Incident Command and Decision Support (UICDS) architecture and Training, Exercise & Lessons Learned (TELL) framework by providing an integrated, interoperable, and unified common operating picture with total visibility into: incident information, resources, environment, logistics supply chain, response and recovery plans, methods, tactics, and policies. AIMES is a technology leap to integrate all elements of the incident management enterprise in order to provide a secure, scalable, interoperable, and unified situational awareness to the responder community. This project is part of the Preparedness and Response Thrust Area and the Incident Management Enterprise Program of the Infrastructure and Geophysical Division.
Project Overview: This project develops the next-generation incident management enterprise system that will revolutionize the way our nation’s responders handle incidents. It builds upon the (Unified Incident Command and Decision Support (UICDS) architecture and Training, Exercise & Lessons Learned (TELL) framework by providing an integrated, interoperable, and unified common operating picture with total visibility into: incident information, resources, environment, logistics supply chain, response and recovery plans, methods, tactics, and policies. AIMES is a technology leap to integrate all elements of the incident management enterprise in order to provide a secure, scalable, interoperable, and unified situational awareness to the responder community. This project is part of the Preparedness and Response Thrust Area and the Incident Management Enterprise Program of the Infrastructure and Geophysical Division.
Project Overview: This project conducts basic research in conjunction with existing federal investments in nanotechnology and other material- science efforts to develop extremely strong, lightweight, resilient materials. These advanced materials, design procedures for their use, and innovative construction methods will enable more effective and affordable hardening and provide increased resiliency of assets deemed most vital to the safety, economy, and security of the nation, for both existing infrastructure and new construction. This project is part of the Infrastructure Protection Thrust Area and the Protective Technologies Program of the Infrastructure and Geophysical Division.
Project Overview: This project builds upon the basic research conducted through fiscal year 2008. The program will provide enhanced and additional protective measures along with design guidance for protecting the nation’s most critical infrastructure assets. Protective measures could include mechanisms to reduce blast effects, rapid mitigation and restoration technologies, and other defensive measures. In addition, the project plans to numerically analyze designs against blast and projectile threats and to conduct physical demonstrations to assess their effectiveness. This work will seek to mature and expand existing protective measures by making them less expensive, easier to apply, and more effective, and will develop entirely new materials and design concepts for additional classes of infrastructure. This project is part of the Infrastructure Protection Thrust Area and the Protective Technologies Program of the Infrastructure and Geophysical Division.
Project Overview: This project conducts basic research to understand the blast failure mechanisms of the most vital critical infrastructure, including dams, tunnels and bridges. The project also investigates advanced materials, design procedures, and innovative construction methods that may enable hardening or increase the resiliency of assets deemed most vital to the safety, economy, and security of the nation. It will leverage existing Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Transportation (DOT), and Department of Energy (DOE) research and development, along with existing federal, state and private research and development efforts. This project is part of the Infrastructure Protection Thrust Area and the Protective Technologies Program of the Infrastructure and Geophysical Division.
Project Overview: This project focuses on the research, development and transfer to practical utilization of technologies designed to protect the nation's community-based critical infrastructures. KCI also addresses the development of technologies that support capacities to detect, avoid, deter, protect against, respond to and recover from infrastructure disruptions. KCI is funded by the Department and is managed by the National Institute for Hometown Security (NIHS). Research projects are accomplished through the Kentucky Homeland Security University Consortium which consists of all public university in Kentucky and private universities and colleges affiliated with the Association of Independent Kentucky Colleges and Universities. NIHS works in cooperation with the Department to support the KCI which generates solutions that have applications national in scope. KCI is a virtual research and development enterprise that involves academia, the private sector and the Department. KCI seeks to develop homeland security technologies that can be quickly commercialized. KCI has initiated several research and development projects since the program's inception. For more information, please visit the NIHS Web site.
Project Overview: This project is a key component of a larger effort to deliver Enabling Homeland Security Capabilities (EHCs) for the Modeling, Mapping, and Simulation program. The first goal of this project is to populate a detailed dataset of the chemical and petrochemical manufacturing, supply and distribution components that comprise the chemical infrastructure supply chain. The second goal is to develop a means to mathematically analyze not only the consequence of significant threats, but also the resiliency of the supply chain to recover from these impacts. This project is part of the Critical Infrastructure Protection Thrust Area and the Modeling, Simulation & Analysis Program of the Infrastructure and Geophysical Division.
Project Overview: This project focuses on interdependencies, cascading effects, and the dynamics of multi-event and multi-vector attacks. This effort will provide significant improvements in timelines, quality and usability of information to provide decision makers up-to-date information to make informed decisions during an event. The program will leverage the capabilities developed for Critical Infrastructure Protection Decision Support System (CIPDSS) and sector-specific modeling, simulation and analysis (MSA). The project is within the Infrastructure Protection Thrust Area and the Modeling, Simulation and Analysis Program of the Infrastructure and Geophysical Division.
Project Overview: This project develops an integrated sensor package that will monitor a responder’s vital signs such as cardiac rhythm, heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, and oxygen saturation, which could indicate Pre-Ventricular Contractions (PVCs) or cardiac arrhythmias. First responders need a highly reliable metric and notification system for on-scene identification of firefighters who are about to experience an immediate heart attack or other life-threatening condition. This project plans to fuse these measurements to establish the physical health of the responder based on a set of metrics, and warn both the wearer and command staff to potential life threatening physiological conditions. This project is part of the Preparedness and Response Thrust Area and the First Responder Technologies Program of the Infrastructure and Geophysical Division.
Project Overview: This project provides a comprehensive and transparent disaster logistics enterprise across the entire area of responsibility of all disaster response, public and private, partners. Lessons learned from past incidents, such as Hurricane Katrina, have identified the need for an integrated logistics capability to provide relief supplies to victims in a timely manner – a capability that does not exist today. This capability will provide decision makers overall situational awareness relative to availability for timely procurement and disbursement of public and private material inventories, locations of resources, and supplies to response to an emergency. The tracking system will allow FEMA to manage more effectively critical resources and will enhance real-time coordination and situational awareness, setting the standard for all disaster response partners. This capability will be scalable and interoperable with federal, state and local systems (legacy and future) to enable efficient use of the supply chain. This project is part of the Preparedness and Response Thrust Area and the Incident Management Enterprise Program of the Infrastructure and Geophysical Division.
Project Overview: This project focuses on the research, development and transfer to practical utilization of technologies designed to protect the nation's community-based critical infrastructures. KCI also addresses the development of technologies that support capacities to detect, avoid, deter, protect against, respond to and recover from infrastructure disruptions. KCI is funded by the Department and is managed by the National Institute for Hometown Security (NIHS). Research projects are accomplished through the Kentucky Homeland Security University Consortium which consists of all public university in Kentucky and private universities and colleges affiliated with the Association of Independent Kentucky Colleges and Universities. NIHS works in cooperation with the Department to support the KCI which generates solutions that have applications national in scope. KCI is a virtual research and development enterprise that involves academia, the private sector and the Department. KCI seeks to develop homeland security technologies that can be quickly commercialized. KCI has initiated several research and development projects since the program's inception. For more information, please visit the NIHS Web site.
Project Overview: This project develops rapid mitigation and recovery technologies for Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources (CIKR) assets to limit damage and consequences, and quickly resume normal operations. This project includes basic research and transition activities. The basic research portion will focus on longer-term needs and will investigate techniques for rapid repair of dams. The transition portion focuses on near-term needs of the Office of Infrastructure Protection; specifically it will develop protective technologies to mitigate damage to a stationary storage tank or a railcar from a puncture or small-caliber weapon impact. This project is part of the Infrastructure Protection Thrust Area and the Response and Recovery Technologies Program of the Infrastructure and Geophysical Division.
Project Overview: This project partners with the Office of Infrastructure Protection and the Department of Energy (DOE) to specify, design, build, and demonstrate a new type of electrical power transformer to be used during recovery from emergency grid blackouts. The recovery transformer will be easy to transport and install, have low maintenance and long service life. This capability will eliminate the two-year lag in transformer replacement and will increase the resiliency of the power grid. This project is part of the Infrastructure Protection Thrust Area and the Response and Recover Technologies Program of the Infrastructure and Geophysical Division.
Project Overview: This project provides FEMA analysts, decision makers, policy makers as well as emergency managers, operators an integrated modeling and simulation capability to effectively, economically, and rapidly verify and validate response tactics, plans and procedures and to conduct "what-if" type analyses prior to an incident (preparedness, analysis, training) and during/after an incident (operational, lessons learned).
The project will develop accurate and reliable estimates of possible hazards from a wide range of natural and terrorist events, analyze and use route mapping to effectively manage transportation assets during mass evacuations or the post-event flow of emergency supplies, and conduct impact analysis to provide better understanding of possible impacts from natural disasters and terrorist events. This capability will leverage the results of the Training, Exercise & Lessons Learned (TELL) project and will follow three tracks: model development; integration framework; and support for conducting planning exercises. The project will use a spiral-development process to insert technology as it matures and to refine requirements and concepts before committing to significant development efforts. This project is part of the Preparedness and Response Thrust Area and the Integrated Modeling, Mapping and Simulation Program of the Infrastructure and Geophysical Division.
Project Overview: This project offers community-based, regionally-deployed solutions to homeland security challenges. It is a pilot research and development program that aims to assist state, local, and tribal leaders in the developing tools and methods required to anticipate and forestall terrorist events and to enhance disaster response. The initiative addresses the capability gaps and required needs through science and technology to develop and deliver enduring and focused technical and practical capabilities for state, local, and private sectors, who share common regional homeland security issues and needs. The initial pilot states include Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Alabama. This program is part of the Geophysical Thrust Area of the Infrastructure and Geophysical Division.
Project Overview: This project provides advanced, automated, affordable underwater monitoring and surveillance technologies to detect underwater threats against dams and tunnels. Since these structures are particularly vulnerable to a water-borne attack, detection of suspicious activity is critical to asset protection. These technologies must be capable of operating in harsh environments for extended periods, and should seamlessly and transparently integrate into existing infrastructure security operations. This project is part of the Infrastructure Protection Thrust Area and the Advanced Surveillance and Detection Systems Program of the Infrastructure and Geophysical Division.
Project Overview: This project develops a federated simulation-based training and exercise capability that uses advanced computer models and will allow responders at all levels to affordably train and exercise for large and complex events in a virtual/constructive/live environment. TELL will link multiple agencies, functions, and jurisdictions to improve preparedness and decision-making for emergency responders and managers. TELL incorporates training objectives, scenarios, and metrics defined by other programs, and the capability to capture lessons learned to improve future emergency response capabilities.
TELL addresses the overarching need of successful implementation of the NIMS and the ability to conduct quick, repeatable, economical, and effective means of training incident commanders so they can be better prepared to handle complex incidents. This project is part of the Preparedness and Response Thrust Area and the Incident Management Enterprise Program of the Infrastructure and Geophysical Division.
Project Overview: This project provides advanced, automated, affordable underwater monitoring and surveillance technologies to detect underwater threats against dams and tunnels. Since these structures are particularly vulnerable to a water-borne attack, detection of suspicious activity is critical to asset protection. These technologies must be capable of operating in harsh environments for extended periods, and should seamlessly and transparently integrate into existing infrastructure security operations. This project is part of the Infrastructure Protection Thrust Area and the Advanced Surveillance and Detection Systems Program of the Infrastructure and Geophysical Division.
Project Overview: This project develops a framework based on NIMS/ Incident Command System (ICS) and National Response Framework (NRF). It also develops compliant tools to manage and share information that will enhance incident command systems and multi-agency coordination common situational awareness and decision support during all types of incidents. The UICDS framework will be based on an open-architecture to allow multiple responding organizations (using their own equipment) to jointly manage personnel, direct equipment, and seamlessly communicate, gather, store, redistribute, and secure any mission-critical information needed by incident commanders and emergency responders during an emergency situation. This project is part of the Preparedness and Response Thrust Area and the Incident Management Enterprise Program of the Infrastructure and Geophysical Division.
For more information, e-mail the Science and Technology Directorate's Infrastructure and Geophysical Division at sandt.igd@dhs.gov.
This page was last reviewed/modified on April 10, 2009.
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