Homeland Security Information Network - Emergency Management

Emergency Services professionals work hard every day to save lives, homes, businesses and neighborhoods. Fires, earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, and hazardous materials are just a few of the issues they deal with on a regular basis. Regardless of how these disasters begin, emergency services professionals must be ready to respond twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. One of the major goals of the Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN) is to support the missions of federal, state and local emergency service professionals across the country by providing a secure and collaborative information sharing environment where they can communicate during critical situations.

The Homeland Security Information Network offers tools that emergency services professionals can use to prevent, protect from, respond to, and recover from disasters. During emergency situations, HSIN users can communicate with each other about how and where emergencies and disasters are occurring.

The ability to share information between jurisdictions is critical during emergencies, allowing departments to plan for resource allocation including personnel, fire engines, helicopters, boats and other life saving equipment and supplies.

Situational Awareness Tools

HSIN offers a variety of effective situational tools including:

• The Common Operational Picture (COP)
• Real-Time collaboration and Instant Messaging
• A Document Library with daily and periodic reporting from federal, state, and local sources
• Integrated Common Analytical Viewer (iCAV)  

National Response Framework

The National Response Framework defines the principles, roles, and structures that organize how the nation responds to disasters and emergencies. The Framework establishes a comprehensive, national, all-hazards approach to domestic incident response.

HSIN supports the National Response Framework by providing the ability to track deployed rescue teams and resource utilization, pass and share geospatial information with street-level maps and imagery, and post Requests for Information (RFIs) and For Your Information (FYIs).