The National Incident Management System (NIMS) is foundational doctrine, providing a blueprint for unified all hazards incident support and management, and is applicable at all levels, including: local, state, territorial, tribal, and federal agencies as well as across the whole community. The NIMS is an integral part of the National Preparedness System that supports a unified national effort to build, sustain and deliver the core capabilities needed to protect, prevent, mitigate, respond to, and recover from disasters; and achieve the National Preparedness Goal of a secure and resilient Nation.
The Homeland Security Act of 2002, Post Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006, and Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD) -5 “Management of Domestic Incidents” require DHS to establish a process to maintain and refine the NIMS document. To this end, FEMA’s National Integration Center was established to support this process; ensuring the NIMS remains current and consistent with public law, national policy, emergency management best practices and lessons learned from incidents or planned events, planning initiatives, training, and exercises.
Consistent with this guidance, the National Integration Center is leading the National effort to update the NIMS. Engagement with the Whole Community is critical to ensuring that a national perspective is reflected in the resulting update. The Sub Campaign topics presented below are for the Whole Community to consider and provide input on. This input will be used to guide the NIMS update.
- NIMS Relationship to the National Preparedness System
- Inclusion of Whole Community concepts in the NIMS
- Expanding the discussion on national mutual aid in the NIMS
- Expanding the discussion on incident support, coordination, command, and management in the NIMS
- Inclusion of language on the use of location enabled decision support tools, common location language, and technology into the NIMS
- Expanding the discussion on emergency communications
For more information on NIMS, visit www.fema.gov/national-preparedness/national-incident-management-system.