CP Roberts RELIEF 10-01 After Action Report

STAR-TIDES is publishing a public beta of the After Action Report from RELIEF 10-01 experimentation at CP Roberts in November 2009.

The STAR-TIDES experiments at RELIEF 10-01 tackled three challenges to building a common operating picture:

1. Making effective use of aerial imagery.
2. Exploring new methods for field data collection.
3. Developing systems for integrating streams of information.

The STAR-TIDES team included representatives from Sahana; Open Mobile Consortium; InSTEDD; San Diego State University Visualization Lab; Open Solutions Group, Inc; Synergy Strike Force; Unthinkingly.com; and the National Defense University.

Aerial Imagery

In many parts of the world, building an overhead map of a disaster and getting it to first responders is hampered several factors:

1. Cloud Cover. In climates like Latin America, low cloud cover tends to have already obscured the ground before US satellites pass over the region.
2. Slow Bureaucracies. In all regions—including CONUS—imagery tends to flow through a slow bureaucratic process and rarely reaches responders within the first 24 hours.
3. Access/License Restrictions. Even when imagery reaches responders, it often carries restrictions on access which prevent sharing those images between mission partners (e.g., host country Red Cross/Red Crescent Society or NGOs based in other countries, like Doctors without Borders).

STAR-TIDES explored a rapid collection and distribution mechanism for an alternative source of imagery: small UAVs. The STAR-TIDES team experimented on the use of small UAVs to build a base map within hours of a sortie. It also assisted an open-source community of neo-geographers to build the technical architecture for a shared, open, and distributed repository of imagery to which responders could submit UAV (and toher) imagery and build a base map via collective action. This repository would be available to all mission partners and would make use (as much as is possible) of open licenses for imagery hosted therein.

Field Data Collection

While the use of laptops to collect data in the field has allowed for many advances in the type of information collected by staff who are assessing the aftermath of disasters, several challenges are hampering rapid analysis of the situation.

1. Paralysis by Data Collection. Because the vertical length of a web browser screen is nearly unlimited, organizations have devised forms with more than 100 fields per assessment. In Iraq (2003), one organization designed and deployed a form with 387 data elements, even after receiving pushback from the field. Such lengthy forms cause field staff to make decisions over what subset of those data elements actually get collected. These partial slices of data rarely create data sets that enable comprehensive and systematic analysis.
2. Communications and Power Limitations. Laptops work in environments where recharges are reliable and communications with a central operations center can be established. In the austere conditions after a major disaster, these assumptions cannot be made. The most reliable form of field data collection is still a clipboard, pad, and stubby pencil.
3. Digital Divide. If organizations are going to harness the local knowledge of host nationals, computer literacy cannot be assumed.

The STAR-TIDES team explored two options for confronting problems, albeit from different sides. The first, Talking Papers, extended the paradigm established by Walking Papers in the RELIEF 09-04 August experiments: using paper as advanced technology. Walking Papers prints maps on PDFs with QR codes that capture metadata about an area of interest (AOI), enabling field staff to scan annotated Walking Papers back into the base map for analysis. Talking Papers creates self-describing forms, where QR codes capture the data schema and OCR-ready field elements make optical character recognition (OCR) easier to perform in the field.

The second approach looked at low-power consumption Android phones to provide a means to encode forms using a touch-screen device that can communicate using low-bandwidth cellular connections.

Integrating Systems

Even when good data exists in the field, integrating those data into a common operating picture raises difficult problems. In many instances, the barrier between organizations—and especially between civilian and military organizations—prevents systematic flows of information between mission partners. When information gets shared, putting it into a format that can integrate streams of activities into a common operating picture has always raised difficulties—even with large military budgets, let alone on the shoestring ICT budgets of fielded NGOs.

The STAR-TIDES team explored the use of a distributed mesh of information sharing devices among mission partners to foster increased information flow. It also explored the use of the Sahana disaster management system to integrate those data flows into a composite picture of “who needs what , where,” including the integration of SMS messages to send and receive georeferenced requests for resources.

Preliminary Results

RELIEF 10-01 experimentation was another success. It led to the relaunch of OpenAerialMap (with 15 developers), the creation of an open-source effort to build Talking Papers (with 6 developers), the successful mosaic of UAV imagery using open source tools, the successful proof-of-concept for an Android-based field assessment tool, and the successful deployment of Sahana to manage the experimentation at Camp Roberts TNT event, with over 200 people in the field.

These results can be applied in a number of geographic areas. These trials paid particular attention to:

• Afghanistan, because of its strategic importance
• US Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) areas because of their support of experimentation and to evaluate capabilities that might be used in the PEAK (Pre-positioned Expeditionary Assistance Pit) JCTD, if approved, and
• US territory in light of support to RELIEF 10-1 from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and potential interest by the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in restoring connectivity and information flow to citizens and local governments after disasters.

The remainder of this report (attached) details these successes, as well as the lessons learned during the preparation, execution, and analysis of the experiments at RELIEF 10-01.