1 The Geographic Information System Standard Operating Procedures on Incident Project (GSTOP) Sue McLellan Florida Division of Forestry

2 GSTOP Project Objectives  The project objective was to create standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the use of GIS on wildland fire incidents.  Need for guidelines for GIS specialist expectations.

3 GSTOP Team Members USFS - MT USPS - AK DNR - WA NPS - CO USFS- OR USFS - CO Oregon Division of Forestry USFS - GA USFS - NIFC USGS - CO NPS - CA USFW - CO BIA- WA BIA - NIFC USFWS - AK (Situations SME) USFWS - TX BLM - AK BLM - CO Florida Division of Forestry BLM- CA FEMA Region X – AK, ID, OR, WA

4 Representation X X X X X X X X X X FEMA Region X

5 The Need for Standard Operating Procedures  Provide people with all the safety, health, environmental and operational information necessary to perform a job properly  To ensure that production operations are performed consistently to maintain quality control of processes and products  To ensure that processes continue uninterrupted and are completed on a prescribed schedule

6 The Need for Standard Operating Procedures  To serve as a training document for teaching users about the process for which the SOP was written  To serve as an historical record of the how, why and when steps in an existing process so there is a factual basis (not hearsay) for revising those steps when a process or when technology changes.

7 Project Scope  Developing and recommending GIS SOPs guidelines for incidents to the NWCG. As a minimum this would include: Naming conventions and structure (e.g. Folder and file) Standard map product definition Minimum Essential Data Sets Data sharing and archiving procedures Incident team transition procedures Minimum GIS expectations on an incident GIS symbology identified Documentation and metadata procedures

8 The Process  Topics  Sections developed independently  Group discussions  Consciences  Constraints

9 The Process Continued…. Team Work Flow  Define Information Needs (What do we need to gather?)  Perform Information Collection  Conduct Analysis  Develop Preliminary Business Requirements Specifications  Business Requirements Review and Validation

10 Collaboration  DisasterHelp.gov  Conference Calls  Face to Face Meetings   FTP.NIFC.GOV

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12 Areas of Interest  File and Naming Conventions  Map Standard  Minimum Expectations  Symbology  What do we cover?

13 Final Product  The final product is an 83-page book that can be downloaded at:

14 GIS Standard Operating Procedures on Incidents A Publication of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group PMS 936 NFES 2809 June 2006

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