Welfare-to-Work map with spatial relationships between CalWORKS households, jobs, schools, childcare, medical facilities and public transit. Photo Credit: Metropolitan Transportation Commission

Upcoming Educational Sessions:

July 23, 2009
Venue: Metropolitan Transportation Commission MTC
8:30 AM to 9:00 AM – Registration, Refreshments and Informal Networking
9:00 AM to 12:00 noon – Educational Session

Real-Time Imagery Integration for Situational Awareness on Wildland Fire Incidents

Mike Wilson, Captain (CALFIRE)
Thomas Zajkowski, Remote Sensing Analyst (USFS - Remote Sensing Applications Center)

Mr. Mike Wilson and Mr Zajkowski will describe their multi-agency work with the integration of near real-time remote sensing imagery from UAV's and other sources for situational awareness on wildland fire incidents.  The presentation will highlight their experiences using this imagery for numerous different Incident Command Teams working on the fire siege of 2007 in Southern California and the lightning siege of 2008.  This will be a unique opportunity to see and hear latest developments about how some of the State and Federal agencies have been using these tools and their efforts to share this data with other agencies.
 

Providing Mapping/GIS Support in the County of Santa Barbara's Emergency Operation Center (EOC); Santa Barbara County Fires 2007-2009

Zacharias Hunt, Santa Barbara County GIS Manager

Mr. Hunt will present Santa Barbara County's experiences using GIS for Emergency First Responders.  The county has been hard hit by wildfires in the last several years.  Their use of geographic information systems for coordination; status reports and response has increasingly become fine-tuned.  Their experiences with what worked and what did not worked will be of great value to emergency managers; First Responders (Fire & Law Enforcement, etc as well as GIS professionals.   The talk will include: Operational Mapping; Public Information Mapping; Accessing and Sharing GIS Data and lessons learned.  Bay Area Federal, State, Regional and Local GIS professionals and First Responders will not want to miss this very informative discussion.


Using HAZUS-MH for Risk Assessment and Mitigation

Richard H. Davies, Founder and Executive Director of the Western Disaster Center and Managing Director of HAZUS.org

To support better mitigation planning for future disasters, Congress enacted the DMA 2000 legislation.  FEMA is the lead agency supporting implementation of the DMA 2000 requirements and makes funds available to support efforts to meet these requirements.  In 2002, FEMA issued regulations and guidelines to implement the DMA 2000 requirements for mitigation planning by states and communities.  To be eligible for FEMA funds, state and local entities are required to prepare DMA 2000 Hazard Mitigation Plans for natural hazards.  Mr. Davies will summarize how HAZUS-MH can be used to comply with DMA 2000 requirements.
 

Biographies

     Since 2001 Tom Zajkowski has served as a technical advisor to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC).  USFS - Remote Sensing Applications Center (RSAC) supports NIFC by serving as a liaison to other agencies such as NASA and NGA and by evaluating remote sensing technologies that have possible fire management applications.  Mike Wilson is a fire captain with CAL Fire in the Sonoma Lake Napa Unit. He is a qualified Situation Unit Leader and former GIS lead on Cal Fire Incident Command Team 5. Mr. Wilson is also on the CAL Fire technical advisory committee to explore the use and integration of near real-time remote sensing imagery for situational awareness on wildland fire incidents.

    Mr. Davies has attended advanced graduate classes at Stanford University, is a graduate of the California Institute of Technology with a Masters degree in Aeronautics and the Northrop Institute of Technology with Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering.  He is also an elected Member of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Bay Area InfraGard Chapter, the Silicon Valley chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) and the San Francisco FBI Citizens' Academy Alumni Association.

2009 Calendar