The document discusses the development of Emergency Mapping Symbology (EMS) to provide standardized symbols for representing emergency events in maps. EMS was created in Canada as other efforts like the US Homeland Security Working Group symbols did not adequately represent all hazards relevant to Canada. EMS defines a hierarchical structure and design for symbols that can be rendered across different devices and backgrounds. The symbols are open and free to use under a Canadian government license. EMS and complementary symbologies like ones for police could support open government goals by making emergency-related map data more accessible and interoperable.

1. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
Emergency Mapping Symbology
(with a brief overview of Open Government)
Mark Sondheim, Darrin Charmley, Graeme Leeming
http://emsymbology.org
Presented at the Multi-Agency Situational Awareness System sessions in
British Columbia, December 10 & 12, 2010

2. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
Outline
• Emergency Mapping Symbology
– Background Development funded
– Definition and Design by GeoConnections
– Licence, Contributors, What’s Next
Addendums
• Police CAD and RMS Symbology
– Strongly influenced by EMS Development funded by
US Department of Justice
• Map Symbology and Open Government
– Open Government, Open Data, Gov 2.0

3. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
Emergency Mapping Symbology
Background
for MASAS and EMOs
http://emsymbology.org

4. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
Emergencies Happen

5. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
HSWG Response
• Homeland Security Working Group
(HSWG) was tasked with developing
symbols to meet the needs of the
Federal, State and Local governments
in the United States.
• In 2005, HSWG released a set of
symbologies to represent emergency
events.

6. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
HSWG Symbols – Samples
Incidents Natural Events
Infrastructures Operations

7. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
HSWG Detail

8. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
Other efforts from around the globe
UN – Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA)
Disaster Response Map Symbols (DRMS)
Australia All Hazards Symbology (AAHS)

9. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
What was the response in Canada?
GeoConnections took the lead
• Should we adopt and extend HSWG?
• Are there events in Canada not
adequately covered by HSWG?
• What kind of symbology is likely to be
most useful and gain broad acceptance?
• How can the symbology be meaningful
in the context of COPs, MASAS and
general EM applications?
Let’s see what we can do in Canada!

10. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
Canadian Context (i)
• Iceberg • Blizzard
• Storm Surge • Freezing Rain
• Squall • Wind Chill

11. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
Canadian Context (ii)
• Lost Person
• AMBER/SILVER Alert
• Rescue Team
• Disease Outbreak
• Animal Die-off
• Quarantine

12. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
Canadian Context (iii)
• Road Closure
• Evacuation Route
• Flood Zone • Fire Lines
• Burn Area
• Affected Area

13. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
Emergency Mapping Symbology
Definition and Design
for MASAS and EMOs
http://emsymbology.org

14. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
What does constructing a symbology mean?
• What kinds of events are we considering?
• Can we create an easy to learn classification,
structured as a hierarchy?
• Can the symbols be connotative?
• Can they be rendered such that they are
immediately seen and understood?
The symbol set must be highly effective as part of a
Common Operational Picture !
It must be practical on web applications,
including those built for smartphones, tablets, etc.
It must also be practical on desktops and laptops.

15. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
Hierarchical Structure
Domain Category Tier 1 Tier 2
Aviation Hijacking
Incident
EMS
Infrastructure
Energy
Operations Oil Well
Tier 1 entity: domain.category.tier1
ems.incident.aviation
ems.infrastructure.energy
Tier 2 entity: domain.category.tier1.tier2
ems.incident.aviation.hijacking
ems.infrastructure.energy.oilWell

16. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
What symbol styles are most effective?

17. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
How about with this background?

18. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
EMS – Colours and Sizes
• Symbols are coloured
according to category
• Because they are
geometrically unique,
• they are not
dependent on colour
• Sizes in pixels:
32 x 32, 48 x 48, 64 x 64 + 400 x 400
(largest is the parent, used to derive the others)

19. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
Evolution – from HSWG to EMS (i)

20. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
Evolution – from HSWG to EMS (ii)

21. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
Some EMS additions

22. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
EMS In Action
Common Alerting Protocol – Canadian Profile: test case

23. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
Emergency Mapping Symbology
Licence, Contributors, What’s Next
for MASAS and EMOs
http://emsymbology.org

24. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
EMS Licence
• Falls under Canadian government’s
Licence For Unrestricted Use of
Emergency Mapping Symbology
• Copyright: Department of Natural
Resources, Canada
• Free to use, share, modify and extend
without restriction

25. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
Primary Published Influences
• HSWG (ANSI INCITIS 415-2006 and the
related mil spec: MIL-STD 2525C)
• CAP-CP (Canadian Profile of the Common
Alerting Protocol)
• NIDM (Canadian National Infrastructure Data
Model, which was heavily influenced by the
US-Canada Cross-Border Infrastructure Plan)

26. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
• web survey
Contributors through • focus groups
• interviews
Emergency Management, British
Black Coral Inc. PCI Geomatics
Columbia
Emergency Measures Organization, Provincial Emergency Program,
CAE Professional Services
Manitoba British Columbia
Emergency Measures Organization,
Canadian Association for Public Alerting Public Safety Canada
New Brunswick
Canadian General Standards Board EmerGeo Solutions Inc. Refractions Research Inc.
City of Edmonton Environment Canada Royal Canadian Mounted Police
City of Sudbury ESRI Canada Ltd. SAR Technology Inc.
City of Toronto GeoBC, British Columbia Telus Communications, Inc.
City of Vancouver Health Canada United States Coast Guard
Homeland Security Working Group
Defence Research & Development Canada University of Toronto
(U.S.)
Joint Emergency Liaison
Department of Homeland Security (U.S.) University of Windsor
Committee, Metro Vancouver
Medical Transportation Coordination
Department of National Defence Waterloo Region
Centre, Manitoba
E-Comm, Emergency Communications for
MykRoss Consulting Ltd.
Southwest British Columbia
Emergency Management Ontario Natural Resources Canada

27. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
What’s next …
• Management Strategy (right now, not defined)
– Who has overarching responsibility?
– How will the symbology be maintained?
– How will access and distribution be provided?
– What is the best way to engage the community?
– What is the funding source for management?
• Maintenance Process
– Refinements to existing symbols
– Creation of new symbols
– Ensure interoperability of complementary symbologies
– Assist with testing in different environments

28. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
Addendum 1
Crime Mapping Symbology
Complementary to EMS
for police agencies
http://emsymbology.org

29. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
A complementary symbology for policing
Domain Category Tier 1 Tier 2
Property ArsonResidential
CAD
Police Graffiti
Society
Overdose
RMS
Traffic WarrantSearch
• CAD: 207 events Violence DrunkDriver
• RMS: 60 events Other
BombThreat
Surveillance

30. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
Crime Early Warning System

31. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
Addendum 2
Open Government:
The role of map symbology

32. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
Open Government
• New doctrine focusing on govt. held data
– Data must be open to the public
– Data must be in machine readable form
– Data must be easy to find and easy to access
– Spatial is often a core element of such data
– Data must be available in open formats
– Data must be free and legally unencumbered
• High profile – part of govt. accountability

33. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
Open Data
Many governments are instituting open data policies.
Citizens • Open Data promises that citizens will
Open Data access to government held data
have
Services • and will be able to take advantage of
Data services built upon such data.
• Government data can be accessed
over the web in different ways
– via typical ftp and http protocols
– through web services
– by using government applications
• Linked Data – data can be exposed and connected
through web referencing (and identifiers & position)

34. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
Gov 2.0
• Leveraging the Web Citizens
• Citizen engagement
Government
• Open Data to support this
Infrastructure
– Simple ftp/http access for select, high demand, static data sets
Framework constructs – accessing government databases
– Web services
– Data portals
– Mashup frameworks
– Capability to easily use public frameworks, e.g., Google Earth
• Open standards: protocols, interfaces, formats
• Usable by developers as well as average citizen

35. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
Government as a Platform
• Government IT infrastructure seen as
Open Data
computing platform accessible
S Local Gov Data
to the outside
e
• Integral part of larger economy r Prov & Fed Data
v
Citizens, Companies, Agencies NGO Data
I
• Government as a Platform c Commercial Data
melds with other platforms, e
s Private Data
including social media

36. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
Map Symbology and Open Government
• Symbols are data, visual data
• Open government depends on
open standards, open services and interoperability
• Seamless integration will benefit from
common & complementary symbologies
EMO1 Citizens EMO2
EMO1 EMO2 Citizens Citizens

37. W W W . R E F R A C T I O N S . N E T
For more information, copies of the symbol
sets, and a copy of this presentation,
please visit:
http://emsymbology.org
Thanks for listening !