The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) 2021 Emergency Management Awards included the Award for Innovation which was won by Eagle Technology for its work in collaboration with Auckland Council and Auckland Emergency Management in creating the Geospatial Response Intelligence Platform (GRIP) based on Esri’s ArcGIS.
NEMA says; “This award recognises initiatives and strategies which support or create a culture of innovation in the sector, particularly the application of creativity across any aspect of the 4Rs of risk reduction, readiness, response and recovery.
“This can include the development of a new product, service, or practice not previously seen in emergency management or recognise where an existing approach has been used in a novel or unique way.
“Born of a need to share operational intelligence in ‘real-time’ across agencies, GRIP tools consist of a collection of web-based applications allowing users to view, create, add data and receive information from the field, and disseminate it within summary dashboards.
“Agencies such as New Zealand Police and Fire and Emergency NZ can view the dashboards to access a single operational picture, allowing for evidence-based decision-making across all agencies.”
The Eagle Technology team acknowledges that the solution was a joint initiative between Auckland Emergency Management, Auckland Council ICT and Eagle, with Auckland Emergency Management staff providing valuable feedback and requirements from the wider user base.
Special mention was also made of Eagle Technology’s work in Emergency Management in other regions including Taranaki, Hawkes Bay, the Pigeon Valley response and Public Information Maps (PIM), and early Covid tracking, highlighting the value of geospatial solutions for emergency management of all kinds.