Waitaki City Council, New Zealand
Waitaki’s emergency response team uses geospatial technology to respond to flooding crisis
The Situation:
On 26 April 2006 the town of Oamaru in the southern region of New Zealand received 128mm of rainfall over 24 hours.
State Highway 1 was closed and diversions were put in place around the region, managed by Waitaki District Council and the NZ Police. Fire crews worked from 4:30am to pump out flooded properties and man the road blocks created by flood waters. Road crews worked from 2.30am to clear blocked mudtanks and stormwater inlets.
The ‘111’ emergency service telephone line was inundated with calls that were routed through to the NZ Fire Service for response. Rural Fire fighters were called in to help the NZ Fire Service and worked in conjunction with Waitaki District Council Emergency Services Department.
The Outcome:
Two of Waitaki’s key agencies used Intergraph’s software to deal with this crisis scenario.
Waitaki District Council’s GIS division used GeoMedia to plot and map all incidents in real time during the crisis. Used remotely over a Citrix connection, the software was used to map incidents such as road closures and reopens, flooding, and slips. Having live data meant that accurate maps representing the situation were readily available and a wealth of information for future crisis management was recorded.
Geospatial software was used to map the fire service callouts on the day and will be used to build a pattern of problem areas around the town and district for managing future events. The maps will also support the recovery project to coordinate maintenance and remedial works. The information will be evaluated by engineers to determine the required network improvements to the water course and storm water network to better prepare for future flooding incidents.
Civil Defence used the geospatial information to debrief those parties involved in managing incidents to enable more effective crisis management planning in future.
“Visually representing the situation using a map to present all the different information - the number of emergency services calls, road closures, degree of flooding - was essential for tracking and demonstrating the roles of all parties involved in the recovery and will help immensely with future crisis management,” said Michael Goldingham, GIS Data Officer, Waitaki District Council.
Waitaki District Council is also using GeoMedia’s mapping capabilities to build an information library to record problem areas identified by the flooding for the council to decide where to invest in longer term infrastructure improvements.
Intergraph’s Computer-Aided Dispatch System (I/CAD) was used by the New Zealand Fire Service Communications Centres taking the ‘111’ calls and forwarding the details to the relevant Council Operations Rooms and rural fire departments. This “intelligent” mapping and data entry system integrates an interactive, real-time map display with call handling, dispatching, records and information management, remote access, and mobile data – all essential factors to crisis management.