The draft set of guidelines have been released, and are available from the members download area.

Hi All,

I am pleased to be the conduit for the above draft guidelines that have been developed over the past couple of years. They represent the sterling efforts of a few committed people who are passionate about the potential that lies within this area. I need to mention John Gibson from Greater Wellington Regional Council in this regard, because he has been the backbone and coordinator behind this effort.

The purpose of this email is to provide a brief background as to how and why these guidelines were developed, where we are heading with this initiative and what we would like you to do with the draft.

Background
The benefits of utilising GIS in emergency management have been recognised for some time. In early 2005, a group of GIS officers presented to the EMO forum to seek support for development of some guidance in this area. It was noted at that time that GIS usage in emergency management had been proven as a useful tool overseas, and the directions out of the 2004 floods promoted further development in this area. Issues with GIS in emergency management in NZ could be summarised as generally poor integration, no common standards or procedures and no unifying organisation - all of which lead to unrealised potential.

We still face similar issues today, and the draft guidelines are a first step in addressing this issue. The guidelines arose as a preferred option following a meeting of GIS users about a year ago. As I said above, there have been a number of people who have contributed significantly to the draft above - particularly over the past year.

Where we are heading with this
The outcome sought is nationally recognised guidelines for use of GIS in the readiness and response phases of an emergency. We would like to see completed, edited guidelines that are owned and managed by the CDEM sector for the use of the sector - we would like to avoid "capture" by any single organisation. We think there may be some potential for working with LGNZ and/or MCDEM towards this goal.

We would appreciate as much feedback on this draft as possible from as many local government and emergency management agencies as possible - this should help guide how we will finalise the guidelines. John Gibson and I will have a look at requirements to finalise the draft and how we can engage potential sponsors to support us.

What we would like you to do
Please have a read of the draft and send comments back to me by 30 April 2007.
CDEM Managers/Officers - please distribute to all CDEM contacts within your Group and other CDEM contacts who may be interested

GIS Managers/Officers/others who have been cc'd - please distribute to key GIS contacts within your Council and/or CDEM Group.

Brendan Morris
Manager Emergency Management Office, Waikato CDEM Group.

---