The Department of Homeland Security has awarded a $997,098 grant that will enable Towson University to develop a Maryland Emergency Geographic Information Network.
Towson’s nationally-recognized Center for Geographic Information Systems has 10 months to develop the tool, which will permit officials across the state to utilize data in the event of terrorist attacks, natural disasters or other emergency management situations.
“This is huge,” James Clements, TU’s acting vice president for economic and community outreach, said. “We think it’s the first step of a long-term relationship with the Department of Homeland Security.”
CGIS staffers have been meeting this week to discuss the new project. Towson University will officially announce the grant in the coming days.
The Department of Homeland Security awarded $9 million to “information technology demonstration projects” last week.
The department’s Office for Domestic Preparedness received 113 proposals for projects early this year. Only 12 were funded, and Towson received the largest amount of money.
Matt Felton, CGIS’s associate director for technical services, said the proposal was formally submitted through the Maryland Emergency Management Agency.
“Maryland received the award but Towson is the technical lead for developing the project,” Felton said.
Clements met with the director of the agency last week.
“If there’s ever an incident within the state, they’ll be turning to us, asking us how to map it out and how to respond,” he said. “It’s very big for Towson.” The grant will establish a network, known as MEGIN, which will serve as a framework to enable the sharing of data among officials.
“We’re building what is essentially a card catalog…for geo-spatial data and other types of data,” Felton explained. “In an emergency, officials can search for the information they need through this card catalog. It will provide access to the data when they need it.”
The network is an extension of the Emergency Management Mapping Application, a software package developed by Towson that is used to create interactive maps to visualize data.
EMMA is a "Web-based mapping application that enables the emergency management community to display relevant information before, during, and after an incident occurs," according to CGIS's description.
The grant will enable the EMMA software to access additional emergency data.
“It’s bringing the technology to a very relevant use that affects everybody,” Felton said.
The Maryland State Geographic Information Committee and the Maryland Department of Transportation have assisted with the development.
“One of the important lessons of 9/11 is that we must improve information sharing among all levels of government and with the private sector,” Rep. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md) said in a statement announcing the grant. “The Towson/MEMA proposal shows great promise in assisting first responders in locating important geographical information. If we should have an incident, information is critical.”
Clements called the grant a big piece of Towson’s homeland security initiatives.
The University plans to officially launch a center for homeland security later this school year. In addition to the Center for Geographic Information Sciences, units contributing their experience to the effort include the Center for Applied Information Technology, College of Liberal Arts, Department of Chemistry, Department of Computer and Information Sciences, and Regional Economic Studies Institute.
Towson recently named Allan Berg the director of information assurance and infrastructure protection programs. He will help develop TU's homeland security center.
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