Mapping Practical Exercise :

The Goal of this exercise is to familiarize the student with the ability to organize and display information visually in a short time frame.

The objectives of this exercise areto :

• Explore online mapping platforms
• Analyze and select critical Data
• Produce a map

Background Scenario :

A “ Dirty bomb “ has been detonated directly in front of the White house in Washington D.C . This occurred at 10 a.m. on Nov 4 2015. The President was not at the White House during the blast. It is utter chaos , with DC Fire/EMS responding.

Your role is the Emergency manager for the City of Washington D.C. Within minutes of the attack you activate all emergency functions. At 1300 you are expected to provide a briefing to the Mayor of D.C., and the President of the United States at a nearby facility . You have been asked to keep your brief short with a single map that portrays the situation and the response effort.

Your initial assessment reveals that there is damage to buildings within a ¼ mile.  There are currently 86 fatalities and 200+ injured .

There happens to be absolutely no wind on the day. However you are still concerned about the potential for radiation exposure. Your staff recommends a “ hot zone” with a mile radius. That means everything inside that area has potential for radiation.

Tasks :

Your overall task is to create a status map for the purpose of .

• Review the scenario . More than enough information available.
• Select a mapping platform .there are many options, but I will provide 2 that I found and will work. These are free and do not require any training .
  1. National Geographic Map maker
  2. CartoDB
  3. A paper map marked up would work as well.
• Create a status map that provides a snapshot of the situation. A few things you should consider
  1. The immediate impact zone
  2. The “ hot zone” i.e. suspected contamination zone
  3. Points of ingress/egress for rescuers
  4. Staging area for rescue areas
  5. De-contamination area for people/equipment leaving
  6. Temporary Debris Storage area. This should be a large area of debris from the rescue effort can be temporarily stockpiled.
• Create a legend, Title and any other required formatting.

Deliverables:

By April 7 11:59 PM (ET) you are to post a file in the assignment folder with your result. The file should contain:

• The Map, or a link to the map
• Responses to the following questions:
  • What mapping platform did you select and why ?
  • Can you provide feedback on this exercise? What could be improved? Did it meet the goals and objectives set forth?

Notes :

I purposely provided sparse information.  Take as many creative and logical liberties that your like to develop the scenario on your own. The point is that you have to produce a single map with what you feel is the most important info to provide a snapshot of the situation to the highest authorities. It’s up to you decide to what should go on there .