Alabama homeland security officials say Virtual Alabama will benefit many sectors and agencies.
Those benefits are expected to include:
Common operating picture and situational awareness.
Critical infrastructure mapping.
Vehicle and asset tracking.
Real-time sensor feeds.
Visualization of risks.
— Ben Bain
If stars fell on Alabama, as the old jazz standard recounts, first responders would know exactly where they landed thanks to a new virtual version of the state.
Virtual Alabama, created by the state’s Homeland Security Department, uses Google’s Earth Enterprise software to generate 3-D representations of geospatial and related data to help first responders and other government officials analyze complex situations in an intuitive fashion.
The system enables authorities to create data mashups by quickly pulling together information from an array of sources across the state’s 67 counties, using one data layer or another, depending on the situation.
For example, in a natural disaster, authorities might need maps that show the location of utilities and water, power and gas lines. Later, they might need to pull up high-resolution aerial photos and information on property values in the region. In other cases, they might pull in video from cameras along a highway or in schools.
And although stars falling on Alabama are only metaphorical, tornados and hurricanes are real threats. In such events, state officials need quick access to geospatial data so they can plan and coordinate their responses.
Officials also can use geospatial information to perform disaster assessments or prepare for disaster recovery. Virtual Alabama has additional uses in law enforcement investigations and training.
“This has just really been a mass collaboration,” said Chris Johnson, Virtual Alabama’s project manager and vice president of geospatial technologies at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Alabama. That’s collaboration of the most grass-roots kind.
Counties statewide gathered and contributed complete sets of high-resolution aerial photographs and geospatial data at their own expense, trusting that pooling data on every nook and cranny from Mobile to Athens would pay off.
Johnson and Jim Walker, Alabama’s homeland security director, went county to county to convince local authorities that the project would be worthwhile — and judging from initial results, the counties have gotten their money’s worth.
The complete set of data would be worth $40 million if sold in the private sector, Johnson said.
Walker’s department paid about $150,000 for the Google Earth Enterprise software, which enabled them to cull the data and make it useful. The state agency received grants from the federal Homeland Security Department to purchase Google Earth Fusion and Server software and some hardware.
“It’s very inexpensive, and there is not a single homeland security director in the country that can’t afford it,” Walker said. “Everybody can afford it, but what’s important is that you own it.
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