Making Data and Mapping Platforms More Relevant and Useful during Decision Support

During a natural disaster working together can be a matter of life or death, and data interoperability and collaboration are often cited as areas needing to be improved upon to deal with these events more effectively. The National Weather Service (NWS) has a requirement to support the Emergency Management (EM) community at the federal, state, tribal and local levels as well as government core partners who have missions that require close coordination with the NWS. NWS defines Impact-based Decision Support Services (IDSS) as provision of relevant information and interpretative services, both remotely and on-site, to enable core partners' decisions when weather, water, or climate has a direct impact on the protection of lives and livelihoods.

Developments in data storage, data processing and cloud computing has got us this far. The next step in the evolution of data has to do with interoperability and collaboration to turn knowledge into action. New, revolutionary concepts for collaboration that include the human parameter to make big data and mapping platforms more relevant and useful during decision making across both mobile and traditional computing platforms are emerging, giving forecasters the ability to support decisions regardless of where they are and what device they are using.