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Virginia Department of Emergency Management
10501 Trade Court, Richmond, VA 23236
CONTACT: Laura Southard (804) 897-6510
laura.southard@vdem.virginia.gov
FOR RELEASE AT WILL- Sept. 25, 2009
RICHMOND, VA – The Virginia Interoperability Picture for Emergency Response, or VIPER, earned the governor’s “IT as Efficiency Driver” award during the Commonwealth of Virginia Innovative Technology Symposium. The award recognizes the innovative use of technology to promote efficiency in government.
VIPER, developed by the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, is a web-based tool that enables emergency responders to assess visually statewide emergency response operations in real time. It also automatically offers users instant access to essential local information through traditional Geographic Information Systems layers. For example, if a locality experiences a rapidly escalating traffic incident, VIPER will provide information about nearby hospitals; in the case of a hazardous materials spill, VIPER will offer data about area schools; during a flood, VIPER will alert users to low-lying areas that could be affected.
“With VIPER we can see at a glance how different incidents relate to each other, and it gives us crucial data with the click of a mouse,” said Michael Cline, state coordinator for VDEM. “The amount of time VIPER saves will help us save lives.”
VIPER is used 24 hours a day, seven days a week in the Virginia Emergency Operations Center and is available to public safety partners at the local, state and federal levels. VDEM developed this interoperable system so that agencies and localities can share information with the VEOC regardless of the systems they use, and the agency is giving the code to partner organizations at no cost to them. Other than staff time, this project has not cost any additional funding from the Commonwealth.
VIPER already has aided the state's response efforts during the April 2008 tornado outbreak, the 2009 presidential inauguration and severe winter weather in March. VIPER also is helping the Commonwealth track the spread of the H1N1 flu virus.
Not only does VIPER offer layers of GIS information in real time, it also incorporates external electronic information, such as live traffic camera feeds, social networking sites and geocoded photographs.
VIPER helped the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Secret Service and VDEM to monitor the 56th Presidential Inauguration, and Tampa, Fla., officials used VIPER to monitor Super Bowl XLIII. In addition, several state agencies have begun to incorporate elements of VIPER into their operations, including the Alabama Emergency Management Agency, Florida Division of Emergency Management, Mississippi Fusion Center, North Carolina State Police, the South Carolina Emergency Management Division, Texas Border Control, and local government agencies in Beverly Hills, Calif., and Clarke County, Nev. DHS is using VIPER as a model for its pilot project VIRTUAL USA.
More information about VIPER is available at http://www.youtube.com/user/vdemviper.
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