The NIPP Challenge Program -

"A Regional Common Operating Picture"

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Project Name:
Expand/Enhance a Regional Common Operating Picture for Disaster Resilience Utilizing Data Driven Decision Making

Project Goal:
Continued research and development of  a sensitive information-sharing framework and regional, common operating picture/solutions that support critical infrastructure resilience during disasters.

Project Overview:
This project will focus on building a trusted information sharing framework by

• improving public/private planning
• enhanced data/information sharing and visualization
• enhancing the common operating picture
• developing an “app store” framework available to any organization
• producing actionable products aligned with “use cases” that can be used during emergency and non-emergency conditions by government and critical lifeline sectors

Project Participants:

• State, local and federal government operations professionals using .gov emails
• Private sector operations professionals using .com, .net, .org
• Invited guests
• No Yahoo, Hotmail emails accepted at this time
  

What's Being Produced?

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Watch NIPP Challenge Video

Regional Common Operating Picture

Disaster Resilience Apps Store

Use Case Development Methodology

Operational Readiness Level Model

Developing Sector Use Cases

What's the NIPP Challenge Program?

The NIPP (National Infrastructure Protection Plan) Security & Resilience Challenge is an initiative of the Department of Homeland Security that provides the nation’s critical infrastructure community, as defined in the NIPP, an opportunity to address unmet needs for technology, tools, processes and methods that would further strengthen infrastructure security and resilience.

DHS has the responsibility to lead the national effort to help secure critical infrastructure through collaboration with the nation’s critical infrastructure community.

Through the Critical Infrastructure Innovation Challenge, DHS’s Office of Infrastructure Protection (IP) provides a platform for effective and efficient collaborative efforts to respond to capability gaps on the critical infrastructure landscape.

The NIPP Security & Resilience Challenge offers stakeholders in the critical infrastructure community a leading-edge, partnership approach for receiving funding for state-of-the-art, cost-effective and ready for use knowledge products and technologies that enhance critical infrastructure security and resilience.

The NIPP Security & Resilience Challenge supports:

• Matching critical infrastructure needs with research and technical development capabilities.
• A pathway for critical infrastructure protection ideas to flow from potential end users to developers and vice versa.
• A process that enhances the existing NIPP coordinating structures by creating additional partnership opportunities within the critical infrastructure community.
• Guidance for the investment of scarce resources that results in cost efficient risk management responses that can be effectively implemented.

Regional Common Operating Picture Project Impacts

During the 2017 hurricane season, the AHC's NIPP Challenge projects products real world impacts:
 
Technology Impacts

• Merged data from All Hazards Consortium and SABER private sector databases for "open and closed store status" into single prototype interface providing more data points and granularity for opened and closed facilities in Texas and Louisiana, resulting in increased situational awareness for counties, states, and companies on food, fuel, supplies, hotel rooms, pharmacies, and related retailers.
• Opened up access to private sector information on the Regional Common Operating Picture Dashboard to provide situational awareness on whether, weather impacts, and states who had declared emergencies, issued waivers and guidance to inbound utility fleets.
• Provide notification to states as to pending fleet movement into or through their states via email and Regional Common Operating Picture Dashboard which reduced delays at weigh stations, toll stations, and ports.

Policy Impacts

• The AHC leveraged its NIPP project "SISE" working group members and ideas to assist FEMA in establishing a logistics/supply chain work group to assist in Harvey response and recovery efforts. The group focused on expediting information sharing and situational awareness and develop a temporary process for re-entry in Texas.
• This work group contained members from FEMA, DHS Infrastructure Protection, National Emergency Managers Association, All Hazards Consortium, American Logistics Aid Network, North Carolina Emergency Management, several ISACs, Healthcare Ready, several private sector companies, and several other public private partnership organizations. 

 
Process Impacts
 

• The SISE working group issued daily status reports for government and industry (30,000+ recipients) using new processes and templates developed under this NIPP project that provide national situational awareness on power restoration efforts and fleet movement.
• The SISE working group worked with the state agencies and  local counties in Texas to capture and communicate their reentry processes and protocols to the private sector quickly in order to reduce confusion and delays of reentry and resupply of food, fuel, water etc...;  and coordinated information sharing with the DHS Infrastructure Protection's PSA's to leverage information and relationships with the locals and companies in Texas and Louisiana 
• SABER worked with other project to provide access to the Alliance for Community Solutions, a group with users in Texas who we made SABER data available to, reaches 1/3 of Texas Counties

 
People Impacts

• The AHC's NIPP project  shared information and worked with multiple public and private sector organizations:
  • Local counties in Texas
  • Texas Emergency Management
  • Texas Lt. Governor’s Office
  • Univ. Houston Center of Excellence
  • FEMA Private Sector Office
  • FEMA Logistics
  • DHS Infrastructure Protection
  • US DOT
  • US DOE
  • NOAA
  • NASA
  • National Emergency Managers Association
  • American Logistics Aid Network
  • North Carolina Emergency Management
  • Financial Services ISAC
  • Health ISAC
  • Healthcare Ready
  • the Regional Consortium Coordinating Council
  • State Local Territorial Tribal Government Coordinating Council
  • Cross Sector Coordinating Council
  • DHS IP PSAs
  • FEMA Regions 1,2, 3,4,5,6, & 7
  • Edison Electric Institute
  • American Petroleum Institute
  • Hundreds of companies via the Multi-State Fleet Response Working Group
  • DHS Science and Technology Cyber Security Division
  • And dozens of public private partnership organizations across the US
  • Electric, Telecom, Fuel, Food, Retail and other Supply Chain Sectors

 

• Leveraged relationships among SISE working group members to increase unity of effort and communications between private sector, FEMA, DHS infrastructure protection, State of Texas Lt Governor’s office, state emergency management, and county level emergency managers to share information and capture reentry protocols and processes for private sector.
• Forwarded out DHS IP Critical Infrastructure Daily Reports to private sector members and the SISE work group to keep them informed of DHS and FEMA efforts.
• PSA Mike Dailey provided a list of county contacts for us to make outreach to gather their reentry processes, organize, and post online to reduce logistics delays once they are approved for access.