GIS: The Cornerstone of Modern Public Safety Management in Small Island Developing States

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Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is the cornerstone of all modern public safety organisations. Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are particularly vulnerable to challenges posed by physical and economic isolation and vulnerability to man-made and natural disasters. Public safety agencies lead the response to these disasters that often devastate communication and transportation infrastructure, and limit the ability of external agencies to provide support. 

Rapid physical development, coupled with budgetary constraints, affects the ability of public safety agencies to effectively meet the needs of their communities. There has, however, been growing recognition of the need for the strategic adoption of innovative technologies to advance public safety management capabilities. Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies are uniquely designed to support and empower greater situational awareness, location intelligence, and interagency collaboration. 

GIS can be used to analyse spatial and nonspatial data, and create a holistic command and control both for first responders and executive officers. This information is critical to developing targeted prevention and response strategies. GIS facilitates the integration of various data products that can be synergised into dynamic data visualisation tools. Tools such as maps, web applications and dashboards are useful to analyse and understand situations in real-time, thus facilitating greater stakeholder engagement, information sharing, and collaboration. 

Here in the Caribbean, the Trinidad and Tobago Fire Service continues to integrate GIS into its core business functions with support from the Ministry of National Security and Spatial Innovision Limited. It is expected that we will see the launch of the integration of GIS into their dispatch, command and control, and fire prevention workflows in the near future. 

There is no question about the value of strategically integrated GIS in the international public safety community. With more Caribbean public safety agencies adopting and integrating GIS into their operations, we will be privy to greater improvements in the approaches to the management of public safety in the Caribbean.

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Kevin Noel is an experienced public safety GIS pioneer who supports public safety agencies in the adoption and integration of geospatial technologies. 

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