Virtual Alabama went live in August 2006. By November 2007, there were over 1800 online users contributing the best available data from each of Alabama's 67 counties. Powered by Google Earth Enterprise, the system was developed for a fraction of what such a powerful tool might otherwise cost. The State has employed the tool to provide enhanced coordination and awareness to the State's first responders. The ability to seamlessly aggregate data in an intergovernmental environment offers promise for performing collaborative analysis, expanding the reach and impact of service delivery, managing stakeholder expectations, and tackling other challenges that increasingly reach across the traditional boundaries of government.
Business Challenge
At the request of Governor Bob Riley, the Alabama Department of Homeland Security (AL DHS) created a comprehensive online database of satellite imagery and aerial photography by county. As AL DHS began engaging stakeholders at the local level, they overlaid the Google maps with pertinent information, providing a common operational picture across the state that first responders, county planners and other officials can use. Virtual Alabama is a visualization tool that uses an enterprise version of Google Earth, customized to show overlaid maps of the state's most critical data.
It wasn't easy getting many to contribute information. But the more that workers across Alabama's 67 counties saw what was — and wasn't — on Virtual Alabama, the more willing they were to share and upload information.
Director Jim Walker of Alabama DHS explains how the Governor of Alabama identified the problem that led to Virtual Alabama.
Before Virtual Alabama, many state and local agencies were doing aerial maps of the state and collecting other useful information, such as the design of public buildings and the location of every fire hydrant, but no one was consolidating it all in a useful fashion. With much of the data in the hands of cash-strapped counties, the effort required collaboration between local government workers. Once sheriffs saw the possibility, they worked with members of their local department of revenue to obtain imagery to map out their sex offender investigations—including data on the location of children and schools within the perimeter of an offender's home.
Approach Taken
The state purchased the software, hardware and license for Google Earth for $150,000 and distributed it to the state's agencies and governments for free. Alabama's 67 counties and one Native American tribe collect their own imagery and other geographic information contributing to the largest dataset of its kind in the country. To convince them to populate the database, the state gave cooperating counties access to the Google visualization software.
Although the initial effort was aimed at just loading in aerial photography owned by the counties, early on the counties asked to submit other text-based data that could be geographically placed, such as land-ownership records, fire houses, fireplugs, cameras on the interstates, and computer-aided drawings for schools and other government buildings.
Director Walker discusses how the state's sherriffs became stakeholders in the project.
Results Achieved (metrics)
From first responders to emergency management agencies assessing damage from natural disasters, Virtual Alabama can provide city, county and state officials with information ranging from building layouts to fire hydrant locations with the click of a mouse. The program provides three dimensional models of schools, bridges and other critical structures, including overlay imagery models and satellite/aerial imagery with the locations of fire hydrants, gas pipelines, hazardous chemical data, and other important information that can help emergency personnel. With such data, Homeland Security officials can plan more effective disaster response scenarios and prepare emergency plans.
Director Walker discusses how Virtual Alabama assists with emergency management and assistance.
Google Business profiled Virtual Alabama on YouTube in September 2008.
Lessons Learned
The next generation of web based imaging will only be as useful as the data it's populated with. It will be up to local government officials, first responders, and average citizens to ensure that the data is as accurate as possible.
Government officials are continually finding new uses for Virtual Alabama's capabilities. Future efforts are underway to use modeling to identify the location of people in a building. So when seconds cost lives, as they did at Virginia Tech, emergency personnel will have all the resources available to find those in danger.
