A few weeks ago Mike, WB6RTH wrote a blog about Depiction software stating that Eddie, KJ4LRB and myself (Doug ,N4FPS) were using the software to develop a resource list for East Coast and Crown District ARES. I wanted to give you a short update on the progress as well as other projects we have been working with using the software.
First let me just say that this software should be in the tool chest of every EmComm group. This software is as useful to our execution as the Radios we use. Depiction software is a one stop shop for the planning, deployment and execution of any event or exercise. In a single Depiction a full graphical plan can be developed to take care of every aspect of an event or exercise. Image having the whole event displayed before your eyes on a single screen including the planning, deployment and execution. Your screen changes and updates as elements of the event change and resources are moved or advance. With a single screen, Operators can track others along a Depiction drawn route in real time while monitoring live weather conditions and sending and receiving live reports from one another including updating each others Depiction screens from remote locations. Visualize a roving operator calls in a location of a unforeseen emergency that blocks a route needed for delivery of supplies during the recovery operation of a storm or a route on a bike event. Net Control places this road block in Depiction and the software re-routes the previous route and displays graphical and written instructions of the new route.
Depiction can be a vast database for your group’s members and resources. A single click on an icon representing a location will reveal the assigned operators and their personal information and the equipment available at that location. Depiction uses information available free from the public domain to display such things as weather radar, elevation data and a multitude of maps including, roadmaps, topographical and aerial maps. The depictions that you build can be placed over any of these maps at a single click. Depiction will read and display GIS data that is available publicly on the internet for States and Counties including locations of EOC’s, schools, shelters, police and fire stations. You can display tower site locations and even get Depiction to draw line of site data for a given antenna on that tower. One of my favorite capabilities is the ability to display a graphical representation of flooding based on user defined information.
We are using Depiction to help develop our event plan for the upcoming MS-150 bike event. We have also been working on building Depictions of the local ARES resources that can be imported into any future Depictions for events or activations.
I for one will use Depiction in all future planning for ARES events as well as for many personal events around home. Depiction is great for planning your personal emergency plans at home. I will begin using this software at my paid job as well. One of the things that I do at work is write plans to conduct prescribed burning. With depiction I can actually Geo-code my own maps into Depiction of the area I want to burn including the placement of fire lines and fire equipment and resources. The cool part is I can enter an element to predict the smoke plume to meet my requirement of developing a smoke management plan which is a requirement of any burn plan.
To learn more about Depiction go to http://www.depiction.com/
