Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Leverages Cost-Effective Open Source Geospatial Strategies to Keep Citizens Out of the Path of Dangerous Storms
Washington, DC and Baton Rouge, LA – February 29 2016 – As contribution to the effort to keep the most vulnerable citizens out of the path of dangerous storms and hurricanes, Boundless today announced its support of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) initiative to find cost-effective strategies which can provide early information on facilities and citizens in greatest potential need of evacuation.
The mission of the DHH in the State of Louisiana to protect and promote health and to ensure access to medical, preventive and rehabilitative services for all citizens, utilizing available resources in the most effective manner possible. In fulfillment of this mission, the DHH is responsible for identifying hospitals and other health care facilities at greatest risk for flooding and damage from storms and hurricanes so evacuation procedures may be initiated with as much advance notice as possible.
The DHH, with direct support from Boundless, is deploying a system designed for Humanitarian Assistance known as GeoSHAPE to assist in fulfillment of their mission. GeoSHAPE (Geospatial capabilities for Security, Humanitarian Assistance, Partner Engagement) is an open source project is designed to enable collaboration on geospatial information; in this case federal and LA state authorities are able to work together and overlay storm and flooding data over facility map information. In selecting an open source project with software publicly available, the DHH is able to provide vital services while working with budget constraints to realize considerable cost savings in license and ongoing maintenance costs.
“GeoSHAPE and the support from Boundless has enabled DHH Emergency Preparedness to take a leap forward in the use of GIS technology in a very demanding budget environment,” says Henry Yennie, Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. “It provides us with the core functionality needed to quickly assess risk and obtain effective situational awareness for our leadership.”
“It’s a great privilege to support the State of Louisiana and their efforts in protection of their citizens,” commented Andy Dearing, Boundless CEO. “Their willingness to think open and adopt open-source GIS strategies to support their mission is exciting and validates the shift to non-proprietary technologies we are witnessing throughout the industry.”
About Boundless
Boundless is the leader in commercially supported, open source, geospatial software. OpenGeo Suite enables a feature-rich, enterprise GIS without the high licensing costs associated with proprietary software. The experts at Boundless reduce the cost and time of deploying and managing spatial software with packaging, support, maintenance, professional services, and expert training. Learn more atboundlessgeo.com