Using ArcGIS Online to Quickly Deploy a Public Information Wildfire Information Map

In interesting story from BC, Canada where a Geotech developer, who happened to work for an Esri startup program member company, had a need to quickly mashup a resource to help inform the public about wildfire dangers and resources to inform and help keep citizens safe and out of harms way.

This via the MapThis blog…

The story of the map comes from the recent flare up of wildfires in the Interior of British Columbia. Wind and weather conditions have made battling the flames difficult and the public has been faced with road closures, making it even more difficult to plot an escape strategy.

Enter Neil Johnston (@NeilJohnston), Director of product design from Echosec. Neil turned to online sources and public data feeds etc… provided by various government agencies in order to determine a strategy for his parents to get out of harms way. Johnson realized quickly that he was faced with dealing with a mish-mash of data feeds and products from various agencies, resulting a puzzle that he needed to piece together. Naturally, he thought that he could put his skills to use and create a public facing map that would help others in the same situation.

Neil had the knowledge and technology available to create the product. Initially he turned to google and quickly built a map of feeds. He then turned to his company, Echosec, for support and they ported the map/app to the ArcGIS Online environment in order to create a public map service that was reliable and most important, mobile friendly.