Interoperability – DEH Background

“Just as NIMS facilitates coordination between first responders from different agencies or jurisdictions, the DEH holds the promise of promoting the flow of information between disparate IT systems. In NIMS, personnel, who may be from different jurisdictions or occupations with different specialty skills, can communicate about incident management in the same, mutually understood structure, using the same terminology. Thru the DEH, information systems that store and process information independently, with different software and data structures, can be integrated to communicate via a mutually understood IT structure. This enables existing jurisdictional information systems throughout the NCR to continue to perform their primary role, while contributing to the information needs of the region.”

NCR DEH Data Sharing and Security Strategy

| Mission | Benefits |

The National Capital Region (NCR) encompasses the District of Columbia and parts of Maryland and Virginia including the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas and Manassas Park and the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William in Virginia and the counties of Frederick, Montgomery and Prince George’s in Maryland, which include the municipalities of Bladensburg, Bowie, College Park, Frederick, Gaithersburg, Greenbelt, Rockville and Takoma Park. These jurisdictions, operating as a regional partnership, Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG), have been working together since 1957 to implement “intergovernmental policies, plans and programs”.

In 2005, the MWCOG Chief Information Officers (CIO) Committee established the NCR Interoperability Program (NCRIP), a regional initiative to create digital networks and systems interoperability for public safety and emergency response utilizing funding form the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Urban Area Security Initiative Grant Program.

The objective of the program was to establish the technology architecture needed across the region to strengthen the flow of information between Emergency Support Functions (ESFs). These First Responders need the ability to share information and data in a reliable and secure manner in order to save lives, preserve property, and ensure proper communications systems and processes are available on demand to support organized emergency response. As part of the regional interoperability infrastructure, the DEH acts as a switching station of sorts providing secure, non-commercial, restricted access to critical regional communications systems and applications to facilitate real time, anytime interoperable data communications.

DEH Mission 


View Larger Image The DEH is predicated on a comprehensive framework that addresses not only the technology needs, but also the business, applications, and data requirements for regional interoperability. The DEH enterprise architecure aligns the emergency support processes, IT software and hardware, local and wide area networks, people, operations and projects within the NCR’s overall mission of “building and sustaining an integrated effort to prepare for, prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from ‘all-hazards,’ threats or events.”

DEH Benefits to the Region 

In order to gain the situational awareness necessary to respond to emergency incidents, emergency responders are dependent on data from a variety of resources. And although these disparate systems store data differently, with different software and data structures, the DEH allows communication between systems via a mutually understood IT structure and terminology. The DEH architecture is designed to achieve implementation of this common IT structure across all ESFs in the region and provides the following benefits to First Responders:

  • Improved Situational Awareness - The DEH provides increased awareness of the available data stores within the region and the business processes they support. Data is structured using a common vocabulary describing both the data and emergency resources available in the region.
  • Secure, Reliable and Flexible Access - The DEH provides secure access to the heterogeneous data stores held around the region.
  • Increased Productivity and Reduction in Response Times - The DEH provides a framework that maps data to processes. As teh overlap between processes performed across ESFs in the region becomes apparent, the processes can be refined to facilitate timely decision making.
  • Improved Ability to Plan for Future Business Needs - The DEH provides a structured approach for implementing, monitoring and maintaining regional IT systems and applications, ensuring interoperabilitiy at the data level. Strategies, policies, processes and procedures for implementing regional IT systems promote interoperability.