ABSTRACT
Contingency plans are designed to assist responders during a response and to meet regulatory requirements. More often, these plans are unusable by responders—overloaded with information or streamlined to the point of ineffectiveness. There is simply more information than can be organized into a usable paper plan.
To successfully aid responders, plans must be transitioned from a paper to an electronic medium using a three-dimensional (3-D) Integrated Planning Model. This model uses the three core components found in every plan and structures them along a horizontal axis in a database. Then all individual plans are stacked on top of each other along a vertical axis to maximize information sharing. While the database configuration described above would improve search capabilities, the stringent and restrictive controls for plan submission to a single point centralized database would greatly reduce the number of entities that would be willing to participate.
There are many initiatives underway throughout the country to develop electronically based plans. Several contain some or all of the components of a 3-D Integrated Planning Model. However, a common vision of a 3-D Integrated Planning Model and resource commitment is still needed at the national level to maximize the benefit. These ongoing efforts by individual entities typically represent the building blocks of much better response tools.
What is needed is a 3-D Integrated Contingency Plan model that takes the synergy of these building blocks and puts them together to build a “house” of tools for responders to use. This house is a reality and is a project called “e-Plan.” The benefits of e-Plan are many including a significant cost saving to plan holders. This is a one-time opportunity to develop a national standard for collecting, moving, and archiving important contingency plan data, and the chance to make major strides in improving preparedness and ability to respond.
Integrated Planning Model for Safe and Sustainable Transportation Development in Beijing, China
