Miami-Dade County, Fla., Uses GIS to Boost NG911 Routing

Miami-Dade County, Fla., is counting on new GIS services to enhance its new next-generation 911 (NG911) routing system and provide more accurate, comprehensive emergency routing data to help dispatchers and first responders.

Miami-Dade has entered into a contract with Woolpert, an architecture, engineering, geospacial and strategic consulting firm, for the GIS and consulting to support NG911.

The contract will require Woolpert to identify, collect and digitize missing information for the new system, including missing addresses, and routing data for existing and planned sites.

“Miami-Dade County’s No. 1 priority is enhancing public safety for its residents, and Woolpert is focused on providing an emergency routing system that is comprehensive, accurate, and able to help first responders do their job as efficiently as possible,” Woolpert Program Director Rick Householder said in a press release.

GIS software and a series of techniques will be used to correct and update routing and address data, according to the release. Where in-the-office strategies are not 100 percent reliable, a team will use remote GIS apps to verify and update information in the field. It’s a hybrid approach to ensure that all data used by emergency management services is correct and reliable.