August 31, 2004 By Government Technology Local and federal
agencies formed MAST to mitigate fire danger and plan for
possible disaster. They deployed wireless HP iPAQs loaded with
ESRI's ArcPad GIS software to access and share near real-time
geographic data on fire movement, escape routes and other
information. MAST produced GIS maps of topological data,
vegetation, soil types, population, water sources and evacuation
routes. New wireless technology allowed officials to fly over
the blaze in helicopters, enter changing fire perimeter
coordinates into HP iPAQs, then instantly transmit the data to
ground personnel. HP servers powered a MAST Web site that
supplied fire information to the public. And large-format HP
plotters provided hard-copy GIS maps for fire planners, the
media and others. Creating a plan to deal with the dying forest
was massively complex. Drought conditions and a bark-beetle
infestation had killed an estimated 900,000 trees across two
counties. Using the GIS resources of member agencies, MAS