The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has unveiled a new public-facing website with a map that depicts the spread of Ebola by province in West Africa and locations of emergency treatment units in a push to help federal agencies and non-government organizations respond to the outbreak.
NGA said Thursday that the unclassified geospatial intelligence platform, based on Esri’s ArcGIS Platform and hosted by Amazon Web Services, is designed to let users visually overlay public NGA data and ingest open-source data as they view base maps of the region.
“The dynamic site provided by NGA allows the agency to automatically federate its geospatial content, which then is used by organizations such as APAN for mission related efforts,â€Â NGA Director Robert Cardillo said.
NGA designed the website to help users determine the distance from a certain airfield to the closest emergency treatment unit, the agency said.
Maps on the website also work to depict geographic layers such as cultural places and structures, and communication, electric power and ground transportation infrastructure.
“We are looking at multiple locations and we are trying to provide support,†said Tim Peplaw, geospatial intelligence mission manager for NGA’s integrated working group for readiness, response and recovery.
“It’s not single-threaded. It’s not just one event taking place, it’s happening on the entire western part of the continent.â€
