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Executive Summary
Within Australia, there is currently no common national standard for map symbols used to represent features relevant to responders to emergencies, law enforcement or counter terrorism.
Many emergency events, especially large scale incidents, cross jurisdictional and geographic boundaries. Often in these circumstances, personnel from different agencies and jurisdictions are brought together into a single command structure. It is important for these people to be able to absorb information quickly. Maps play a vital role in summarising and describing a situation.
It is well accepted that map products that use a standard set of symbols that are readily understood by all emergency management personnel at all levels of the incident management framework contribute to increased efficiency and safety.
ANZLIC – The Spatial Information Council, in association with the Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping (ICSM) want to encourage consistency in how All-Hazards events are depicted on maps and aim to develop a consistent Australasian All-Hazard symbology set and have it adopted by emergency management agencies across Australia and New Zealand. In the medium term, the symbology set would be further developed to support agencies leading responses to law enforcement and counter terrorism.
Spatial Vision was commissioned to document the outcomes of an audit of mapping symbols used by emergency management agencies and to recommend a framework for Incident
Management System (IMS) and all-hazard symbols and an initial set of symbols to largely satisfy Emergency Management requirements.
In undertaking the project, Spatial Vision widely consulted with key representatives of the emergency management and national security sectors through five workshops held around Australia; a national teleconference including New Zealand; meetings with Federal agencies, and an audit questionnaire sent to 49 agencies of which 26 responded.
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