GBA Emergency Management System (GBA-EMS)

The Government Blockchain Association (GBA) is building an Emergency Management System (EMS)

With only fifty years as an organized field, emergency management is still relatively new both academically and professionally. However, with the current state of affairs, emergency management does not have the luxury to slowly mature. It is needed today, and blockchain can help.

Over the past year, the blockchain community has seen many new applications in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and civil disturbances. There have been many systems built on different blockchains for contact tracing, alerts, what to expect and how to prepare, supply chain management of personal protective equipment, pharmaceutical developments, and more. Unfortunately, many of these solutions are not interoperable. These disparate systems result in an abundance of data without the benefit of interoperability. The GBA wants to weave together these fragmented pieces into one cohesive system, with the goal of responding to emergencies faster, and more effectively.

Enter the GBA Emergency Management System.

The GBA-EMS will be a subscription-based, distributed system, not owned or controlled by any public or private entity. The fees collected from subscriptions will be distributed to the information sources via smart contracts on a blockchain.

The goal of the GBA-EMS is to use blockchain technology to bring all emergency systems together to create a consolidated emergency management dashboard of data for public officials. It will identify what needs to be done, with what supplies, when, how, why, and by whom in real-time.

This blockchain-enabled system is designed to receive data from public sources, analyze the data and provide timely, accurate, and meaningful information to emergency managers. The information is made available to emergency management personnel to help them respond to threats to public safety faster and more efficiently. All data is collected through the Government Business Blockchain Platform, (GBBP), and then displayed on the Emergency Management Dashboard.

The GBA Emergency Management System collects threat, responders, and resource information regarding environment, public health, and civil disturbance emergencies.

For more information, contact Kamea Aloha Lafontaine, the GBA Emergency Management Working Group Lead.