Purpose
WGEER is a user led community under the GICC whose purpose is to improve coordination and data sharing between GIS professionals through the full lifecycle of a disaster event. The community includes individuals in local, state, and federal government, as well as the private sector and utilities. The WGEER provides:
- A single Hub site to centralize event-specific GIS data from all agencies actively responding to an event to reduce duplication of effort, reduce communication load, and provide data, web maps, templates, etc.
- A centralized communication platform (MS Teams) for meetings, questions, data requests, SOPs, etc.
- Outreach for obtaining volunteers and serving as a conduit to supply available volunteers through Training, Exercise Response Management System (NC TERMS) during and after events.
To join the WGEER, complete our join request form or contact Brett Spivey. From there, you will be able to access our Teams site and ESRI data hub.
- Chair: Christian Vose, Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
- NC CGIA Staff Support: David Giordano and Brett Spivey
Organizations Represented
The following are some of the organizations in the WGEER that share data, coordinate resources, or supply available volunteers during a disaster event.
- North Carolina Emergency Management (NCEM)
- North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT)
- Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (CGIA)
- North Carolina Department of Agriculture (NCAGR)
- North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ)
- North Carolina National Guard (NCNG)
- North Carolina Regional Councils of Government (COGs)
- Duke Energy
- ESRI
- Over 40 local and county governments
Activities and Updates
HurriUp 2025 was held on July 31, 2025 in Greenville, NC. This hurricane preparedness workshop for local government GIS professionals was sponsored by the Local Government Committee (LGC) of the NC Geographic Information Coordinating Council (GICC). Those who attended shared lessons learned and discovered new tools and checklists that would help them prepare for and respond to disaster events.
The LGC had developed and compiled various resources in a Disaster Preparedness GIS Resources site to support local government and emergency management operations with GIS through the full lifecycle of a disaster event. These resources include Blue Sky/ Gray Sky checklists and links to the WGEER Hub, NC One Map portal, and TERMS volunteer sign-up.