Redlands, California—Whether reacting to a natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina or preventing a terrorist attack, homeland security professionals need reliable tools such as geographic information system (GIS) software to analyze and map data. A new ESRI Press book, GIS Tutorial for Homeland Security, teaches this cutting-edge technology with easy-to-follow lessons.

The book, published this August, uses actual data and real-world scenarios to show how GIS can help prevent, plan for, respond to, and recover from disasters and threats. Among the scenarios for applying geospatial analysis are devising a warning plan to prevent a chemical attack and creating missing-persons status maps after a hurricane.

Authors Susan Lindell Radke and Eddie Hanebuth introduce GIS concepts and ESRI's ArcGIS Desktop software and explain the ways the technology can be applied to analyzing homeland security situations. Readers will learn to use the ArcMap and ArcCatalog applications in ArcGIS Desktop, where they will prepare and analyze data, work with data layers, and create analytic maps related to homeland security planning and operations. The tutorial also will show how to build the components of a Minimum Essential Dataset (MEDS) database as defined by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The book explains how to analyze the MEDS data and turn it into meaningful geointelligence. "This geointelligence helps homeland security planners and operations personnel recognize potentially threatening situations, enabling them to mitigate impacts or even prevent the event from occurring," write Radke and Hanebuth.

Each chapter integrates GIS analysis with national planning scenarios (NPS), which the DHS developed and released in 2005. Readers will be able to apply their GIS skills—from creating situational awareness to preparing damage assessments—to hypothetical emergencies including biological and chemical attacks, a hurricane, and an earthquake.

Two DVDs accompany the book. The data DVD contains PowerPoint presentation slides summarizing the essential components of each exercise. An instructor resource document outlining possible lesson plans and course schedules is in the book and on the DVD. A separate DVD contains a 180-day trial version of ArcGIS 9.3.

The authors of GIS Tutorial for Homeland Security have considerable experience in GIS education. Radke is founder and president of Berkeley Geo-Research Group, an Orinda, California, GIS company. Hanebuth is founder and president of Digital Quest, a Mississippi-based development and training-oriented company that produces GIS instructional material for educational institutions.

GIS Tutorial for Homeland Security (ISBN: 978-1-58948-188-6, 450 pages, $79.95) is available at online retailers worldwide, at www.esri.com/esripress, or by calling 1-800-447-9778. Outside the United States, visit www.esri.com/esripressorders for complete ordering options or contact your local ESRI distributor. For a current distributor list, visit www.esri.com/distributors. Interested retailers can contact ESRI Press book distributor Ingram Publisher Services.

About ESRI Press

ESRI Press publishes books on GIS, cartography, and the application of spatial analysis to many areas of public and private endeavor including land-use planning, health care, education, business, government, and science. The complete selection of GIS titles from ESRI Press can be found on the Web at www.esri.com/esripress.

 About ESRI
Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at www.esri.com.