Challenge
With crests rising to over 22.6 feet, the Red River fl ood
surpassed the fl oods of 1950 and 1979 to become
Manitoba's second highest since record keeping began
in the 1800s. The situation was exacerbated by seasonal
melting, powerful ice jams, fl ash fl ooding across the
province and heavy rainfall.
Manitoba Health's Offi ce of Disaster Management (ODM)
was tasked with ensuring the continuity of health services
for community residents and making sure that emergency
operations remain uninterrupted despite the fl ood. To meet
this challenge, they needed a tool that would allow them
to analyze the current situation, predict future outcomes
and make critical decisions such as which roads to open
and close, which residences and buildings to prioritize for
evacuation and what were the most effective routes for
emergency vehicles to travel. They needed to communicate
these decisions quickly and successfully in order to be able
to take action and mitigate risk to residents.
With few resources available to implement a complex
system, ODM needed a simple and intuitive situational
awareness tool. They required a tool that could consolidate
base maps, imagery and real-time data into a common
map window, to provide an accurate visual of this unfolding
natural disaster.
Powerful visualization and analysis tool
mitigates risk to Manitoba residents
During the Spring of 2009, the Province of Manitoba experienced its second worst fl ood
in over 100 years. In response, Manitoba Health's Offi ce of Disaster Management (ODM)
worked with Esri Canada to develop a Common Operational Picture (COP) – an effective
visualization tool that enabled the province to achieve real-time situational awareness,
act quickly and communicate their response plan to key stakeholders.
1 Esri Canada | Common Operational Picture provides situational awareness during Manitoba's Red River Flood
