The National Incident Service (NIFS) is available for use by Intterra clients for
dynamic sharing of wildfire incident mapping
with the National Interagency Fire Center’s
(NIFC) Fire Enterprise Geospatial Portal (EGP)
and partners. This article provides a
NIS overview, describes three levels of access
(services) that are available and recommended
practices (settings and use) for Intterra
clients for two anticipated use scenarios, as
well as additional reference
information.
Intterra clients should encourage IMT’s to use the NIFS service for incident maps. This is the best solution for shared incident mapping. Triage was added to NIFS in 2019.
National Incident Service (NIFS)
Overview
- The NIFS is intended for use on
incidents of any size. All users
will have access to the same feature
service in their web maps, which will
help streamline data sharing and
transitioning between teams; this
means data can be shared easily and in
near real-time with fire personnel at
any time or location. The
service is hosted by the Fire
EGP.
- A growing number of IMTs are using
NIFS for collecting field mapping and
creating an incident IAP map.
- The NIFS also serves as the perimeter
database for the INFORM application.
All perimeter edits performed using
the INFORM application suite are
managed and maintained within
NIFS.
Intterra
Access to NIFS
Two levels of access (services) are
available for Intterra clients for use
in the web application.
- National Incidents (NIFS) -
Approved
- Read-only view of features in
an Approved status
- The same service as viewed in
the EGP.
- Similar function as old IAP
Map (FIMT) layer.
- NOTE: The NIFS incident
features become visible in
the National Incidents
(NIFS) - Approved layer and EGP
when the three following NIS
attributes are set by an
editor:
- Access = ‘Cooperators’ or
‘Public’
- Status = ‘Approved’
- isVisible - ‘Yes’
- National Incidents (NIFS) -
All
- Read-only view of features in
all statuses
- Similar function as viewing
field mark-ups, initial attack
mapping, and collection.
Note:
NIFS is only available in
the Field Tool to users with an EGP
account.
GISS
Access to NIFS
NOTE: GIS Specialists using NIFS for
incident mapping on incidents will
likely use a GIS app for
editing. Click here for
a GISS workflow overview.
Permissions to access this service
will be managed by the EGP. The
EGP access and training content reside here. If
you/any of your teams wish to edit or
contribute to the NIFS directly using
a GIS app, contact Skip Edel for an
account and privileges (setriplett@fs.fed.us).
As an incident escalates, it's important to be able to share your Intterra mapping to the NIFS used by the IMT's GISS using a process that saves time and minimizes duplication of effort. Since the Intterra and NIFS data schema are the same for wildfire and triage, the incident's GISS can simply copy the Intterra features along with all the attributes and attachments directly into the NIFS
There are two ways to share data to the GISS:
- Use the Layer Export Tool to export of your data for an area of interest. You can email a link for the GISS to download the data.
- Intterra can approve a GISS to access the services directly into their ArcGIS Pro session. Contact support@intterragroup.com for details.
The same process can be used to share other types of data from Intterra.
NOTE: On June 19, 2020, the NIFS was moved to ArcGIS Online. The ability to edit NIFS with in Intterra is no longer available.
Recommended Practice for Intterra
Clients
Edit using Intterra's Add/Edit Incidents and view only NIFS
- All incident editing occurs using
the Intterra incident
features.
- Users will:
- Use your Intterra
incident layers to map your
local incidents.
- Viewable in your system
only.
- A potentially larger pool
of editors who can edit
only your incidents.
- Ability to use the Field
Tool and all tools in
Intterra.
- Includes HAZMAT, Hazard, SAR, Law and EMS incident mapping, plus Triage and Damage Assessments, and Critical Infrastructure
- Use National Incidents (NIFS) -
Approved to
- Access Wildfire and Triage maps created by
Incident Management Teams
and other EGP
partners.
To support this use of NIFS:
- Provide the National Incidents
(NIFS) - Approved layer to all
roles and workspaces with access
to your incident
information.
For more information on mapping workflows, click on Incident Mapping Workflow.
Intterra
Client Considerations
Because the NIFS is an external
service to Intterra, some tools within
Intterra designed to use Intterra
incident data will not work with the
NIFS layer.
- NIFS is not available in the Field
Tool unless the user is logged in
with an EGP account.
- Incident ‘List’ Tool (zoom to,
rename, delete) require
Intterra incidents.
- Briefing Mode, Active Incident
Report, State Wildfire Actively
Map, and Incident Interactive
Tables will only include IRWIN
incidents and data. % owner
acres will not work.
Troubleshooting
- Features ‘Approved’ by the IMT’s
GISS are missing in my National
Incidents (NIS) - Approved layer.
- Make sure the GISS has also
changed the Access field from
‘Incident’ to ‘Cooperator’ or
‘Public’.