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A Guide to Emergency Management at State Transportation Agencies
A Guide to Emergency Management at State Transportation Agencies, was developed for use by state transportation agencies as they plan and develop their organizational functions, roles, and responsibilities
for emergency management within the all‐hazards context of the National Incident Management System (NIMS). It is an update to NCHRP Report 525, Volume 16: A Guide to Emergency Response Planning at State Transportation Agencies, which provided an approach to all‐hazards emergency management and documented existing practices in emergency response planning.
Similar to the 2010 Guide, this Guide is designed to support executive management and emergency response planners as they assess their emergency management programs and identify areas needing improvement. The Guide will help state transportation agency program level managers and their counterparts at other levels of government plan, organize, staff, train, exercise, manage, implement, and fund preparations to carry out their emergency management responsibilities. These include the primary and supporting agencies identified in each state’s Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) under Emergency Support Function ESF#1–Transportation. These responsibilities include all transportation modes that are under state control or influence and those functions agencies perform to support multi‐state, state, and local emergencies.
Significant advances in emergency management, changing operational roles at State DOTs and other transportation organizations, along with federal guidance issued since 2010 have resulted in a need to re‐examine requirements for state transportation agency emergency management functions, roles and responsibilities. The 2019 Guide incorporates current practices and guidance in emergency management, recognizing these advances and changing roles and guidance.
This Guide expands the focus from emergency response to all aspects of emergency management and reflects the evolving threats and hazards to transportation networks and systems. It also addresses emergency management in the broader context of community, regional, and national resilience and sustainability.