Virtual Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La. – The State of Louisiana has created a Web application called “Virtual Louisiana” with a grant from the Department of Homeland Security. First responders, parish planners and others can use this application to get detailed geographic imagery, data layers, and pertinent information covering locations of critical facilities, planning zones, and search and rescue grids just to name a few.

“Virtual Louisiana” is managed by the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP). “Virtual Louisiana” is customized to show only imagery and data created for Louisiana. Over the past two years GOHSEP and a few local governments have acquired high resolution imagery and mapping data for its major urban areas, critical infrastructure, and key resources throughout the State. “Virtual Louisiana” provides a platform that allows individuals who are not specially trained in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software systems to view the information through a secure internet based application. “Virtual Louisiana” is developed from an enterprise version of the Google Earth software. This software allows all levels of government to share a common operating picture and view mapping data obtained by State and local government.

The state implemented “Virtual Louisiana” in August and already has more than 225 users representing Federal, State and local governments and over 80 different agencies across 31 parishes. Use of the program is limited to governmental agencies and designed primarily to assist first responders to share a common mapping solution to respond to any incident.

So far, the site has served in a variety of capacities. GOHSEP used “Virtual Louisiana” during several Emergency Operation Center (EOC) activations since July to track weather and hurricane information as well as detailed geographical information throughout the State. “Virtual Louisiana” also has the capability to build three dimensional models using free software provided by Google. GOHSEP is partnered with the LSU School of Landscape Architecture to build a 3D model of LSU’s campus and Downtown Baton Rouge and is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year. Additionally, GOHSEP will like to partner with other universities to conduct similar projects of other major urban areas across the State.

GOHSEP was involved for several months building the Virtual Louisiana globe. This process involves “ingesting” over 7 terabytes of imagery that represents the first phase of the implementation of the software. The agency is now about to embark on an outreach program to encourage local governments to take full advantage of the software and the tools it provides. This software is provided to local governments at no cost. GOHSEP has already begun ingesting local data from New Orleans and New Iberia created by those cities for use by their first responders and local planners. The Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office used “Virtual Louisiana” to assist with serving search warrants and also to find a lost child. “This is one of the best Homeland Security projects that I have seen,” said Tom Davidson, Technical Coordinator, Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Any local agencies that are interested in receiving a demonstration and coordinating the input of local GIS data layers, should contact Brant Mitchell, the Virtual Louisiana Project Manager, at bmitchell@ohsep.louisiana.gov.

Governor's Office

Federal Emergency Management Agency