Engineering the Incident Command and Multiagency Coordination Systems

Stambler Kimberly S and Barbera Joseph A
Additional contact information
Stambler Kimberly S: George Washington University
Barbera Joseph A: George Washington University

Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, 2011, vol. 8, issue 1, 29

Abstract: The initial development of the Incident Command System (ICS) and the Multiagency Coordination System (MACS) was conducted through an extensive research, development, and application program initiated by the United States Forest Service in the 1970s and 1980s. Known as FIRESCOPE (Firefighting Resources of California Organized for Potential Emergencies), the complex development process produced these two major management systems that are now central to the Department of Homeland Security’s National Incident Management System (NIMS). Despite the prominence of NIMS, very little information is widely available regarding the original research and development of ICS and MACS. This paper explores the extensive product development and consensus process used to create ICS and MACS, plus the implementation process that propagated these landmark systems that continue to expand in prominence for incident management and coordination during emergencies and disasters. Through analysis of historical documents and interviews with professionals centrally involved in FIRESCOPE, this paper chronicles the evolution of ICS and MACS, including a summary of their varied courses following the end of the original 10-year FIRESCOPE Program initiative.

Keywords: incident command system; multiagency coordination system; incident management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.2202/1547-7355.1838 (text/html)
For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bpj:johsem:v:8:y:2011:i:1:p:29:n:37

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/jhsem/html

DOI: 10.2202/1547-7355.1838

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management is currently edited by Irmak Renda-Tanali

More articles in Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management from De Gruyter
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().