ISO/TR 22351:2015

TECHNICAL ISO/TR
REPORT 22351
First edition
2015-09-01
Societal security — Emergency
management — Message structure for
exchange of information
Sécurité sociétale — Gestion des urgences — Message structures pour
échanger d’information
Reference number
ISO/TR 22351:2015(E)
©
ISO 2015

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ISO/TR 22351:2015(E)

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Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 The EMSI message . 1
4.1 General . 1
4.2 EMSI content . 3
4.3 EMSI structure . 4
4.4 General rules for the definition of elements . 5
4.5 Rules for the list of elements . 6
4.6 Implementation of the EMSI . 6
5 The EMSI codes dictionary . 6
5.1 The role of the codes . 6
5.2 Rules . 6
5.2.1 Code structure . 6
5.2.2 Code elements . 6
5.2.3 Examples . 6
Annex A (informative) Example of EMSI messages . 8
Annex B (informative) EMSI elements and codes .17
Bibliography .90
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Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out
through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical
committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.
ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of
electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular the different approval criteria needed for the
different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of
any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or
on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www.iso.org/patents).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation on the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity
assessment, as well as information about ISO’s adherence to the WTO principles in the Technical
Barriers to Trade (TBT) see the following URL: Foreword - Supplementary information
The committee responsible for this document is ISO/TC 292, Security and resilience.
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ISO/TR 22351:2015(E)

Introduction
Clear situation awareness is a key factor for effective emergency response. The building of an
operational picture is based on the integration and assessment of information collected from the
different teams of responders and other information sources. It relies on exchange of information. The
ability to exchange information in a timely and secure manner is critical to the effective conduct of
emergency management.
This Technical Report proposes a structured message in order to facilitate these exchanges. The
message is flexible with regard to the regulations of nations and organizations. It helps the operational
information exchange between organizations, especially when different terminologies or different
languages are used as in civil–military cooperation, trans-border collaboration or multi-agency
emergencies. It enables all involved organizations to co-operate with a high level of interoperability as
described in ISO 22320.
This Technical Report is based on results from the CEN Workshop Agreement CWA 15931 published in
March 2009 as the Tactical Situation Object (TSO) by a European Frame Work Program 6 project.
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TECHNICAL REPORT ISO/TR 22351:2015(E)
Societal security — Emergency management — Message
structure for exchange of information
1 Scope
This Technical Report describes a message structure for the exchange of information between
organizations involved in emergency management. An organization can ingest the received information,
based on the message structure, in its own operational picture.
The structured message is called Emergency Management Shared Information (EMSI).
This Technical Report describes the message structure built in order to facilitate interoperability
between existing and new information systems.
The intended audience of this Technical Report is control room engineers, information systems
designers and decision makers in emergency management.
NOTE The EMSI can be used complementary to other message protocols, as for example the common alert
protocol (CAP).
2 Normative references
The following documents, in whole or in part, are normatively referenced in this document and are
indispensable for its application. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated
references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO 22300, Societal security — Terminology
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in ISO 22300 apply.
NOTE All terms and definitions contained in ISO 22300 are available on the ISO Online Browsing Platform:
www.iso.org/obp.
4 The EMSI message
4.1 General
An EMSI describes a part of the operational picture at a particular time. It is exchanged between nodes
in order to transfer information and describes events, resources and missions (see Figure 1).
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Organization A Organization B
Node A1 Node B1
Fixed or mobile Fixed or mobile
EMSI
control room, etc. control room, etc.
Need for
information
exchange
Event 1 Event 2 Event 3
Figure 1 — Exchange of EMSI between organizations
An EMSI can be used peer-to-peer at the same level of the command hierarchy or up and down the
hierarchy. This information contributes to the situational awareness of organizations involved for
facilitating coordination of plans and actions.
Figure 2 describes in an object model the entities which are involved in the EMSI.
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Police, ire services, Call centre, ixed or Trafic accident, ire
Ambulance services, mobile control room, natural disaster,
health services, co-ordination centre, man made accident,
Red Cross, etc. etc. etc.
Owns Manages
Divided into
[1,n] [0,n]
[0,n]
Organization
Node Event
Provides Describes
[0,n] [1]
EMSI
Describes Describes
[0,n] [0,n]
Related Related
resources missions
Divided into
[0,n]
Key
Cardinality:
[1] The element is mandatory. Only one value can be provided.
[0,1 The element is optional. If it is present, only one value can be provided.
[0.n] The element is optional. If it is present, several values can be provided.
[1.n] The element is mandatory. Several values can be provided.
NOTE Arrows in the diagram represent relationships according to cardinality but not information flows.
Figure 2 — EMSI described in an object model
An organization owns one or more nodes. A node can manage events.
The message structure is hidden from the user. The applications handling the EMSI present the
information to users in their own language, applying their own set of symbols.
The objective of this Technical Report is to agree on the set of information with the following properties:
— useful to share between responders and that represent the situation;
— simple enough in order to enable agreement on use and implementation;
— extensive enough to support the planning and decision making process.
4.2 EMSI content
The Emergency Management Information Sharing contains the following information.
a) Identification of the EMSI:
1) identifier of the individual message;
2) identification of its originator;
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3) time of creation;
4) relation to any other EMSI;
5) organization level, confidentiality and urgency of the information;
6) links to external information;
7) date and time of creation of EMSI.
b) Description of the event:
1) limited assessment of the event;
2) date and time when the event was declared;
3) date and time of the observation;
4) location of the event and associated geographical information;
5) enumeration of the casualties found;
6) prediction of future casualties.
c) Description of the resources:
1) resources each organization has available for the event;
2) resources in use;
3) resource capabilities;
4) resource position.
d) Description of the missions:
1) missions in progress;
2) missions foreseen.
4.3 EMSI structure
An EMSI is organized in four elements groups.
— CONTEXT: identification of the EMSI;
— EVENT: description of the event;
— RESOURCE: allocated or available resource(s) to/for the event;
— MISSION: description of mission(s).
CONTEXT and EVENT are mandatory while RESOURCE and MISSION are optional.
Figure 3 shows this structure.
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[1] [1]
CONTEXTEVENT
EMSI
[0.n] [0.n]
RESOURCE MISSION
Key
Cardinality:
[1] The element is mandatory. Only one value can be provided.
[0.n] The element is optional. If it is present, only one value can be provided.
Figure 3 — Content and structure of EMSI
4.4 General rules for the definition of elements
An element within an EMSI is described by its name, definition, type, cardinality and value domain.
An element may be subdivided hierarchically into sub elements which may be subdivided further
hierarchically and so on. All sub-elements in the hierarchy are simply called elements.
The following three types of elements can be used in the EMSI structure.
a) Elements which are defined solely by their types: string of characters, integer value, double or float
value. These values may be constrained including: limited number of characters for the strings;
minimum and maximum values for numerical elements.
EXAMPLES Identifiers, coordinates (latitude, longitude, height), address.
b) Elements which are defined by their type (always “string of characters”), but constrained to a
limited fixed list of valid values.
EXAMPLES SECLASS, Security classification of the EMSI, string (enumeration),
CONFID = confidential,
RESTRC = restricted,
SECRET = secret,
TOPSRT = top secret,
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UNCLAS = unclassified,
UNMARK = unmarked.
c) Elements which are defined by their type (always “string of characters”), but constrained to an
extensive list of valid values.
EXAMPLE RTYPE CLASS, type of the resource: rescue team, vehicle, tent, water purifier, etc., string
(maximum 80 characters); the complete list of values may be described in a specific part of the data elements and
codes specification in the form of a dictionary.
4.5 Rules for the list of elements
The content of the field reflects entities in the real world and is worded in English. It
should not be longer than 32 characters.
The use of free text in the field should be limited as it cannot be automatically
interpreted or translated. A free text field should not exceed 500 characters.
In case that the value domain is an extensive list, the field of the element description
refers to a dictionary of codes.
4.6 Implementation of the EMSI
It is recommended to use XML when implementing the EMSI.
5 The EMSI codes dictionary
5.1 The role of the codes
The use of codes rather than free text gives the possibility to automatically translate information into
language appropriate to the user.
A significant number of elements values are defined by codes representing real world concepts.
5.2 Rules
5.2.1 Code structure
The code for each individual item is expressed as a hierarchical structure subdivided into code
elements. The code elements are separated by a slash.
5.2.2 Code elements
Code elements are composed from one up to eight characters taken from the unaccented upper case
Latin alphabet (A…Z) and 10 digits (0…9).
5.2.3 Examples
EXAMPLE 1 A fire appliance in a road vehicle with breathing apparatus support.
a) MAT/VEH/ROADVE/FRFGTN/BREATH
MAT: material
    /VEH: vehicle
        /ROADVE: road vehicle
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           /FRFGTN: fire appliance
                 /BREATH: with breathing apparatus support
EXAMPLE 2 If the observer does not know the category of the vehicle the code generated could be
MAT/VEH/ROADVE.
EXAMPLE 3 An EMSI makes sure that the information can be translated to different languages (see Figure 4).
Tempête
Sturm Burza
Organization A Organization B Organization C
(France) (Germany) (Poland)
Tempête
Sturm Burza
Node A1 Node B1 Node C1
Fixed or mobile Fixed or mobile Fixed or mobile
control room, etc. control room, etc. control room, etc.
EMSI


  /DIS/STORM
Figure 4 — Code translated automatically to the language of the operator
This example shows how the event of a storm will be encoded in an EMSI message and disseminated to
emergency management information systems operators in different countries.

 
   /DIS/STORM
will be translated to “tempête» in French, “Sturm» in German and “burza” in Polish on the graphical
user interface.
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Annex A
(informative)

Example of EMSI messages
This Annex describes examples of EMSI messages using XML. Users will not, in general, manipulate the
messages directly, but through interactive and user-friendly tools based on graphical windows with
maps and tables for the creation and the modification of the EMSI elements. This example is based on a
scenario involving a collision between a truck and a high speed train in the vicinity of a medium-size city.
Figure A.1 — Example
1)
NOTE In the different diagrams of this example, the Google Earth® software has been used for the display
of the satellite image and the vector overlays.
Scenario: Witnesses call the 112 emergency number and provide a first assessment of the situation.
These pieces of information are entered in the information system of the Call Centre. Then the Call
Centre dispatches the alert to the control rooms of two of the organizations which are involved in such
incidents: the police and the fire service.
The first EMSI message used for this purpose includes two elements, the CONTEXT and the description
of the EVENT:
EMSI message additional information

xmlns:xsi=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance”>
 
   CC112_200711191724_015
Unique EMSI file identifier (for the 112 Call Centre)
1) Google Earth® is an example of a suitable product available commercially. This information is given for the
convenience of users of this document and does not constitute an endorsement by ISO of this product.
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   ACTUAL
   ALERT
   2007–11–19T17:24:00.0Z
   URGENT
   
    FR_112_DEP35
Important: this is the unique identifier of the
originating node (the 112 Call Centre).
   
 
 
   CC112_200711191720_EV03
Important: This is the unique identifier of the current
event in the node.
   Accident train Betton 19112007
  
    /TRP/COL
    /VEH/TRK
Initial description of the incident: it is a collision.
    /VEH/TRN
    /RAIL/TRK
    /ROAD
  
   HUMOBS
   2
The initial assessment is that this incident is a domestic
incident, which will require several response units for a
limited duration.
   2007–11–19T17:24:00.0Z
  
    PRELIM_STAT
    10
Preliminary assessment of the casualties: 10 persons
are requiring the highest priority for treatment or
evacuation.
  
  
    /GEN/INCGRD
   
    BETTON
    POINT
    
      48.18
Approximative location of the incident ground
           −1.63
    
   
  
 

At the reception of this first message, the fire service control room decides to send several vehicles
for providing first rescue and for assessing more precisely the situation. It informs the other agencies
involved by providing a second EMSI message, which includes the CONTEXT, the description of the
EVENT, the description of 3 RESOURCEs and the description of their MISSIONs:
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EMSI message additional information

xmlns:xsi=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance” >
 
   SDIS35_200711191727_033
Unique EMSI file identifier (for the fire services
node)
   ACTUAL
   ALERT
   2007–11–19T17:27:00.0Z
   URGENT
  
    FR_SDIS35
Important: This is the unique identifier of the
originating node (the fire service node).
  
 
 
  SDIS35_200711191727_EV033
The event identifier used in the fire service node.
    2007–11–19T17:24:00.0Z
  
   FR_112_DEP35
   CC112_200711191720_EV03
Important: The event is the same than the event
declared in the 112 Call Centre.
  
  
   /GEN/INCGRD
   
     BETTON_ACC
     POINT
Location is still the same, no casualty assessment
     
     48.18
          −1.63
    
   
  
 
 
  
    /MAT/VEH/RAODVEH/FRFGTN/RSC
  
   VSAB_BET01
  
A rescue engine is sent from the fire station to the
incident place, with an estimated time of arrival
(ETA).
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   2007–11–19T17:32:00.0Z
   INC
   BETTON_ACC
  
   IN_USE/MOBILE
 
 
  
   /MAT/VEH/RAODVEH/FRFGTN/FRF
  
A fire engine is sent from the fire station to the
incident place, with an estimated time of arrival
(ETA).
  FPT_REN05
    
    2007–11–19T17:34:00.0Z
    INC
    BETTON_ACC
  
   IN_USE/MOBILE
 
 
  
Another fire engine is sent from the fire station to
the incident place (this section is not detailed here).
   /MAT/VEH/RAODVEH/FRFGTN/FRF
  
  .
 
 
  /SAV/RTA
  IPR
three missions are defined for the three resources
  VSAB_BET01
 
 
  .
 
 
  .
 

The police services also send their own vehicles to the incident place. They inform the other
organizations by sending a similar EMSI message, describing that five vehicles are moving to the
incident place (this EMSI message will have its own EMSI identifier — POL35_200711191727_126
for example, its own event identifier — POL35_200711191727_EV055 for example), and will refer to
the event identifier initially provided by the Call Centre (this EMSI message is not displayed in this
document, it is very similar to the previous EMSI message).
Later, the fire services vehicles arrive on the incident place. They organize the rescue operations
and provide a new assessment of the situation to their control room. They find that the truck was
transporting some hazardous material which may result in a pollution. The fire services control
room provides an EMSI message with an update of the description of the incident to the other
organizations:
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EMSI message additional information

xmlns:xsi=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance”>
 
   SDIS35_200711191727_038
The CONTEXT element is similar to the previous one –
except that a new unique EMSI identifier is provided.
   .
 
 
   SDIS35_200711191727_EV033
The event identifier remains the same.
  
    /TRP/COL
    /VEH/TRK/HZD
The description of the event is improved, providing
more details (the truck transports hazardous materials,
the train transports passengers).
    /VEH/TRN/PAS
    /RAIL/TRK
    /ROAD
  
   3
The event scale is escalated to level 3.
   INCREA
  
    FR_112_DEP35
    CC112_200711191720_EV03 EVENT_ID>
  
  
    PRELIM_STAT
The casualty assessment is refined, as new information
is provided by responders who are on the scene.
    20
    50
  
  
    /GEN/INCGRD
   
     BETTON_ACC
     POINT
    
     48.180789329817
The location of the incident is more precise.
          −1.6349108183391
    
   
   
   
    /DGR/CBRNHZ
The description of the location of the event is more
detailed, by defining that there is a CBRN hazardous
location.
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   BETTON_ACC
   
   WWE015
Information related to the weather on the incident place
is provided (wind direction and speed at ground
elevation, no precipitation).
   /HUM/CORECT
  
 

Taking into account the new information, the fire services decide to
a) deploy a medical mobile unit to the incident ground for rescuing the affected casualties, and
b) run a preliminary pollution dispersion model, in order to assess if the local population shall be
evacuated or confined.
As a result, a new EMSI message describing these new pieces of information is provided by the fire
services to the other organizations.
Figure A.2 — Example
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EMSI message additional information

xmlns:xsi=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance”>
 
  SDIS35_200711191727_058
The CONTEXT element is similar to the previous
one – except that a new unique EMSI identifier is
provided.
  .
 
 
  SDIS35_200711191727_EV033
  
   FR_112_DEP35
   CC112_200711191720_EV03
  
  
   INITIAL_STAT
   18
   35
The casualty assessment is refined, again as
additional information is provided by the medical
team who is pre
...