STAR-TIDES
Transportable Infrastructures for Development and Emergency Support (TIDES)
Overview
Information Sharing for Stabilization, Reconstruction, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief
The TIDES project (formerly called Expedient Infrastructure for Transient Populations – EITP) will identify, test, refine, and document sets of rapidly deployable, cheap, and environmentally friendly infrastructures (basic shelter, water, power, hygiene, communications, etc.). These sustainable infrastructures should be deployable quickly to meet human needs where available services are inadequate, such as in refugee camps or for disaster victims. It is a voluntary effort, with non-government, government, and diverse other participants, and in no way is an endorsement of any particular solution by the government. TIDES also will develop assembly instructions and operational procedures for these infrastructures. The goal is to share information to help organizations and individuals apply solutions effectively in real-world conditions. Collaborative, cross-domain methods and new technologies, along with whole systems thinking and engineering are encouraged.
A powerpoint presentation explaining much of the background of TIDES is available.
Photos from the demonstration are available at: http://metadata.solers.com. These pictures have been metadata tagged using the Defense Discovery Metadata Standard (DDMS). To see all pictures, enter TIDES. Try other search terms like "hexayurt," "cooking," Linda, etc.
Educational Focus
The project seeks to educate and train those who could use TIDES-like solutions for economic development and emergency response activities such as humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and refugee support. It also aims to inform interested members of the general public. TIDES is pursuing partnerships with educational institutions at the graduate, undergraduate and high school levels to encourage student involvement.
Activities of the Volunteer TIDES Teams
The TIDES project is building long-term, multi-sector, collaborative relationships among citizens, businesses, academia and government. The project welcomes broad participation, questions, and comments by interested parties. Several teams are forming, made up of individuals who want to make sustained contributions. The TIDES Teams will:
- Coordinate efforts to understand the needs of stressed populations in various situations
- Propose and communicate potential solution sets and approaches to meet these needs.
- Improve solutions sets and approaches through continuous process improvement techniques, demonstrations, field evaluations, experiments, and workshops.
- Develop educational tools (online and paper field manuals, training materials, draft policies and procedures) and a mentoring network, using open source development methods.
Updated information is available at http://www.appropedia.org/STAR-TIDES (the capitals are important)
Points of Contact
The initial points of contact for TIDES are:
- Lin Wells, wellsL3@ndu.edu, (202) 436-6354
- Lynn Crabb, American Red Cross
- Jim Craft, United States Marine Corps
- Vinay Gupta, Hexayurt Project, hexayurt@gmail.com, (775) 743-1851
- Tim Lo, lot@ndu.edu, (202) 685-3046
Accomplishments
The first phase of the TIDES demonstration was held at the National Defense University (Oct 5-19):
- Low cost, portable, commercial generators were assembled on a bare field. The first satellite networks were up in less than two hours, operating "off the power grid," which is critical for stressed environments, both domestic and international. Within hours, phone calls could be made both globally and from shelter-to-shelter, and bridges were set up among diverse radio nets. Subject matter experts from domestic and international remote sites used video-teleconferencing to help solve emerging problems ("knowledge on demand for capacity building").
- Inexperienced work crews erected seven shelters of four different types--none took more than three hours, and the least expensive cost about $200. Solar panels and generators rapidly recharged AA batteries for low power personal cooling and lighting systems, and well as communications equipment. High efficiency stoves and several kinds of solar cookers were integrated to provide coordinated approaches to cooking and purifying water that minimize fuel use. "Census-takers" experimented with credentials that could be produced quickly in austere situations.
- Visitors included representatives from the American Red Cross, several federal departments, foreign militaries, combatant commanders and DoD agencies. Faculty from the Thomas Jefferson High School considered ways to incorporate TIDES activities into their curricula. General "Kip" Ward spent more than an hour discussing how TIDES might apply to AFRICOM. Over 300 visi-tors taught the TIDES team much and took away ideas for future collaboration. Less than $20,000 in US government investment generated more than $800,000 in private sector engagement.
Experiences thus far have reinforced three key lessons:
- Problems of stressed populations must be addressed through broad coalitions. Some situations will be domestic, some foreign. Some will have long term needs (the average stay in a refugee camp exceeds 7 years), some short term. The military may or may not be involved. No one agency, public or private, has responsibility for all, or expertise in all. The US government, in particular, must do better at sharing UNCLASSIFIED information with public and private partners outside the boundaries of "official" environments. "Whole government" approaches are key.
- Information and communications technologies (ICT) are not "techie" adjuncts to the major muscle movements of delivering food, water and shelter. They are the critical enablers of everything else that happens. Networks need to be formed early and be independent of the power grid.
- Cross-infrastructure and "whole systems" thinking is essential. For example, efficient cooking and water purification can help reduce deforestation rates and smoke-related diseases, while making women less vulnerable while gathering fuel, and freeing up their energies for other purposes.
The week suggested many additional research topics. Cross-disciplinary, cultural and infrastructure skills will be particularly valuable. There are important policy issues, such as information sharing and how to get needed services in place faster. TIDES also offers strategic communication opportunities.
Following the demonstration, the TIDES network supported firefighting efforts in Southern California and linked operational commanders with early information about several new capabilities.
Near-term Plans
Drawing on these demonstrations and team interactions, the project will develop:
- Guiding principles and strategies for infrastructures for refugee and other stressed populations (to be compared with existing guidance from established agencies),
- An integrated and continuously improving set of best practices for such communities,
- Targeted training resources in various formats,
- A sustainable, collaborating community of practice,
- Best practices for moving information about field performance rapidly back to design teams and forward again as improved solutions.
Having completed the first pat of Phase I, the next steps in TIDES are to:
- Solidify the core teams and encourage more volunteers for follow-on activities.
- Revise the TIDES project charter.
- Identify education and training opportunities and enlist partners.
- Develop draft multi-format documentation of potential solution sets and operating procedures (a wiki is available to support collaborative editing and lessons learned at: STAR-TIDES Field Manual
- Develop test plans for future work.
- Document the group's efforts to facilitate training, extend the user base, and help other groups learn to operate in open source-style collaborative networks with diverse participants from a mixed team of institutions, individuals, companies and projects.
- Develop the policies, procedures, and logistic support chains to apply TIDES-like solutions to real world needs. Materials to help other groups learn
Resources
Documents
Media:TIDES BOARDS FIRST DRAFT SMALL.pdf - Display boards and pictures from the STAR-TIDES demonstration. A very useful starting point for understanding the systems on display and how they fit together.
STAR-TIDES Notes Awaiting Wikification - post text here that needs to be tidied and integrated.
TIDES Demonstration Report Features
Individual Test Systems
Household Infrastructure
Information and Communications Technology
MANTECH integrated comms vehicle
What else was there?
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
Shelters
Whole Systems
Solar Cookers International Integrated Cooking
References
Tools
- Project STAR-TIDES Document and Archive Catalog Search: Catalog for Sustainable Technologies Acceleration Research - Transportable Infrastructure for Development and Emergency Situations (STAR-TIDES) Documents Library
- Appropriate Technology Custom Search: A Google Co-op Custom Search Tool for finding quality information related to Sustainable Tech Sources for the Developing World.
For Follow-up
SleepBreeze personal cooling product - a 4 watt, lightweight, compact and versatile personal cooling system.
From Texas A&M: Geocam "An off-the-shelf Imager for Rapid Remote Sensing Monitoring". Link to: sample panoramas
Efficient Cagefire Plans from Finland. Also other stove designs.
Selkistuff Wheeltank, an efficient water carrier.
Water: Fog Collection - Rainwater Harvesting - Rural Water Projects: Fog Quest
Policy Proposals
November 4, 2007
Three Policy Proposals to Enhance Information Sharing
Recent events have suggested three enhancements to UNCLASSIFIED information sharing procedures with civil-military partners . The events are:
• The TIDES (Transportable Infrastructures for Development and Emergency Support) demonstration, held in October 2007 at the National Defense University (NDU) in Washington,
• DoD support to the Southern California fires that same month, and
• Operational experience from Stability, Security, Transition and Reconstruction (SSTR) operations, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) and Building Partnership Capacity (BPC).
One proposed enhancement involves communications bandwidth, one UNCLASSIFIED imagery sharing, the other metadata tagging. These lessons should be incorporated into policy so they can be taken advantage of at the beginning of future contingencies, rather than having to be re-learned. Three one-page, stand-alone attachments provide additional information, but the proposed statements are:
Bandwidth:
When bandwidth is available, or can be appropriately constructed, and subject to operational constraints, DoD units shall allow civil-military partners to communicate with proximate internet points of presence when such communication contributes to the overall mission and does not (1) affect the security of the DoD networks or (2) significantly increase the cost to the government.
UNCLASSIFIED Imagery Sharing:
To the maximum extent possible, UNCLASSIFIED imagery shall be provided in a timely fashion to civil-military partners without caveats such as LIMDIS or FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY. Procedures also shall be established for the Department to use non-DoD imagery, including civilian and commercial enhancements, in ways that maximize mission effectiveness while being consistent with security.
Metadata Tagging:
Information from all sources related to SSTR, HADR and BPC shall be tagged aggressively with metadata in accordance with the Defense Discovery Metadata Standard (DDMS) and both government and commercial search engines encouraged to index it. A Community of Interest (COI) shall be established for SSTR, HADR and BPC.
Bandwidth
During the first phase of the TIDES (Transportable Infrastructures for Development and Emergency Support) demonstration at the National Defense University (NDU) in October 2007, the TIDES site relied entirely on multiple commercial satellite networks that were independent of the power grid or any other communications support. During the second week, some of the satellite networks had to leave, and so bandwidth was obtained from unused fiber capacity available on the NDU campus. The connection to the fiber was made outside of the NDU firewalls, so there was no impact on the security of the NDU network. There also was no increased cost to the government for the use of the unused fiber bandwidth, other than the incremental costs of the technicians who provided the connections around the time spent on their primary duties.
This bandwidth allowed operators at the site to connect to internet points of presence, thereby sustaining the information sharing that had been possible when the satellite networks were operating. This could be useful at a maritime disaster site, for example, where non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on board a navy ship might not otherwise be allowed to use the ship’s communications to access the internet, thereby reducing their own effectiveness, and introducing tensions into an otherwise positive relationship.
Clearly, the operational needs of military users will dictate the use of military bandwidth. Even if spare bandwidth might otherwise be available, conditions such as MINIMIZE or EMCON could require that it not be provided. However, in a world of Stabilization, Security, Transition and Reconstruction (SSTR) operations, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR), and Building Partnership Capacity (BPC) to help avoid conflict, communications between DoD and civil-military partners will become increasingly important. In addition, DoD’s work, indeed the US Government’s as a whole, can be facilitated by making it easier for civil-military partners to do their own jobs better. Therefore, the following language (referred to as “Outpath”) is proposed for incorporation into DoD policy related to SSTR, HADR and BPC:
When bandwidth is available, or can be appropriately constructed, and subject to operational constraints, DoD units shall allow civil-military partners to communicate with proximate internet points of presence when such communication contributes to the overall mission and does not (1) affect the security of the DoD networks or (2) significantly increase the cost to the government.
UNCLASSIFED Imagery Sharing
During the Southern California fires, many agencies worked together to support citizens and local authorities. Imagery was a particularly valuable asset. While the overall effort was very successful, a report from one involved NORTHCOM officer noted:
We have learned a tremendous amount about the value of our DoD imagery in these situations, and the need to have an established avenue to funnel the data to the required users.
At the same time, NASA’s Predator-like UAV (Ikhana) offered a new source of imagery that needed to be incorporated. Other sources, like imagery from helicopters or small aircraft, may not have been included systematically. In addition, private sector facilities like San Diego State University’s “Visualization Lab” have exceptional imagery processing capabilities that could be used in the future even more than they were this time. Finally, commercial enhancements to imagery and maps, such as Google Earth, were readily available to private citizens and state and local authorities, but not always to DoD, partly due to security concerns.
The story is similar internationally. Civil-military partners often need “ROADINT”-- which bridges are out, which roads are passable, what routes can link supplies to needs. Yet UNCLASSIFIED imagery often is released with caveats, such as LIMDIS and FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY, which makes it unavailable to many who could otherwise contribute to the operation. There may be valid reasons: Some commercial imagery may have proprietary constraints, host governments may ask that distribution be restricted, decision-makers may want a chance to evaluate information before it is broadly released. But, as a general rule in a network-centric environment, success is facilitated more by sharing information than by restricting it. This is especially true of UNCLAS imagery.
There have been positive developments. CENTCOM released 162 GB of imagery of eastern Afghanistan without caveats in 2006. NRL’s high resolution imagery of Afghanistan recently has been made available. Many parts of DoD and DHS focused heavily on using imagery effectively in California. It is important that this progress be continued. Therefore, the following policy is proposed.
To the maximum extent possible, UNCLASSIFIED imagery shall be provided in a timely fashion to civil-military partners without caveats such as LIMDIS or FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY. Procedures also shall be established for the Department to use non-DoD imagery, including civilian and commercial enhancements, in ways that maximize mission effectiveness while being consistent with security.
Metadata Tagging
Metadata tagging is an essential part of the net-centric data strategy to make information more visible, accessible and understandable. The Defense Discovery Metadata Standard (DDMS) has been adopted for use by DoD, the Intelligence Community (IC), NATO, and other US government agencies. The inter-agency incorporation of DDMS has led to exceptional success stories such as the Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) Community of Interest (COI). DDMS is consistent with the international Dublin Core (DC) metadata standards that are used around the world. It offers extensions to the DC concerning security as well as additional precision in tagging geospatial information.
DoD’s increasing engagement with civil-military partners in Stabilization, Security, Transition and Reconstruction (SSTR) operations, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR), and Building Partnership Capacity (BPC) makes it more important to share UNCLASSIFIED information in these situations. During the recent TIDES (Transportable Infrastructures for Development and Emergency Support) demonstration in October 2007, imagery, documents and video were tagged using DDMS. Moreover, Google began to index TIDES-related terms for searches.
Discussions are underway to extend the use of DDMS further by encouraging more civil-military partners to use it. This would be a genuine win-win. However, since DDMS already is consistent with the DC used by many NGOs, significant information sharing advantages will result in any case just by encouraging people to use more metadata tagging in SSTR, HADR and BPC environments. DoD can benefit when civil-military partners tag their data and when any kind of search engines index it.
To promote these steps, it is recommended that OSD encourage the development of a COI for SSTR, HADR and BPC.
Therefore, the following policy is proposed:
Information from all sources related to SSTR, HADR and BPC shall be tagged aggressively with metadata in accordance with the Defense Discovery Metadata Standard (DDMS) and both government and commercial search engines encouraged to index it. A Community of Interest (COI) shall be established for SSTR, HADR and BPC to refine data definitions and information sharing procedures in these situations.
TIDES Charter
-CHARTER-
27 November 2007
Transportable Infrastructures for Development and Emergency Support (TIDES)
Background: Many events, such as disasters, wars, and development shortfalls, place populations in stressed environments. Such situations may be domestic or foreign, short term or long, with military involvement, or not. Each has different needs. These populations may need infrastructures such as shelter, water, power, cooking, lighting/heating/cooling, sanitation, information & communication technologies (ICT) and medical support. Effective approaches exist, but “how to” information is not widely available, and information sharing can be greatly improved. This includes “knowledge on demand” through “reachback” support.
Vision TIDES will be an effective research effort providing useful support to populations in stressed environments through information sharing, social networks, and the identification of effective solution sets.
Goals: TIDES will operate as a collaborative, broadly inclusive community of interest. It will conduct research using information sharing, social networks, demonstrations, field activities, and workshops to (1) identify, or develop, effective solutions to problems of populations in stressed environments, (2) help organizations and individuals apply these solution sets effectively in real-world situations, (3) develop tools such as web sites, field manuals, and training materials, (4) draft policy proposals where appropriate, and (5) encourage educational activities. TIDES does not seek to supplant existing organizations but supports those with line responsibilities and those doing work in the field.
Objectives:
- Build an effective, collaborating, broadly inclusive community of interest, with domestic and foreign representatives from government, non-governmental and international organizations, corporations, academia and individuals.
- Work out procedures to identify, or develop, “whole systems” solutions to the problems of populations in stressed environments, and share them with those who can benefit.
- Articulate best practices for moving information about field performance rapidly back to design teams and forward again as improved solutions.
- Propose an integrated set of best practices for such communities (refined through continuous process improvement, technology insertion, etc.).
- Develop guiding principles and strategies to support stressed populations and compare them with existing guidance from established entities.
- Produce targeted training resources in various formats.
- Encourage development of a supporting logistic infrastructure (such as pre-packaged building supplies, shipping and storage guidance, etc.).
- Place all information developed through TIDES in the public domain and share information though collaborative, web-based tools.
- Link TIDES activities to other STAR (Sustainable Technologies, Accelerated Research) initiatives as they become available.