DES Employee wins Award for his Map 2nd Year in a Row

Award given at International Conference       

West Chester, PA – At the ESRI International Conference held in San Diego, CA, this past July, Dave Sekkes, Emergency Planning Coordinator for DES was honored with a first place award for Best Analytic Presentation. 

As a part of the ESRI International Conference they offer a Map Gallery.  The Map Gallery consists of 13 categories and provides an opportunity for conference attendees to share GIS work by showcasing innovative printed maps. 

Dave received the Best Analytic Presentation.  This judges entrants on communication of the problem/project to be solved; presentation of the analytic procedures; relevance of the problem-solving methods to the analysis – complexity and logic of analysis; and, integration of cartographic principles with analytic processes. 

For his submission, Dave performed an analysis of the 164 emergency warning sirens that have been strategically placed throughout the three-county Limerick Generating Station Emergency Planning Zone. 

In the event of a siren failure during an emergency at the Limerick plant, local fire companies will perform what’s known as “route alerting” as an alternative means to notify the public.  Dave utilized GIS to explore updating the route alert sectors in order to optimize the efficiency of the response to a siren failure.  The study found that 40% of the Emergency Planning Zone had redundant siren coverage and the drive-times to alert the public could be greatly reduced by focusing the alerting to those areas without redundant coverage. 

This is the second consecutive year that Dave has won an award for his maps at this conference.  Last year, Dave won a first place award for Best Data Integration where he examined the Marsh Creek Dam inundation zone using new building footprint software.

Dave utilizes the GIS to provide analysis and mapping support in the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) during activations and to the department as a whole during daily operations.  Additionally, Dave provides technical support for department IT initiatives.  Dave has worked with GIS at Chester County since 2002 beginning with the Health Department and joining DES in 2008.

This past week, Dave received a citation from the Commissioners for his continued award winning maps.

Amy Kate Amer

Community Outreach Coordinator

Chester County Department of Emergency Services