Overview
The DPS FIMAN solution (which can be found at https://fiman.nc.gov/) provides flood stage data, gauge information, flood inundation scenarios, flooding forecasts, impacts, and alerts in real-time to support risk-based decisions regarding flooding. FIMAN has become a critical system for North Carolina Emergency Management (NCEM) and an invaluable tool for providing information about flooding impacts. DPS’s current FIMAN solution is an on-premise-based solution and has exceeded its useful life. It has several shortcomings related to resiliency, redundancy, usability, mobility, and security. DPS selected Timmons Group to replace the FIMAN solution with a new, cloud-based solution to ensure FIMAN is sustainable and secure for years to come. DPS desires to maintain existing functionality and implement the new capabilities to provide robust tools for decision-making by executive teams concerning flood events.
The new FIMAN solution will be a public-facing, web-based mapping application available to the public, County Emergency Managers, and program partners. It will provide real-time flood stage data, gauge information, flood inundation scenarios, flooding forecasts, impacts, and alerts to support risk-based decisions regarding flooding.
Two main drivers for the FIMAN replacement and upgrade are to increase resiliency and security of the solution. To efficiently achieve these objectives, Timmons Group designed and proposed a serverless solution architecture on Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS offers technologies for running code, managing data, and integrating applications all without managing servers. Serverless technologies feature automatic scaling, built-in high availability, and a pay-for-use billing model to increase agility and optimize costs. The scalability and cost efficiency of AWS provide DPS with a solution that works well on “blue sky” days when FIMAN usage is minimal and scales up on demand when North Carolina faces a statewide emergency during major weather events.
For the FIMAN serverless solution, Timmons Group used the AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM), which is an open-source framework for quickly building and deploying high-quality applications. AWS SAM provides flexibility for developers to leverage their programming language of choice; for NCEM, the preferred programming language for API development is .NET C#. AWS SAM also provides developers with built-in best practices to support sustainable change management and iterative software development.
Additional benefits of the new FIMAN solution include improved user interface and user experience (UI/UX) across both mobile and web platforms. At Timmons Group, our UI/UX design strategy focuses heavily on the intended user audiences and what the user needs from the solution. Timmons Group’s software development team included UI/UX designers working closely with DPS FIMAN stakeholders and our software engineers to iterate over designs to develop an intuitive interface with a consistent look and feel for users on desktop, tablet, and phone.
DPS UI/UX key design objectives:
- Continuity with the existing FIMAN solution
- Intuitive interface for the public
- Improved mobile responsiveness
- Distinct user experience for various audience members
- Public
- NCEM staff
- NCDOT staff
- County Emergency Managers
