National Incident Management System

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Advantages of NIMS and the ICS model The purpose of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) is to provide a common approach to managing incidents. The concepts of NIMS provide a flexible, yet standardized set of incident management practices. Incidents typically begin and end at the local level. However, some incidents demand a more complex level of response, be it multi-jurisdictional or a higher level of government. These incidents dictate efficient coordination across an extensive spectrum of resources and agencies, and NIMS accomplishes this by utilizing the Incident Command System (ICS). By instituting these systems at the state level there will be clear advantages gained by adopting common communication and information management…show more content…
NIMS integrates best practices into a complete framework in order to ensure multiple agencies and jurisdictions will be able to work together to respond to, and recover from, any incident. One of the ways that NIMS does this by utilizing a Multiagency Coordination System (MAC System). A Multiagency Coordination System provides support, coordination, and assistance with policy-level decisions to the ICS structure managing an incident. Through a combination of facilities, personnel, equipment, and procedures a common system is developed with the responsibility for coordinating and supporting incident management activities. During an incident this MAC System will assess the situation, determine and set priorities of ongoing incidents within the area of responsibility, and request resources or assistance. The MAC System is also responsible for deactivating their resources, documenting their incident response, and evaluating their plan for updates, best practices, and lessons learned. The state has a responsibility for coordinating these activities with local governments, in order to effectively respond to incidents, and to request and coordinate assistance beyond the local and state level. There are a number different ways that local level governments can request assistance, but requests for federal assistance must come from the state. In order to do this the state must implement NIMS. Additionally, to receive federal funds for emergency preparedness, and response, the state must be in full compliance with
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