NENA 911 Database in QGIS

Jul 16, 2024 | postgis, QGIS

I work with two counties in TN with the TN NG911 standard. Flash back 10 years ago and I hadn’t really grasped how complicated address is. Do I like it? Mostly Yes. Occasionally I get questions from outside TN and I demo the two counties and how that works.

A while back someone called and went “Hey – Did you know the NENA 911 databse setup script is up in GitHub?” To which I said no so I did some investigating and I was surprised that there was a postgresql setup script. I’m 99% sure you can do “ArcServer Whatever” and leverage PostGIS/POstgreSQL.

For fun I set it up and now in QGIS I have tables:

So what does all this mean….well…..

  • You can start data collection in QGIS and deliver to a Dispatch system most of the time. I say most because I’ve delivered to 3 (I think) and it’s all been shapefiles of File GDB.
  • You can deliver to RapidSOS out of QGIS. They will probably say “Do it in ArcPro” and you just have to export it from QGIS into a ESRI File Geodatabase and don’t explain what you’ve done. It works. I’ve done it twice.

Based off the TN 911 work:

  • Dropdown Lists. Lots and Lots of Dropdown Lists. That can be pulled from the Tables.
  • Triggers for some things – but not as many as I’m running for the TN NG911 Database
  • Setting up Relations in QGIS which I’ve not done for TN.

For fun I did import some of the TN data into this database several months back which led me to doing some cleanup on the NG911 TN Scripts. I need to go back and pick a small town in TN and do it from scratch.

What I think:

  • Completely doable in QGIS. So you don’t need ArcPro to do it.
  • You’re going to catch flack because a majority of the 911 GIS folk I’ve met have been quietly suffering and believe the Big E is the only avenue for addressing.
  • You’re going to unleash the full fun of PostGIS. So you’re going to look at your data in ways you’ve not looked at it before.

Overall – it’s pretty nice to see a chance to use something that purposefully allows other than ESRI products to produce addresses. Hopefully more people take advantage of it.

FOSS4G Belem

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