APPENDIX C

Budget and Scope for TERA Adaptation Guide

Background

The Transportation Emergency Response Application (TERA) provides training and exercise scenarios and materials for command-level and operational roles in public transportation agencies, state DOTs, and airport emergency operations centers (EOCs). The scenarios and materials train for responding to and mitigating specific emergencies while supporting state and local emergency management authorities in natural or manmade disaster incidents. TERA is scenario-based training compliant with federal standards such as those of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the Homeland Security Exercise Evaluation Program (HSEEP). The TERA scenario learning objectives, scripts, injects, and artifacts can be valuable resources for creating training and tabletop exercises for transportation emergency management.

Representatives from DOTs have indicated that their agency would use TERA now if it were still available. Some agencies have used TERA assets such as scenarios and injects to support their exercises while working from collaborative platforms such as WebEOC. Others have used TERA assets in training provided by their state or local emergency management agency.

Most agencies indicated that they want and need more training. The individual agency cost of developing customized training exercises is high, although it is rarely explicitly tracked. Many agencies are developing complex exercises using existing sharing platforms instead of relying on something as basic as a facilitated PowerPoint presentation and discussion as some agencies do. TERA scenarios and frameworks have already been developed and tested with transportation agencies and have been found to be valuable.

If guidance were available, transportation agencies would be able to incorporate the TERA scenarios and other assets into their tabletop exercises and other emergency management training that they conduct.

Objectives

The objective of this project is to develop a guide for transportation agencies and related training organizations to adapt the core features, scenarios, and content of TERA to a training course or tabletop exercise or to an existing collaboration or simulation platform. The research should identify the scenario learning objectives, scripts, injects, and artifacts created under ACRP, TCRP, and NCHRP that have the most value as resources for the adaptation and provide guidance on how to use those resources in a training course, tabletop exercise, or collaborative simulation.

Research Implementation Plan Scope

The scope of the project is to create an adaptation guide for interested parties to adapt the TERA content for use in transportation agency emergency management training. Examples of potential adaptation include:

• Using the TERA scenarios as part of agency tabletop exercises,
• Incorporating TERA scenarios and other assets into existing agency emergency management training, and
• Providing recommendations for updating or developing new scenarios for use in exercises or training.

Guidance for incorporating TERA into existing training varies depending on the type of training (e.g., informational training versus functional exercises) and the technology used in the training, (e.g., PowerPoint slides versus emergency management applications such as WebEOC). Incorporating TERA scenarios and materials into a tabletop exercise or an existing exercise course may require less guidance than using the TERA materials in WebEOC or other emergency management applications, where creating instructional information for the use of TERA materials would be needed.

Some existing TERA scenarios need to be updated, and development of additional scenarios is recommended, which is beyond the scope of an adaptation guide. However, it is suggested the transportation agencies be made aware in the adaptation guide of the need to do scenario updates and develop additional ones. For example, in recent years transportation agencies have experienced types of emergencies that they had not encountered before: global pandemic, extreme heat, and extensive civil unrest. The TERA contagious disease scenarios need to be reviewed and updated in light of the actual experience of transportation agencies responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Extreme heat affects all modes and many communities and may warrant consideration for a new scenario. A new scenario that addresses the impacts of civil unrest on transportation agencies, such as disruptions to roadways and transportation facilities, and the expectations of transportation agencies to support the responses to the unrest, such as closing roadways and facilities, would be beneficial.

Hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, derechos, flooding, and wildfires in areas and at scales and times of year that are unprecedented have become more common. The existing scenarios addressing these hazards could be updated to include recent experience and the additional knowledge of what is crucial to do, when to effectively respond, and how to quickly recover. The active shooter scenarios could be updated to reflect more recent events and changes to approaches that address the situation. A new flash-flooding scenario in addition to the existing riverine flood scenario should be developed.

Potential tasks in the research include:

• Providing an overview of the TERA content and resources available.
• Providing information on changes or additional scenarios that should be developed.
• Identifying the types of adaptations that the guide addresses, including:
  • Adapting TERA content for use in transportation agency emergency management training.
  • Adapting TERA content to create a new training course to be used by transportation agencies. This may include creating instructor materials, especially if TERA is converted into a course offering of an industry training center.
  • Adapting TERA content to a collaborative application. For example, WebEOC, which is used by many agencies for emergency operations, has the capabilities to be used as a training platform (although purchasing a separate instance to be used for training may be required).

• • Adapting TERA to an existing simulation platform.
  • Describing the potential modification that may be necessary to make the TERA content compatible, such as reformatting assets to a different type of file, grouping or structuring assets in a different manner, and modifying scenarios/injects to fit platform templates. For example, Texas A&M uses a specific template for customizing its tool and creating scenarios.
• Identifying potential issues with the use or modification of the TERA scenarios or assets and potential approaches to address issues.

The final deliverables will include the following:

• An adaptation guide, and
• A technical memorandum titled “Implementation of Research Findings and Products” (if applicable).

Resources

The following resources were useful for the research implementation project:

• TERA Scenario Outlines – Appendix A of TCRP Web-Only Document 75/NCHRP Web-Only Document 321/ACRP Web-Only Document 52: Command-Level Decision Making for Transportation Emergency Managers (Madrid, 2022).
• TCRP Web-Only Document 75/NCHRP Web-Only Document 321/ACRP Web-Only Document 52: Command-Level Decision Making for Transportation Emergency Managers (Madrid, 2022).
• TCRP Web-Only Document 60/NCHRP Web-Only Document 200: Command-Level Decision Making for Transit Emergency Managers (Pigora, 2013).
• ACRP Research Report 187: Transportation Emergency Response Application (TERA) Support Materials for Airport EOC Exercises (Voetterl-Riecker and Riecker, 2018).