Lesson 1: What Is the National Incident Management System (NIMS)?
Summary of Lesson Content
NIMS Page 1
Lesson Overview
On February 28, 2003, President Bush issued Homeland Security Presidential Directive–
5. HSPD–5 directed the Secretary of Homeland Security to develop and administer a
National Incident Management System. NIMS provides a consistent nationwide template
to enable all government, private-sector, and nongovernmental organizations to work
together during domestic incidents.
This lesson will describe the key concepts and principles of NIMS, and the benefits of
using the system for domestic incident response. At the end of this lesson, you should
be able to describe these key concepts, principles, and benefits.
What is that National Incident Management System?
NIMS is a comprehensive, national approach to incident management that is applicable
at all jurisdictional levels and across functional disciplines. The intent of NIMS is to:
Be applicable across a full spectrum of potential incidents and hazard scenarios,
regardless of size or complexity.
Improve coordination and cooperation between public and private entities in a
variety of domestic incident management activities.
NIMS Compliance
HSPD-5 requires Federal departments and agencies to make the adoption of NIMS by
State and local organizations a condition for Federal preparedness assistance (grants,
contracts, and other activities) by FY 2005.
Jurisdictions can comply in the short term by adopting the Incident Command System.
Other aspects of NIMS require additional development and refinement to enable
compliance at a future date.
Why Do We Need a National Incident System
Emergencies occur every day somewhere in the United States. These emergencies are
large and small and range from fires to hazardous materials incidents to natural and
technological disasters.
Each incident requires a response. Whether from different departments within the same
jurisdiction, from mutual aid partners, or from State and Federal agencies, responders
need to be able to work together, communicate with each other, and depend on each
other.
Until now, there have been no standards for domestic incident response that reach
across all levels of government and all emergency response agencies.
The events of September 11 have underscored the need for and importance of national
standards for incident operations, incident communications, personnel qualifications,
resource management, and information management and supporting technology.
To provide standards for domestic incident response, President Bush signed Homeland
Security Presidential Directive–5. HSPD-5 authorized the Secretary of Homeland
Security to develop the National Incident Management System, or NIMS. NIMS provides
for interoperability and compatability among all responders.