What is the National Incident Management System (NIMS)?
NIMS is a comprehensive, national approach to incident management that is applicable at all jurisdictional levels and across functional disciplines. It is intended to:

• Be applicable across a full spectrum of potential incidents, hazards, and impacts, regardless of size, location or complexity.
• Improve coordination and cooperation between public and private entities in a variety of incident management activities.
• Provide a common standard for overall incident management

NIMS is a core set of doctrine, concepts, principles, terminology, and organizational processes.

NIMS is applicable to all hazards.

NIMS is NOT:

• An operational incident management plan
• A resource allocation plan
• A terrorism or WMD specific plan
• Designed to address international events
• Most important, NIMS is NOT just the Incident Command System

What are the Components of NIMS?
NIMS Components link together and work in unison to form a comprehensive incident management system. NIMS Components include:  

• Preparedness
• Communications and Information Management
• Resource Management
• Command and Management
• Ongoing Management and Maintenance

Why do we need NIMS?
NIMS provides a consistent nationwide framework and approach to enable government at all levels (Federal, State, tribal, and local), the private sector, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to work together to prepare for, prevent, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of incidents regardless of the incident’s cause, size, location, or complexity.

Consistent application of NIMS lays the groundwork for efficient and effective responses, from a single agency fire response to a multiagency, multijurisdictional natural disaster or terrorism response. Entities that have integrated NIMS into their planning and incident management structure can arrive at an incident with little notice and still understand the procedures and protocols governing the response, as well as the expectations for equipment and personnel. NIMS provides commonality in preparedness and response efforts that allow diverse entities to readily integrate and, if necessary, establish unified command during an incident.

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