Today, most major cities and government agencies use GIS to manage emergency response systems like 911 and automated call dispatch systems. But during emergency crisis events like flash floods or earthquakes, the different local, regional and provincial crisis management authorities have difficulties exchanging and using basic spatial information describing the territory. This information is critical in maintaining public safety within the intervention areas. Many commercial solutions on the market today can be purchased and implemented but these are often costly and complicated to deploy. The objective of this research is to demonstrate that it is possible to conceive a geoportal composed of free OpenSource software using open standards with the goal to facilitate the collaboration of homeland security actors in Québec. The project also has the objective to demonstrate the portability and the ease of use of these Open systems on multiple types of computer platforms. The prototyping of the different solutions enabled us to test many innovative concepts and integrate a multitude of spatial thematic enabling a collaborative approach to crisis management. This was also done using open standards and OpenSource software. This research also helped demonstrate that the majority of geospatial information identified as necessary to manage an urban crisis existed but unavailable or not shared between homeland security stakeholders.