Organising and Using Location Data in the Environment Agency
Stefan Carlyle
Environment Agency for England and Wales
29th March 2012
Location information (‘mapping’), is now used routinely across the Environment Agency (EA), our partners and our customers.
Without mapping the EA would be ineffective in:• Managing our response to incidents• Predicting or planning for the consequences of climate change• Meeting our legislative obligations such as the Floods Directive• Upholding our reputation as leading provider of environmental data• Planning or prioritising our work
It is estimated that mapping provides the EA an estimated benefit value of over £5m per annum, derived from productivity gains, cost avoidance and revenue from commercial re-use of geographic data.
Introduction
Environment Agency’s
Current capabilities
Environment & Business
River Basin ManagementWorkforce PlanningManagement of fisheriesConserving local wildlifeWater Resource Management
Operations
Management of incidents and emergenciesState of the Environment reportingIssuing environmental permitsRegulating permitted sitesProducing maps for site visitsMapping & Modelling in Fisheries
Regions
Preparing for Site VisitsReporting & KPIsCreating flood mapsPlanning ControlGold & Silver ControlInspections and MonitoringCapital Works planningHostile site locations
Finance & HR
Assigning payment to regionsCalculating maintenance costs of assetsHealth & Safety maps
Flood and CoastalRisk Management
Forecasting and warningManaging and improving condition of Flood DefencesTaking account of the impact of climate changeStrategic development and controlImproving our response to flooding incidents Providing Flood Risk assessments
Evidence
Maps & statistics for European and UK DirectivesProviding information to the public via “WIYBY”Providing information to internal staff via Easimap
Maintaining core data sets for use across the AgencyImplementing our data strategy and Improving data qualitySharing geographic data between partners
CorporateStrategy
Benefits from use of Location Data
Types of Benefit:
1. Environmental Protection2. Better Government and Public
services3. Efficiencies and cash savings by
doing things that we could not do without mapping
1. Helping to deliver our Corporate Strategy:
•Incident Management•Asset Management•Improving Water Protection Zones•Impact on Soil Erosion•Modernising Regulation
Benefit Case Study - Incident Management
Case Study - Responding to Emergencies
Environment Agency, local authority staff, fire and rescue services, water companies and their associated contractors plus insurers and loss adjusters all used the most detailed geographic information to determine appropriate action following the torrential rainfall in both Yorkshire and central and southern England in summer 2007.
Assessments were made using detailedtopographic and height data of the extentof the area that would have been affectedif the Ully Dam had burst;
The definitive addresses within the affected area had to be included in the report so that emergency evacuation could start immediately
Source: UK Location Strategy
Benefit Case Study - Asset Management
Case Study – From scheduling local maintenance to supporting national investment strategies
Maps showing routine maintenance work (below) are provided to contractors, detailing the work, and any access or health and safety issues to be considered
Locations and condition of assets are recorded in the National Flood and Coastal Defence Database (NFCDD)
GIS is then used to combine information from NFCDD with SAMPS data and to create a national view (right), which can be used as evidence for major investment decisions
Benefit Case Study - Improving WPZs
Identifying where we can improve water quality by influencing farming methods
1. Use DTM to define catchments
2. Identify which catchments drain into a priority site e.g. Drinking Water Protected Area
3. Within catchments, identify potential high impact crops e.g. Oilseed
4. Run models to identify the impact (on water quality) of changing land-use (not yet completed)
Benefit Case Study– Impact on Soil Erosion
National Erosion Map
Across England the most impacted land use will be arable land, followed by managed grassland
in the case of the 6m buffer strip this equates to approximately 1% of both arable and managed grassland
Benefit Case Study – Red Tape Challenge
Case Study – Easimap for National Permitting
Integrates data from across the organisation into one applicationIncludes ‘live’ data from other organisationsCan be used with minimum trainingProduces consistent, auditable resultsMassive efficiency savings. Time to process a permit has been reduced form days to minutes.The Agency processes up to 10,000 permits per year
“It’s absolutely brilliant! It’s wonderful to receive something which makes the job so much easier”
Avril Varley-Brown, Permitting Officer
2. Enabling Better GovernmentRed Tape Challenge
Reducing inspections where environmental risks are lowImproving speed and efficiency in the way we issue permits Better business planning e.g. Field Workforce Planning (FWP) which uses GIS routing
to optimise inspection schedules
Supporting DEFRAProducing and maintaining Main River mapsCoastal erosion maps, taking account of multiple scenarios for climate changeSoil erosion maps, taking account of the impact of land-use and farming practicesProviding data to MAGIC – the Multi Agency countryside data repository
Exercise WatermarkThe Agency is working to deliver the recommendations of the Exercise Watermark for
which GIS is an essential enabler for the many recommendations
INSPIRE delivery and Open DataINSPIRE compliance and a pragmatic approach to Open Data will be of benefit to the
Environment Agency in policy and operational areas, where shared and integrated place-based information is valuable for decision making;
Benefit Examples - Improving Public Services
Protecting homes from floodingGIS is used to raise and issue flood warnings (Flood Warning Direct)
Identify properties most at risk from flooding, plan improvements and issue appropriate advice
Enabling better access to InformationThe Agency provides a number of GIS based products to the public, includingState of the Environment reports, Preliminary Flood Risk Assessments to support
planning applicationsWhat’s in Your Backyard, a theme based map application that allows the public to view
environmental data for their neighbourhood
National and Regional Customer Contact Centres (NCCC)NCCC are major users of GIS. Examples of usage include; Using a callers location to redirect calls to area based staff or duty officers in the event
of an incidentTo provide standard Agency products such as Flood Risk assessment mapsTo accept, assess and process environmental permit applicationsTo respond to information requests from partners and the general public
3. Quantified Benefits
• Staff efficiency and FTE savings• National Permitting• Processing planning applications• Automated data management• Faster mapping
• Cost Avoidance•Reduced/quicker site visits•Re-use of Easimap and CDS = Less IT spend
Quantified annual benefits of mapping
Item Detail Annual Saving
Measured Productivity (FTE)
Only includes actual efficiencies measured in National Permitting Centre (PSC) - 16 FTE 516,000
Estimated Productivity(FTE)
Based upon the efficiencies that Easimap map provides in terms of faster/easier access to data & information. Ca 3,000,000
Revenue from sale of GIS based data
Gross £2.5m revenue per annum. Assume that 50% of value is based upon GI component 1,250,000
Cost Avoidance
Reduced/avoided IT development and support costs through re-use 360,000
Ca 5,126,000
Excludes additional but un-quantified benefits of reputation & legislative compliance
Implementing Semantic Interoperability
JBA Modelled River Centreline
CEH Digital 1:50K River Centre line
2005RASP HLM+ Application
NaFRA 2005 Property Flood Likelihood Category
Database (MS Access)
NaFRA 2005 Economic Risks Database - Property
(MS Access)
NaFRA 2005 Postcode Flood Likelihood Category
Database (MS Access with Browser)
Tier 2 InputData
Tier 1 Input Data
Fluvial Flood ZonesVer 2.7
Section 105/Historic Data
Coastal Flood ZonesVer 2.7
Data Preparation
Defence Tramlines Attributed
OS AddressPoint
Application
Flood Probabilities Compiled and
Banded
Economics Calculated
Area review
Secondary Processing
Validation
Tier 1 Output Datasets/Products
Commercial Valuation Office
Rating List
Tier 2 Output Datasets/Products
OS AddressPoint
Sore Thumb Data
Areas Benefiting from Defences
Flood Zones
NaFRA (RASP 2002)
NaFRA 2004 Outputs
NaFRA 2004 Published
HR Wallingford Generic Defence Fragility Curves
Calculation of Risk to Over Topping
Undefended Flood Plain Flood Levels
NaFRA Defence Tramlines
NFCDD Defence Attributes
(Main River & Non-Main River)
Defence Coastal Loading
Conditions
Defence Fluvial Loading
Conditions
NaFRA 2005 Spatial Flood Likelihood Category Grid(ESRI Shapefile/MapInfo)
Reference Data
Process/Data Manipulation
KEY:
Impact Zone Data Preparation
Impact Zone Flood Probability Table
Summary Statistics
Calculated
Internal Review/Comparison
Tier 3 and Repeated Input Data
Averaged NextMap SAR
DTM
UKHO Admiralty Charts
EA Flood Improvements
Schemes
EA Held Video/Visual Records
EA Surveyed Flood Events
EA Held Aerial Photography
EA Held Oblique Aerial
Photographs
OS 1:10K Boundary Line MHW Coastline
NaFRA Attributed Defence
Tramlines
EA/POL Estimates of Extreme Water
Levels
CEH FEH Q(T) Grids
NextMap SAR DTM
EA/POL Estimates of Extreme Water
Levels
UKMO Wave Forecasting
Model
EA Annual Beach Management Survey
EA HiFlows Project Data
OS 1:10K Boundary Line MHW Coastline
EA 1:10K Main Rivers
IHDTM Cumulative
Catchment Area
EA Gauge Data
NaFRA Attributed Defence
Tramlines
National Property Database
Multi-Coloured Manual (MCM)
Depth Damage Data (FHRC)
OS 1:10K Boundary Line County, Unitary Authority
& Metropolitan Boundaries
Land Registry Residential Property
Price Report Input Data(re-use)
Input Data(non re-use)
Repeated Input Data
Tier 3 Input Data
(non re-use)
Update of NFCDD Flood Defence
Attributes
Dataset(non re-use)
NaFRA Attributed Defence
Tramlines
Flood Zones (JFLOW)Ver 2.7
OS 1:10K Raster Base Map
Defra Linen Sheets
NextMap SAR DTM
Data Product(re-use)
Input Data(non EA)
Tier 2 Secondary Input Data
Tier 1 Secondary Input Data
NaFRA 2005 Un-Validated Flood Probability Table
Open Data
Above: WIYBY allows us to share targeted information, via the internet, with the public, businesses and partners
Open Data - DataShare
Above: DataShare allows partners to download our map data. We are also piloting ‘live feeds’ of our data for use within mapping applications e.g. Met Office Hazard Manager
EA Search & Explore concept
EA Search
Data? Maps?
Modelling?What have we got?
Search e.g. water quality, Dorset
Data set #1 [more info View Download] Data set #2 [more info View Download] Data set #3 [more info View Download]
Modelling Package#1 [more info View Access/Download] Modelling Package#2 [more info View Access/Download] Modelling Package#3 [more info View Access/Download]
Just like Googling!
Maps / visuals#1 [more info View Access/Download] Maps / visuals#2 [more info View Access/Download] Maps / visuals#3 [more info View Access/Download]
Search identifies data, maps/visuals, and modelling packages we have across our
organisation
Could open pop up to show meta data for the ‘evidence item’ e.g. date created, who created, why created ……..
See & explore ‘item’
Get copy of the evidence to use e.g. data
set
Data sets, services and applications
Meta data
Search for things or places or a combination
Display and navigate
on a map!
Future Policy Delivery
Public Data Group
Open Data
My Environment
UK Location Programme
Environmental Information Framework
Government Data Review
Data Quality StrategyEuropean Directives
Transparency
data.gov.uk
Location information (‘mapping’), is now used routinely across the Environment Agency (EA), our partners and our customers.
Without mapping the EA would be ineffective in:• Managing our response to incidents• Predicting or planning for the consequences of climate change• Meeting our legislative obligations such as the Floods Directive• Upholding our reputation as leading provider of environmental data• Planning or prioritising our work
It is estimated that mapping provides the EA an estimated benefit value of over £5m per annum, derived from productivity gains, cost avoidance and revenue from commercial re-use of geographic data.
EA location data will be at the heart of making it an exemplar of pragmatic approach to Open Data and Transparency.
Summary
Top Related