Heritage GIS (Geographic Information System) Executive Summary

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1 Heritage GIS (Geographic Information System) Executive Summary Responsibility for management of Pennsylvania s natural diversity falls primarily under the PA Fish and Boat Commission (F&BC), PA Game Commission (PGC), US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR). The PA Natural Heritage Program (PNHP), a partnership between DCNR, The Nature Conservancy and the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy in cooperation with the F&BC, PGC, and USFWS, inventories and collects data on the Commonwealth s rare and most significant ecological features. These inventories include plant and animal species of special concern, rare and exemplary communities and outstanding geologic features. The goal of the PNHP is to build, maintain and provide accurate and accessible ecological information needed for conservation, development, planning and natural resource management. Previously, the Pennsylvania Natural Diversity Inventory (PNDI), the Environmental Review component of the Heritage Program, was a disparate set of databases, all of which used seriously outdated technology, each agency using its own method of data management. Environmental Reviews are implemented by the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), as part of a permitting process for any type of construction project. This permitting process is typically done after a planner or developer has invested substantial amounts of time and financial resources to a project. A PNDI hit generally requires mitigation measures that often result in loss of time and project redesign costs. In the Year 2000, DCNR made an organizational and financial commitment to bring these various databases together, GIS enable the information, and to develop an on-line GIS pre-planning tool for developers and planners, so that the PNDI search could be part of the site selection process, or incorporated into the design process rather than a surprise during the permitting stage. In July 2001, an Executive level project sponsor took on the responsibility of Project Manager. In June 2002, an Advisory Committee was formed which included the jurisdictional agencies, side-by-side with conservationists, builders, industry, planners, federal, state and local agencies. This Advisory Committee worked together to develop the requirements and the design of a system that would become the Heritage GIS. Developers and planners will now be able to perform a pre-planning search, allowing them to prescreen prospective sites. The backend of the application will cross-reference the project type, with the species data and the location of the project as drawn by the user. Using this information, Heritage GIS determines if additional questions are needed and if so, collects responses to these questions. Once the user has supplied all requested information, a receipt is generated that displays a map showing their project and its location, search number, and responses to project specifics and all questions. It also provides a list of appropriate avoidance measures and/or procedures that must be accommodated if a species of concern is likely to be impacted by the project, and the governing agency information, should a potential conflict occur in their search. The client is able to resolve any potential conflicts prior to applying for a permit. If no potential conflict is indicated, the applicant can sign the receipt and submit it with the permit application requiring no further PNDI processing. On the agency end, all jurisdictional agencies have access to a secure location within DCNR. When a hit is encountered, the project will appear in that agency s in-box, where they can review the project against the species layers under their jurisdiction. Status of this review is instantly posted to the external site, minimizing calls to these agencies on project status, while also improving communication. Together, Environmental Review (ER) and Verification and Validation (VV) have created a seamless, more accurate and timely approach to protecting our species of special concern NASCIO Recognition Award Submission Government to Business Page 1 of 6

2 Written Justification Description of the Project The Natural Heritage Program is an intenational program managed by NatureServe, a non-profit organization dedicated to effective conservation. NatureServe defines the role of the Natural Heritage Program as, The defining characteristic of the NatureServe network is the use of a natural heritage methodology. By specifying standard procedures for gathering, organizing, and managing information on biodiversity, natural heritage methodology unites the efforts of hundreds of individuals and dozens of institutions on two continents working to advance the knowledge needed to effectively conserve biodiversity. This philosophy formed the basis for Pennsylvania s Natural Heritage Program. The Natural Heritage site was much more than simply a technical effort rather; the greatest challenge was the human element concerning the issues of conservation and land use. Protection of unique, endangered and rare species has always been paramount in the PNDI program. Keeping true to this principle, while also allowing for a more interactive relationship with developers and planners, was a phenomenal challenge. The effort required tight security of the species data along with an open communication of positive development and land use opportunities. We were also charged with improving the method in which these searches check for hits. Previously, for protection purposes and because of limitations in the outdated technology, buffers were oversized. This created situations where unnecessary reviews were conducted. Unnecessary reviews would be defined as being - areas where either the type of project proposed would have no impact on the species of concern in the area, or the buffer over extended the actual protected zone. An additional challenge was to take the manual human interaction of these reviews and automate the process. And Heritage GIS succeeded on all fronts. In June 2002, DCNR began facilitated requirements meetings with an extensive stakeholders group, with members traditionally on opposite sides of the table. The stakeholders were tasked with working together to develop requirements for an on-line system that would bring together the needs for economic development with the needs of promoting conservation and protecting our sensitive species. The first sessions were for brainstorming, collecting all requirements from all members. Then these requirements were categorized into six major areas of interest. These major areas were voted on for establishing priorities for implementation. The first tier of the Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program (PNHP) to be implemented was an automated Pre-Planning Environmental Review. The first step was to work on the data itself. Pennsylvania updated its technologies for managing species data within an Oracle application developed by NatureServe. This information was then used for developing more specific species layers and buffer zones using GIS (ESRI tools). For DCNRs part, we worked with the other Pennsylvania jurisdictional agencies determining how these reviews are performed, and how these processes could be automated. These automated processes were designed to help developers and planners to pre-screen their site selections, which in turn would make the actual Environmental Review a faster process. As part of these sessions, we also needed to clearly define what was to be designated a secure information, and what could be shared as part of the Pre-Planning process. All of this was then mapped back to the requirements from the stakeholders meetings. A contractor was secured for the development of the application itself. The selected vendor was Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). Under this contract, ESRI participated in some of the stakeholder meetings, developing a proto-type 2005 NASCIO Recognition Award Submission Government to Business Page 2 of 6

3 to gauge user acceptance on workflow and usability. This vendor also participated in many of the sessions with the jurisdictional agency technical staff, as they defined the backend logic that would be used for conducting the preplanning and the follow-up reviews. It was determined that the application would be built with an Oracle/ArcSDE backend, with the interface built in.net (VB, ASP), Java and ArcIMS. DCNR implemented a new tool for the department DynamicPDF, which was used to generate non-modifiable, project specific, receipts that display a map showing their project and its location, their search number, and their responses to project specifics and all questions. It also provides a list of appropriate avoidance measures and/or procedures that must be accommodated if a species of concern is likely to be impacted by the project, along with the name and address of the governing agency, should a potential conflict occur in their search. The first tier of this application is an on-line application for the Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program (PNHP) web site. (This on-line pre-planning tool may be found at This web site contains many links to information about our Pennsylvania species. From this site, the user can access the PNDI Pre- Planning Environmental Review (ER). This ER tool would: 1. Provide notification as the regulatory requirements of the PNHP ER application. It also notifies the user that data will be collected for tracking purposes. 2. Allows the user to establish an account for developing projects, checking the status of their submissions, and for maintaining a library of past projects and their receipts. 3. A series of screens are used to guide the user in defining their project type (agriculture, development, etc.) and then to define the location of their project. 4. The locational information is used to present to user with an interactive mapping page. From this page, the user may draw their project, using nothing more than their mouse. All the user needs is a web browser no GIS tools are needed. 5. The application will check if the project location requires additional questions, and if so, collect responses to those questions. 6. The user is then taken to a validation screen, which allows them to validate their responses, and then to submit their project using a title familiar to them for later reference. 7. A receipt is generated, which may be printed, reviewed and then signed. Upon seeing the responses provided by the Environmental Review (ER) Pre-Planning PNDI search, the user can make a determination as to whether to proceed with their project, or seek another location. If they proceed, they contact the agency(ies) listed on the Receipt and resolve issues. If no conflict is evident, they may submit this receipt as part of their permitting package. This receipt is good for a full year. Every two hours, submitted projects are transferred from the external ER application to an internal, secure, Verification and Validation (VV) application, using SDE export for the spatial data and SQL scripts for the attribute data. In Pennsylvania, there are a number of jurisdictional agencies involved in species protection: DCNR, Fish and Boat Commission, Game Commission, The Nature Conservancy, Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). All of which, needed access to the VV portion of Heritage GIS. Trusted access was granted to the jurisdictional agency users, while VPN was used for the USFWS. VV was built using all the same tools used for ER (minus the DynamicPDF) NASCIO Recognition Award Submission Government to Business Page 3 of 6

4 As Jurisdictional agency members review the project, s may be generated for additional questions, the projects can be overlaid with other projects in the same area, and they can check if there has been a change in status for any of these species. They can also change the project review Status, which uses an Oracle trigger to display that new status automatically to the external ER web-site. This will help to decrease the number of calls to these understaffed agencies, so they can turn their focus to fieldwork, rather than returning phone calls. The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) possesses authority to conduct environmental reviews for all new land disturbance project permits. As part of this review, they have to submit a request for a PNDI review of the project locations. Policy has been changed so that the receipts generated from ER are to be submitted as part of the applicants permit package. DEP logs into VV, enters the search number and validates that the permit request matches the PNDI search conducted on ER. They can also validate instantly if any conflicts or avoidance measures have been resolved. Using a separate profile, DEP only has access to project data, and is unable to view the secure species data. A process that used to take 3 weeks on average is now scaled down to a matter of minutes. This data will be collected into a database, which can be reviewed at various intervals looking for trends. These trends may help to determine a number of factors, including any suspicious behavior. The Natural Heritage web site was built to allow for technical assistance. Future goals of the site will be conservation planning and educational information, so that conservation partners can be armed with the information they need to help promote the protection of not only endangered species, but also those species of special concern and interest in Pennsylvania. Together, ER and VV have automated and streamlined what has traditionally been a complex and slow process. It is hoped that Heritage may also bring developers and conservations closer together when considering land use issues. Significance to the Improvement of the Operation of Government Streamlining - Heritage will save the public and governmental organizations time by doing analysis behind the scenes. Back and forth questions will be handled on-line and instantly, rather than through snail mail. With the on-line series of questions, the user is able to take that next step into the on-line analysis for immediate answers. It will allow industry to have good information to make good decisions. For agencies who have development projects, Heritage saves their developers time and dollars, knowing how to design projects with knowledge early in the development process. This is good for conservation. By providing better information up front, issues can be mitigated, rather than dealt with as a conflict later in the process. PNDI searches for permit reviews can now be done in minutes, rather than weeks. And, users will save dollars on redesigns or long delays. Better Use of Staff Resources Heritage will help agencies with limited resources, while minimizing backlogs. DCNR asked our inspectors, botanists and biologists what takes that greatest amount of time, what keeps them from being out in the field validating species sightings or from keeping review backlogs under control. First on their list was the high number inspections for areas where there is no real conflict. Second, was communication. ER helps to minimize the number of inspections, by providing for a more effective search. The Avoidance Measures feature will provide automated instructions for developers and planners, that will allow them to proceed, without the intervention or inspection by state inspectors. VV will help by providing direct communications, lowing phone inquires and nearly eliminating the need for form letters for follow-up information. Better Cooperation For the first time, conservationists, business, industry, state and local government are talking and cooperating. First, the discussion was on system specifications. This rapport is now moving into conservation planning. Taking the Lead - Other states are looking at this application as a national approach to conservation and protection, putting PA on the map within the Natural Heritage program. Arizona is now working with ESRI to implement this same application, modified for their use, at a lower cost than what it would have cost them to build from scratch. Cost effective implementations means a greater number of state participation. The more states that embrace this approach, the greater the opportunity for sharing data. Species are uninfluenced by state boundaries, so conservation effort must minimize state boundary influence as well. Better information sharing will help to better understand 2005 NASCIO Recognition Award Submission Government to Business Page 4 of 6

5 these species of special concern, in areas such as migration patterns, sustainable approaches to conservation and planning, the opportunities are endless. Benefits realized by Service Recipients, Taxpayers, Agency or State Sound Land Use - The Natural Heritage program will be an important component in support of sound land use. Pennsylvania passed Growing Smarter legislation that requires agencies to consider land use plans in permitting and funding decision. Delays in processing permits and grant applications will occur as agencies attempt to locate copies of these plans. In addition, the business community and local government officials often do not make informed land use decisions due to difficulty in locating these plans. Natural Heritage s future will provide agency and public access to local comprehensive plans and local zoning plans, as well as, the resource data contained in those plans. Agencies will use this information to make sure that agency decisions are consistent with local land use plans. Individuals, businesses and organizations seeking new locations could use the information to make better site location and land use decisions. PA Natural Heritage will enable DCNR to work with sister agencies to develop and/or distribute similar spatial layer concepts for historical, archaeological and natural resource data to make this information available to the public to encourage development that is more protective of these valuable resources. Cost Savings Government Agencies are also mandated to perform PNDI reviews for any land disturbance project. The ER application will allow them to realize a great amount of time and money, in site purchases and design savings, by allowing them to perform pre-planning. Bringing Government and Businesses Closer - The application was built to be straight-forward and simple to the user, moving all complexities to behind the scenes, with complex decision tables comparing the species and the project being implemented. Businesses feel they have a greater hand in their decision making, seeing that government wants to work with them, rather simply regulate them. ER and VV applications work together to allow Pennsylvania and the USFWS do a better job of being good stewards. Return on Investment, Short-term/Long-term - Short-Term The cost for the application was approximately $1 million. It is estimated that the application will cut the required site inspections in half. These site inspections cost the Commonwealth about $200 per occurrence. Heritage GIS would mean an average of 400 fewer site inspections a month, for a savings of $960,000 annually. Savings which cannot be calculated, would be time saved by District Offices, who will no longer need to do these searches for the developers and planners. Another major savings will be to our clients, as they could save thousands by prescreening site locations. Long-Term - Tier II The Natural Heritage team will expand to include members of the Governor s Action Team (DCNR, DEP, Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) and PA Department of Transportation) to create Shovel Ready sites and transportation corridors. This expansion will build on the investment made during Tier I, collapsing many state required searches into one process. DCED hopes to promote these pre-determined Shovel Ready sites for sound economic development. PNHP will also be used as a base for better conservation planning down the road, in areas such as conservation corridors. This application will serve both sustainable economic development and conservation. DCNR hopes to change business practices to do this conservation up front as an actual practice, rather than just theory. Making it easier to have them change business practices at the start, comparing parcels for the least impact, will elevate conservation in their decision-making. We need to ensure they don t loose time and money, so they 2005 NASCIO Recognition Award Submission Government to Business Page 5 of 6

6 may have a better product while conserving our irreplaceable natural heritage for safe keeping for future generations NASCIO Recognition Award Submission Government to Business Page 6 of 6