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1. Multi-Agency Geographic Information Warehousing in Northwestern B.C. Don Morgan Ministry of Forests Todd Glover Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks ___________________________________________________________________________________ Northwest Data Centre May 9, 2000 Skeena Region GIS

2. Introduction MoF Northwest Data Centre: Don Morgan Technical manager MELP Skeena Region GIS: Todd Glover GIS and Data Coordinator Ruth Edwards Administrative manager GIS group: Ken Bush, Loretta Kent, Tiemin Sheng, Cheryl MacMillan, Wren Gilgan GIS Group: Johanna Pfalz, Trisha Jarrett, James Warren • Location: • Regional Headquarters in Smithers. • Combined geographic extent of Skeena Environment Region and Prince Rupert Forest Region: 1/3 of province’s land base. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Northwest Data Centre May 9, 2000 Skeena Region GIS

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4. Overview Multi-Agency Geographic Information Warehousing in Northwestern B.C. • Multi-Agency Land Management • Data Warehousing • Data Warehousing at Ministry of Environment Lands and Parks • Data Warehousing at Ministry of Forests • Multi-Agency Data Warehousing • Ongoing Activities • Reasons for Success ___________________________________________________________________________________ Northwest Data Centre May 9, 2000 Skeena Region GIS

5. Multi-Agency Land Management • Agency specific decision making • Both agencies require the same data for making decisions: • e.g. Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification • MELP - wildlife habitat zones • MoF - forest yield projections • Shared decision making • Legislated cooperation - Forest Practices Code • Land & Resource Management Plans • Forest Development Planning • Landscape Unit Planning • Timber Supply Review ___________________________________________________________________________________ Northwest Data Centre May 9, 2000 Skeena Region GIS

6. Data Warehousing • Data Warehouse: • Information repository of published data, distributed through an organization: • Organizes information • Collects (publishes) data from variety of sources, including online operational systems • Distributes information • Data has custodianship • Data is stored non-redundantly ___________________________________________________________________________________ Northwest Data Centre May 9, 2000 Skeena Region GIS

7. Data Warehousing • Data Warehouse: • Information repository of published data, distributed through an organization: • Organizes information • Collects (publishes) data from variety of sources, including online operational systems • Distributes information • Data has custodianship • Data is stored non-redundantly ___________________________________________________________________________________ Northwest Data Centre May 9, 2000 Skeena Region GIS

8. Data Warehousing MoF Data Forest Cover Inventory Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification Forest Roads Timber Supply Areas Forest Districts Landscape Unit Boundaries Terrain, Slope Stability MELP Data NTS/TRIM Basemapping Wildlife Habitat data Guide Outfitter Areas Trapline Areas Water License Locations, Dams Crown Cadaster Parks & Protected Areas Hazardous Waste Sites Environmental Monitoring Sites Wildlife Management Units Inhabited Floodplains Rare & Endangered Ecosystems Water precincts, Snow Courses Stream Networks, Fish Habitats Animal Telemetry Wildlife Special Management Zones Other Agency Data (Warehoused by MELP) Mineral Occurrences Mineral Tenure Geographic Names Orthoimage and Satellite Imagery LRMP Boundaries ...and so on... ___________________________________________________________________________________ Northwest Data Centre May 9, 2000 Skeena Region GIS

9. Data Warehousing MoF Data Forest Cover Inventory Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification Forest Roads Timber Supply Areas Forest Districts Landscape Unit Boundaries Terrain, Slope Stability MELP Data NTS/TRIM Basemapping Wildlife Habitat data Guide Outfitter Areas Trapline Areas Water License Locations, Dams Crown Cadaster Parks & Protected Areas Hazardous Waste Sites Environmental Monitoring Sites Wildlife Management Units Inhabited Floodplains Rare & Endangered Ecosystems Water precincts, Snow Courses Stream Networks, Fish Habitats Animal Telemetry Wildlife Special Management Zones Other Agency Data (Warehoused by MELP) Mineral Occurrences Mineral Tenure Geographic Names Orthoimage and Satellite Imagery LRMP Boundaries ...and so on... ___________________________________________________________________________________ Northwest Data Centre May 9, 2000 Skeena Region GIS

10. BCE Data Providers Victoria Master Data Warehouse Server NFS Master Warehouse HP-UNIX ARC/INFO Oracle Server Samba Server Nightly replication of warehouse data to regions Branch Data HP-UNIX ARC/INFO Oracle Server Samba Server copy Spatial and Attribute Data managed Provincially firewall NFS External Data Providers automated copy X, SQLnet, Samba copy LUCO CDMS FISH MOF Parks etc. X FTP/WWW Server firewall Data Manipulator (NT, X Emulation, Oracle tools) HP-UNIX Oracle Server Samba Server Apache Server • Public • Data data live link data use data store data copy Data Warehousing at MELP: Victoria Headquarters ___________________________________________________________________________________ Northwest Data Centre May 9, 2000 Skeena Region GIS

11. Regional Data Server Data Manipulators Plotting (Unix Queues) RAID arrays Nightly synchronization from master warehouse HP-UNIX ARC/INFO Oracle Server Samba Server Apache Server read-only replicated data Regional Data Printer/Plotter Browser Plotting (Novell Queues) Samba, ODBC X, SQLnet, Samba Arcview/GOAT Oracle Reports Oracle Discoverer NT Terminal Server ICA X Data Manipulator (NT, X Emulation, Oracle tools) General User (NT, ICA Client) Data Warehousing at MELP: Regions ___________________________________________________________________________________ Northwest Data Centre May 9, 2000 Skeena Region GIS

12. Data Warehousing at Ministry of Forests • The Data Service Centre(DSC) Project • DSC project started in 1997, scheduled for completion by March 2001. • MoF Business problems: • Decisions across a variety of administrative boundaries, • complexity of decision making environment, • recruitment of skilled staff, • high cost of information technology, • government downsizing, and • inconsistencies in organizational structure. • Solution: • consolidate skilled staff, • consolidate data storage, and • consolidate infrastructure. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Northwest Data Centre May 9, 2000 Skeena Regional GIS

13. Data Warehousing at Ministry of Forests • The Data Service Centre(DSC) Project - cont’d • Data management services organized into “Working Groups” • WG1 - working group 1: • central warehoused data • high end analysis. • WG2 - working group 2: • data capture and update • desk top analysis. • WG3 - working group 3: • desk top analysis. • Prince Rupert Forest Region Implementation: • WG1 - MoF Regional office in Smithers. • WG2 - Forest District offices. • WG3 - N/A. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Northwest Data Centre May 9, 2000 Skeena Regional GIS

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15. Data Warehousing at Ministry of Forests • The Data Service Centre(DSC) Project - cont’d • Information Technology at MoF • Original DSC implementation concept: • NT workstations with Arc/INFO and Microsoft Access. • GIS desktop viewer. • Proposed DSC implementation: • Microsoft’s terminal server or “MUNT” - multi-user NT. • Centrally located infrastructure in Victoria • Analysts and warehouse managers would remotely access resources • Has not been fully adopted by Operations Division. • Actual implementation, Prince Rupert/Skeena: • Expand MELP UNIX network to accommodate MoF users and data. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Northwest Data Centre May 9, 2000 Skeena Regional GIS

16. Data Warehousing at Ministry of Forests • The Data Service Centre(DSC) Project - cont’d • Prince Rupert Forest Regional(PRFR) DSC implementation: • Administration: • steering committee: • established in February 1999: • made up of Operations managers and Regional staff manager. • terms of reference. • memorandum of understanding with MELP. • Funding: • Regional operations funds. • DSC project funded- desktop computers, training and some infrastructure. • MELP. • Local solution with MELP and MoF merged infrastructure. • Costs savings to provincial DSC budget. • Speedy delivery of services to WG2 - on line November 1999. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Northwest Data Centre May 9, 2000 Skeena Regional GIS

17. Data Warehousing at Ministry of Forests • The Data Service Centre(DSC) Project - cont’d • MoF PRFR Data translation and warehousing: • FC1 and FIP • Locally translated. • Quality assurance scripts. • Local IGDS operator can fix bad maps. • Tracking system of updates. • FIPs projected with VDPY and loaded into Oracle. • FC1 ARC map library - 2,390 map sheets. • Data Delivery: • All relevant data is in one “workspace”. • Cut by Forest District and Landscape Unit. • Delivered on CD. • Districts use GIS viewer software - under review. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Northwest Data Centre May 9, 2000 Skeena Regional GIS

18. Multi-Agency Data Warehousing • Infrastructure: • MoF and MELP are in the same building • Two LANs, connected by a high-speed (ATM) bridge • UNIX servers: • MELP HP-UX data and processing server • ARC/INFO, Oracle, Samba (to allow NT file access) • 300GB online storage for user space and warehousing • MoF SUN research and development server, • Drives are NFS cross-mounted to MELP data server • Security: • Through standardized UNIX file permissions and associated Oracle permissions. • Warehouse Integrity: • Meta files associated with coverages. • Data is created or modified in individual workspaces, then published into warehouse once it meets spatial data integrity and meta-content standards. • Warehouse Tracking: • Database of meta-content files in Oracle. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Northwest Data Centre May 9, 2000 Skeena Region GIS

19. Multi-Agency Data Warehousing MOF Research MOF Staff in District Offices Solaris ARC/INFO Oracle MOF Prince Rupert LAN RAID arrays ? read-only replicated data Regional Data User/manipulator (NT) High speed bridge (ATM) MELP Regional Data Server MELP Staff in District Offices using Wide Area Network or remote locations via ISP HP-UNIX ARC/INFO Oracle Server Samba Server Apache Server Arcview/GOAT Oracle Reports Oracle Discoverer NT Terminal Server X X Data Manipulator (NT, X Emulation, Oracle tools) Data Manipulators (NT, X Emulation, Oracle tools) Remote Users (NT, ICA Client) General Users (NT, ICA Client) MELP Skeena LAN ___________________________________________________________________________________ Northwest Data Centre May 9, 2000 Skeena Region GIS

20. Data Access • Current Methods: • MoF DSC provides CDs with warehoused data cut to geographic or • administrative boundaries. • MELP’s GIS Oracle Access Tool (GOAT) through NT Terminal Server • Web access to plotfile archives • Future Methods: • publicly mountable drives for secure data • public FTP site synchronized to published data stores • public access to plotfile archives • Potential Partners: • Industry - Canfor, Houston Forest Products. • Environmental groups - Sierra Club • First Nations - Wet’suwet’en • Consultants - McGregor Analysis Group ___________________________________________________________________________________ Northwest Data Centre May 9, 2000 Skeena Region GIS

21. Ongoing Activities • Data Loading of Forest District non-standard coverages and • data gathered under Forest Renewal such as Terrain Stability Mapping data. • Cooperative Government/Industry initiatives such as IFPAs. • Development of across agency data standards. • Multi-Agency distributed data base. • Training and support of analysts and end users. • Development of applications to streamline data delivery and assist with operations. • Data automation - quality control scripts, data publishing (e.g. WebPlot), data distribution ___________________________________________________________________________________ Northwest Data Centre May 9, 2000 Skeena Region GIS

22. Reasons for Success • Data Standards, especially common projection and format. • Management support. • A local vision of data management. • Creative MoF/MELP team with a shared vision. • Culture of cooperative innovation. • Physical and network proximity • Open communication between managers, developers and end users. • Initially lower classifications in MELP data management positions • Flexible OS environment (UNIX) under control of data management staff • Focus on data management rather than technology ___________________________________________________________________________________ Northwest Data Centre May 9, 2000 Skeena Region GIS

23. Data Information Decisions