Transparency and the Environment

Transparency is going to become a greater issue in the field of environmental monitoring.  Over the past few 10 years, many municipalities and water utilities across North America have begun to post laboratory results relating to drinking water quality on the Internet.  Companies engaged in land development, remediation or natural resources development face pressure not only to implement comprehensive monitoring and adaptive management programs, but to be accountable by making the results of those programs publicly available.  It will only be a matter of time before all public and private organizations will be encouraged or even required by regulation to make their monitoring data freely available to those who might be interested.


Transparency is a popular 'buzzword' these days.  The fallout from the 2008 financial meltdown and the gulf oil spill has resulted in the public's intolerance of corporate secrets and controlled releases of information.  The stunning popularity of social networking reflects our 'gotta know it now' culture.  It's clear that companies who share their financial statements and business strategies will be better accepted by their current and future customers.  The stock market also responds better to firms that are upfront with investors and analysts. Similarly, companies that can demonstrate due diligence with respect to the environment will be better respected by their customers and the market.

We shouldn't talk about transparency and environmental monitoring without acknowledging the importance of data management.  You really can't seriously consider sharing your monitoring data with others unless you store it in a well-designed databases.  Transparency is perhaps the key long-term business driver to develop a data management strategy.
Here's a few reasons for your organization to become transparent with respect to your environmental monitoring programs:

• Transparency will generate value to a wider audience.  Once you provide a mechanism for sharing data, your stakeholders (public, regulators, employees, researchers) will start to place a higher value on the information collected and the effort required to collect that information. You will find that your database becomes seen as an asset instead of an expense;
• Transparency will lower the cost of data management.  You will find that once you provide a tool for your stakeholders to access information themselves, you will increase the speed of delivery and eliminate costly barrier; and,
• Transparency will improve data quality.  One of the barriers to sharing environmental data with stakeholders has a fear of distributing erroneous data.  I'm a strong advocate of doing all you can to load correct data into a database.  However, there are lots of situations where errors in both historical and future data may be unavoidable.  If you implement a feedback mechanism whereby identified data errors can be fixed, you might find that your stakeholders become more engaged and participate in the improvements of your asset.

What do you think about environmental monitoring data transparency?  Should you hide your data in a thick appendix or should you catch up with the rest of the business world and implement a solution to share your data?

There's a Need For New Environmental Information Systems

I came across this interesting article which summarizes a survey of environmental professionals completed to better understand their needs for information systems.  

New Environmental IT Systems Needed

Some of the key points identified by the survey and highlighted by the article include:

• Many existing EH&S systems are aging and need replaced;
• There is an increasing trend towards external hosting and software-as-a-service (SAAS);
• There is a recognized need to integrate environmental information systems with other corporate information systems (e.g., manufacturing, accounting);
• There is a demand for carbon footprinting but nobody jas money to pay for it; and,
• Large companies are cheap when it comes to environmental spending.

As long as environmental activities are viewed as liabilities and cost-centers, public and private organizations will remain overly cautious about spending the money needed for new systems.  As an industry, we need to do a better job of understanding and communicating the cost savings that good environmental information systems will provide. 

EarthSoft Fills the Gaps in the Environmental Data Management Lifecycle

I've used EarthSoft's (http://www.earthsoft.com/) EQuIS software to manage environmental monitoring data for more than 15 years.  EarthSoft has always been a reliable vendor with excellent technical support and frequent product updates.  EarthSoft's focus for the past 15 years has been on software to check and import laboratory data, create reports, and to provide exports and linkages with third-party environmental data modeling, analysis, and reporting software.  Things are much different now.

EarthSoft has released its Sample Planning Module (SPM) and the EarthSoft Data Gathering Engine (EDGE).  These products have been designed to work together to satisfy two extremely important objectives:

• Plan field activities and sampling.  SPM allows you to create detailed field sampling plans including sample locations, sample dates, laboratory contracts and costing, analytical methods, QC requirements.   All sample planning data is stored in the EQuIS database giving you the ability to run reports that give you real-time update on the status of field activities and laboratory reports.
• Record field data.  EDGE is a stand-alone product that can work well in the field or office.  It is configured to record field data specifically required to meet the requirements of a sample plan assembled into SPM. 

I've been involved in the implementation of SPM and EDGE for a couple of organizations with extremely complex sampling programs and EarthSoft has been extremely helpful to ensure that SPM and EDGE meet the requirements of these implementations.  Thank you EarthSoft.



Sample Planning Module - Calendar



Now here's my point, and I'm not getting paid by EarthSoft to adverstise SPM or EDGE.  It's always a good idea to implement a data management product if you collect, manage, or report on environmental monitoring data.  You will save money on reporting and analysis and you'll have a better product.  However, if you really want to streamline and improve your process of project management, field data collection, lab data management, and reporting, you should consider SPM and EDGE.  You will be more competitive and more responsive.  You will be in control of your monitoring, reporting, and compliance responsibilities.

Do We Hold a Wake for Manifold?

Environmental scientists and engineers have long-embraced Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and geospatial analysis.  Those of us who have made a career of managing environmental information rely on GIS not only to analyze spatial environmental data but to manage and store it with the rest of our tabular data.   

Where the heck is Version 9?


GIS has certainly ‘crossed the chasm’ into the mainstream.  MapQuest may have introduced GIS to the masses, but thanks to Google, web mapping is now ubiquitous.   While many now take the sophistication of Google Maps and Bing Maps for granted,  there are a few of us who rely on GIS for more than mapping; we need to analyze and manipulate geospatial data.   Manifold GIS was introduced about 10 years ago and those who use it are generally excited  to spend 30 minutes telling anybody (who will listen) why Manifold is, or was, the most innovative product they have ever used.

Manifold GIS (www.manifold.net) was the first GIS product to do a great job of integrating geospatial and tabular data.   For many of the product’s early users, Manifold offered its users a vision that all data (spatial or tabular) could be managed in a single environment.  Sadly, it has been two years since the vendor has offered a serious new upgrade and us early users hope that what was once a disruptive technology won’t join Turbo Pascal in the obsolete software graveyard.

Manifold has been unwilling to share its future product development plans,  and unfortunately the user community is impatient.   Other companies have certainly continued to innovate.  Over the past two years ESRI has introduced native support for spatial data in SQL Server 2008 as well as fantastic new support for the iPhone and iPad.  Qgis (www.qgis.org) has emerged as a pretty useful open source desktop mapping product.

Do we stop waiting for Manifold version 9 and just go on with our lives?

Six Sigma Approach to Sustainable Institutional Environmental Data Management

I'd like to thank Chris French for sharing more about his environmental data management work at Honeywell.  He provided me with a research paper presented at GeoCongress 2008 which further describes his analysis of the cost savings associated with environmental data management. (Download Six Sigma Approach to Sustainable Institutional Environmental Data Management)


Chris's paper identifies the following examples of cost savings;

• For a major site investigation, a $3,000 investment in up-front field data automation generated $100,000 in savings,
• Standardization of chain-of-custody (COC) and electronic data reporting resulted in savings of 5% in data management time for COC management, time savings of between 0.5 and 1.0 hours per EDD, and a reduction of time of 20 hours per report draft, and
• Automation resulted in a 50% savings on a data validation effort ($50,000) and a 70% savings on reporting associated with a data intensive investigation effort subject to strict regulatory requirements.

Way to go Chris!  Does anybody else out there in the environmental community have more good examples of tangible cost savings?

In a Perfect World, Environmental Data Management is a Continuous and Integrated Business Process

It's too bad that environmental data management systems are often considered purely as computational tools, best to remain in the hands (or computers) of the back-office scientist or engineer.  Any organization involved with the collection and reporting of environmental information is missing an opportunity by not integrating an environmental database management system with activities involving scheduling and planning, field data collection, laboratory analysis, and compliance and management reporting.

  

I've witnessed companies realize some pretty significant benefits after implementing a standardized environmental data management process, such as;

1. Cost reductions.  Nearly every successful business on this planet has recognized the cost benefits associated with process or product standardization.  You don't have to look very hard though to find companies take great pride in the standardization of engineering, development or manufacturing processes and then pay little attention to the methods by which their consultants and laboratories collect, store and report environmental monitoring data.  Chris French, Remediation Manager with Honeywell, published one of the few papers illustrating the cost benefits of implementing a standardized environmental data management approach (Honeywell Data Management Case Study).  His pilot project suggested that a 65% cost savings could be realized by improving environmental data business processes.  I think that Chris's analysis underestimates cost savings as he didn't evaluate the potential cost reductions associated with tasks such as computer modeling and risk assessment when data is properly managed.
2. Maximize Data Quality. Standardization improves quality.  Minimizing duplicate copies of information improves quality. Developing methods for people to report and analyze data improves quality.
3. Enabled Informed Decision Making.  I've spoke with numerous environmental managers who feel powerless when they require background data to support decision making.  In some instances, environmental data remains in the possession of consultants who never really have a mandate to deliver raw data back to their client.  In many other situations, environmental data remains 'locked' deep inside pages and pages of tables of data printed at a 6 pt font.  Companies who develop standards to collect and maintain their data will be better able to understand their data and make better decisions for the future. 

Our industry needs to recognize that an environmental data management system is much more than just software.  To be most effective, environmental data management must address all environmental data business processes with firm objectives of reducing costs, maximizing data quality, and promoting flexible methods of data reporting and data analysis.

Water For People - FLOW (Field Level Operations Watch)

It looks like it might be easier for some third-world communities to learn about their drinking water systems than for those of us in North America.  Water For People has introduced a visual, open-source mobile-based data monitoring and mapping tool called Field Level Operations Watch (FLOW).   Check out the link and test out the Google Earth / Google Maps.

http://www.waterforpeople.org/programs/field-level-operations-watch.html

The Province of Ontario has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the past decade successfully implementing the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Water Act.  I believe that this effort has been successful.  Our drinking water is safer, there is better public awareness of the need to protect our water, and policies and programs are being implemented for us to protect the quality and quantity of our future drinking water supplies.  I suspect the Ministry of Ontario has developed a very comprehensive database of information relating to our drinking water systems.  However, none of this information is as transparently available as the Water for People FLOW initiative.

The First Posting

To be honest, I've thought about creating this environmental data management blog for about three years.  I put it off, making the excuse that I really didn't have the time to make it worthwhile.  Even if I had the time to write, I'd never make the time (as a courtesy to others) to edit my drivel.  It occurred to me yesterday as I sorted through a messed up spreadsheet that I was tired of environmental monitoring data being stored in spreadsheets and I owed it to somebody to create this blog. 



Picture taken near Mount Princeton, Colorado (October, 2010).

I will use this blog to record my opinions, experiences and recommendations relating to the database management systems (including GIS) and environmental monitoring data collection, management, reporting and analysis.  My writings will not be unbiased and will describe my experiences with specific vendors and their products. From time to time I may also refer to products and services available from my own firm, AquaResource (http://www.aquaresource.ca/).  You may agree or disagree with me and I welcome any comments on the postings.  I will also welcome any 'guest contributors' from those who really want to be heard.

For no other reason than to give myself direction, here's a summary of some of the topics that I will be writing about in the near future.

1.  Just to be clear, what is an environmental data management system?

2.  The Oilsands: An environmental monitoring system starts with a database 

3.  EarthSoft recognizes the life cycle of environmental monitoring data

4.  Why I love Manifold GIS

5.  Metadata - safeguarding the quality and value of your data for the future