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