| GIS: Integrated Resource Management in the Next Century: Demanding and Digital
By Jon Stephenson and Alvin Suderman Nearly all agencies charged with stewardship of natural resources recognize the need to adopt Integrated Resource Management (IRM) methods as soon as possible. There are differing views, however, about what IRM is, how it will be implemented, and the role that technology can play in this emerging conceptual framework.
This article focuses on an approach to geographic information systems implementation within this shifting IRM paradigm. The merits of this approach are highlighted through a review of active projects in Manitoba, Canada. From this experience it is clear that the capabilities of GIS encourage more comprehensive review and management of development and directly support IRM implementation. Integrated Resource Management
To resource managers, IRM means organized, consensus-based decision making with clear channels for communication, (i.e. integrated processes within the organization). To the public and academia, IRM means integrating a broad spectrum of resource management demands into an overall policy and management framework. Natural Resource Management is becoming more complicated as decision-makers struggle to balance many competing demands. These include:
• Public demands for more input into the decision-making process and more open communication.
• International pressure on natural resource extractive industries for more environmental awareness.
• Sustainable development, although there is a lack of consensus on what it means.
• Maintenance of biodiversity, although difficult to define and measure.
• Managing for multiple resource values in biophysical areas, such as by ecosystem or watershed, rather than administrative areas.
• Increasing budget constraints.
• Increasing protection of land from development.
• Participation in resource management decision-making by a variety of non-government groups such as aboriginal peoples.
This process is made even more difficult by the realities of deficit reduction and public debt. Effective policy definition requires knowledge of what resources exist, how they interact, how they respond to development pressures, the economics of development and the value that resources represent to different sectors of society. Gaps in governments' knowledge of these factors result in weak or unrealistic policies which in turn slow the adoption of responsive methods of resource management.
Computerized systems are now available to address knowledge gaps and support the move to IRM. Most organizations can show that using computers improves efficiency, helps them deliver better service and reduces operating expenses. Also, more comprehensive data management and increasingly sophisticated models create a better knowledge-base for decision-making. Computerized resource information systems can manage the vast quantities of raw data available from studies, inventories and remote sensing. These systems can provide usable information by selecting and combining data to address specific needs. Models and feedback mechanisms built on top of data management systems can integrate, evaluate, and present information to enhance knowledge - the basis for justified action. Integrated Resource Management in the Province of Manitoba
Some effective natural resource systems exist in the Manitoba Department of Natural Resources, such as the Forest Resource Inventory that maintains information on timber values. On the whole, however, existing systems are not capable of integrating the breadth of information required for IRM. New systems must be developed, and developed quickly, if the provincial government is to meet the demands of industry and the public.
Some believe that policies and procedures required for IRM must be defined before systems can be built to support it. In fact, well designed information systems can now support the types of what-if analyses required for analyzing policy options. Better information technology is a pre-requisite for true IRM in the future.
The Manitoba Land Related Information System (MLRIS) is being developed to organize and maintain information describing the province's land base, and to make this information accessible to government, industry and the public. Managing natural resource information has always been identified as a significant part of the scope of MLRIS. The MLRIS also provides the means to integrate information on a wide range of values, including information that otherwise may not be readily available to resource managers.
Integrated Resource Management needs integrated resource information. Geographic information systems (GIS), at the heart of the MLRIS, is the most appropriate technology for integrating and delivering resource information. Over the last few years MLRIS has been developing the core infrastructure and expertise for geographic data management. This investment can now be applied to Integrated Resource Management systems.
The MLRIS project is funding a needs and planning study which marks the beginning of accelerated development of systems to support IRM. The key to the study will be a shared understanding of business needs and how systems can help. As described earlier, the needs study will have to evaluate all of the resource management demands to find commonalities that can be expressed in terms of creating, maintaining and sharing information and knowledge. Planners involved in this study will have to educate and must be willing to listen and learn. Resource managers must be educated on how computers and decision support systems may help with their jobs so they in turn can educate systems developers on exactly what is needed.
Although ambitious, a program to develop systems for IRM is attainable if approached sensibly. The needs study must define a set of activities and deliverables that are seen by both the Manitoba Department of Natural Resources and its key clients as both valuable and practical. Only if the program is practical can there be any expectation of support. The project cannot define practical systems without the participation of the stakeholders involved in #natural resource management. An Application of Integrated Resource Management: FIRMS
At the same time as Strategic System development is starting for IRM, LINNET Geomatics International Inc. (LGI) and Louisiana-Pacific Canada Limited (LP) are developing a GIS-based, Forestry Integrated Resource Management System (FIRMS) for LP's forest management license area in Western Manitoba. This system incorporates Integrated Resource Management concepts and integrates with MLRIS and other IRM systems.
FIRMS combines a forest planning and analysis system, a silviculture record management system, an integrated ecosystem-based inventory system for timber and other forest resources, a forest growth and yield projection system, an economic analysis package, and software for integrated management planning. The system supports direct data sharing between the provincial government and the company. In fact, many aspects of the system are being developed to support provincial requirements for monitoring forest management.
FIRMS will substantially reduce the complexities of managing forests within an integrated resource management or ecosystem framework, and make it easy to keep track of constraints to forest operations.
The system will also significantly reduce the effort involved in generating analyses, maps and reports required for forestry operations and government reporting. The system is based on a commercial GIS product. GIS functions are customized to produce detailed harvest planning maps and reports as simply and quickly as possible. These tools are designed and built specific to LP requirements. LGI staff trained and supported LP in the use of the system. The Integrated Resource Database
These information themes are provided by, or recorded on some standard base map series for the area of operation, and in a relational database. As much relevant data as possible was located, acquired, and integrated on a common base. The objective was to provide analytical and mapping capability as soon as possible. The base map for the area is digital orthophotography, in keeping with the standards of the MLRIS.
At the heart of FIRMS is an integrated and consistent database, comprising the following types of information:
• forest resource inventory, i.e. timber;
• topography, soils, geology;
• transportation information, such as roads and railways;
• hydrological information, such as rivers, lakes, etc.;
• Ecosystem and Watershed mapping;
• forest operations information (operating areas, cutblocks, roads, culverts, bridges etc.);
• other constraints such as areas of Concern, Endangered Species and Spaces;
• harvest and other silvicultural records;
• growth and yield information through field work, research and analysis is a fundamental commitment of the FIRMS program;
• resource values, such as wildlife and habitat. Habitat Suitability Indexes (HSI) will be generated and integrated with the FIRMS database;
• digital orthophotography;
• digital elevation models;
• ground surveys. Using global positioning systems (GPS) technology, ground surveys will be used to continually improve the accuracy of the interpreted information. Production of Operational Forest Plans
The system supports the development of forestry operating plans that are far more than the paper maps and reports produced by the standard reporting mechanisms. As a result of defining harvest areas using FIRMS, an operating area database has been developed. This database has a record of every proposed road development, cutblock, landing, buffer, barrier, etc. A standard report from this database accompanies every harvest map in the annual plan. The report provides a detailed description of the plan for each operating area, road and cutblock including development, harvest and silviculture activity, retirement strategy and special considerations. An important characteristic of these reports is that they are generated in such a way as to make them easy for non-technical people to understand. Because this report is generated from a database, they are easy to keep up-to-date when plans are adjusted, also the database provides the ability to analyze overall forest management strategies.
LP planners were provided with a customized desktop GIS to assist in production of the maps and tables required to produce operational forest plans. A detailed annual plan for 1996, with projections for 1997 and 1998 was prepared including proposed development, harvest and silviculture plans (proposed road development and cutblock layout). Using the system LP planners produced maps and plans that were detailed, accurate and flexible. The maps were developed at a scale of 1:15,840. This is the most accurate level of planning that can be supported by existing Forest Inventory information. FIRMS also provided major support to the development of a LP's long-term forest management plan. Conclusion
The development of FIRMS, in the context of a strategic system strategy for IRM creates the kind of coordination and cooperation required for successful resource management. Government and industry alike are adopting operating principles that rely on the knowledge derived from leading edge information technology. Better information handling and analysis capabilities make IRM possible. About the Authors:
Jon Stephenson is vice president, operations for LGI. He is director of the Louisiana-Pacific Project and responsible for all system delivery projects carried out by LINNET. He may be reached at 204-957-7566. Alvin Suderman is MLRIS coordinator for the Province of Manitoba. In this capacity, he is responsible for coordinating the Manitoba Land Related Information System initiative. The MLRIS is a multi-participant GIS involving the Province of Manitoba, City of Winnipeg and all Provincial Utilities. Back |
