Managing Regulated Developments in Real Time: Manitoba's Environmental
Monitoring and Inspection System (EMIS)
By Vivek Baijal and Ian Shaw

Licensing and monitoring regulated industries is becoming more difficult and expensive. Regulators have to be responsive to growing pressures of environmental legislation, interest group intervention and heightened public awareness. More work must be done, and seen to be done, and this in a time of government deficit and debt. Regulatory agencies are therefore looking to information technology to improve decision-making and reduce cost. The provincial Department of Environment in Manitoba, Canada recognized that the information integration and spatial analysis capabilities of geographic information systems technology was the proper foundation for their business applications. In partnership with LINNET Geomatics International Inc. (LGI) of Winnipeg, Manitoba Environment (ME) developed a system to support their regulatory, monitoring and administrative functions.
      The Environmental Monitoring and Inspection System (EMIS) was installed in one regional office during June 1994. After an evaluation period, Manitoba Environment decided to roll-out the system to its regional offices throughout the province. This article focuses on the business context within which EMIS was developed, the basic functionality of the system and the benefits that this application of GIS technology has for environmental agencies.

Manitoba Environment's Business Functions
Like other environmental management agencies, Manitoba Environment has a mandate to enforce development regulations and evaluate proposed developments both fairly and consistently. These services are provided by a network of regional offices to provide full coverage within the province. The primary business functions of the regional offices are:
• Coordinate environmental assessments and the regional approvals process
• Monitor and inspect regulated developments
• Provide emergency response services
• Address local environmental priorities
• Supply key environmental information to surrounding communities
• Provide advice to provincial policy makers

Operating Environment
LGI reviewed the business processes, information requirements and technological capabilities of the regional offices in a series of workshops. This review identified several operational difficulties including:
• Paper-based data management systems that did not easily support analysis and management of permitting, inspec- tion and enforcement activity on a location by location basis.
• Insufficient access to key data sources from other government departments to support comprehensive development reviews.
• Costs of integrating multiple data themes were too prohibitive to use in all applications uniformly.
• Limited ability for field officers to complete a regional spatial analysis of proposed developments.
• Departmental staff had basic computing expertise and only limited PC technology was available.
• Extreme budgetary constraints existed on capital acquisitions including information technology.
      Manitoba Environment recognized that these limitations were adversely affecting the delivery of its programs and services. The clear challenge was to establish a user-oriented system that improved organizational delivery capabilities by strengthening regional data management capabilities. GIS technology was selected because of its proven ability to integrate complex spatial data sets at an affordable per seat cost.

The Solution:
Environmental Monitoring and Inspection System (EMIS)
LGI's solution was based on four fundamental requirements that resulted from the review: EMIS should be a business application with some required GIS functionality rather than a typical stand alone GIS.
• Requirements for acquisition and management of map data should be simplified by building a link to an existing spatial data warehouse oper- ated within the Province of Manitoba. This would reserve budget dollars for system devel- opment and unique data conversion. (This data warehouse contains data sets from all provin- cial departments, utilities and the city of Winnipeg including boundaries, infrastructure and thematic data.)
• The technical architecture must provide the required functionality on an affordable platform.
• EMIS should be developed as a key element of the department's corporate management information system.
      The resulting application is a PC application with an object-oriented architecture that runs on Windows and Windows NT. EMIS is therefore integrated into a familiar desktop environment limiting the requirements for operator training. The system is also fully accessible by network.
      EMIS enables inspection officers to manage and analyze their database of regulatory information through an intuitive geographic query mechanism. The system incorporates business rules to ensure that the logical relationships between developments, incidents, inspections and enforcement are maintained. Similarly, all data are referenced to a digital base map providing true positional accuracy. EMIS supports the input and analysis of an unlimited number of imported data sets with the regulatory information. These imported data sets may include reference mapping, digital orthoimagery, property ownership, soil and topography data, administrative areas and scanned documents from site inspection reports.

Applications: EMIS in Action
EMIS has significantly enhanced the ability of Manitoba Environment staff to fulfill their mandate. For example, Environmental Officers conducted site evaluations for a major livestock operation. Using EMIS, soil conditions around some proposed sites were analyzed besides determining their proximity to surface water bodies and adjacent homes identified on imported digital orthoimagery. Additional queries about the number of wells in the surrounding area were also done. This information was combined with zoning information to quickly eliminate inappropriate sites and refocus the applicant's effort on a new location.
      The system can also be used for broader analytical functions. Department staff is conducting analysis of development statistics to provide recommendations to local communities. For example, by analyzing the location of complaints about failing septic fields, and correlating this with soil information, Manitoba Environment can identify the potential need for a water treatment facility. The insight provided by the system allows for proactive planning by the local authority to avoid potentially serious pollution.

Conclusion
The successful delivery of EMIS demonstrates the feasibility of developing applications with GIS functionality focused on particular business areas such as environmental management. It also demonstrates the viability of desktop GIS solutions embedded within business applications used by large groups of users who until now have not had access to GIS technology. This technology decision is most appropriate where people at every level in an organization (vertical integration) and in separate business units (horizontal integration) require access to the data and functionality. The development of this market sector promises to be one of the most exciting phases of the growth of GIS technology.

About the Authors:
Vivek Baijal is a GIS systems development manager with experience in municipal, environmental and natural resource systems development. He serves as application development manager with Linnet Geomatics and can be reached at 204-957-7566, or e-mail [email protected] Ian R. Shaw is a professional planner with experience in economic development, land development, and public consultation. He serves as director of marketing with Linnet Geomatics and can be reached at 204-957-7566, or e-mail [email protected]

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