Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) employees and the public continue to be concerned about the environment. Whether it is a noxious odor from their tap water or a question on abandoned mines, or whether or not a neighborhood company is complying with the environmental laws, location is the critical element to answering all of these questions.

Environmental permit applicants, concerned citizens, government agencies, and DEP employees all have an interest in environmental information. In the past, environmental information was transmitted via the phone, through an existing Web site with limited functionality and data, or by knowing who was holding the needed data. Missing was a single reliable resource with the data, functionality, accessibility, and ease of use that everyone needed to locate their environment and address the issue of their concern.

Recently, DEP provided a fully functional location-based service of environmental data. eMap PA (www.emappa.dep.state.pa.us) is the department's Web-based mapping and locational service tool for all Pennsylvanians. This Internet and Intranet site combines a collection of layers or themes of map features such as keystone opportunity zones, conservancies, private landholdings set aside for environmental reasons, landslide areas, sinkholes, lands unsuitable for mining, abandoned mines, Environmental Protection Agency Toxic Release Inventory sites, and more. There are also 130 data layers representing DEP's corporate database of environmental information that is available for analysis. To analyze all of this data, a variety of tools with capabilities of running simple queries as well as advanced user-built queries is available. Users can also use the predefined tools or just point and click on the map to obtain database readouts. All the data on the map can now be accessed and analyzed in a variety of ways. This innovative new tool is the state's only resource for combining extensive environmental data and functionality to suit every user in an easy-to-use mapping tool.

eMap PA, with its ability to accurately determine distances between any two or more features on a map, would tell a child's parent how far away that factory with its smokestacks is from the child's school and whether or not that factory complies with Pennsylvania's environmental laws. Do I live in a floodplain? What is the health of a nearby river or stream that I swim and fish in? These questions can all be answered today because eMap PA is available to the public.

For DEP employees, what once took hours and days to do can now be performed in a matter of seconds. eMap PA is the place where staff now go to perform environmental assessments of everything from abandoned mine sites to public water supply areas.

To accomplish this ambitious project, DEP investigated its options and chose Esri's spatial data server ArcSDE, Oracle, and ArcIMS. The ArcSDE solution provided the best solution for retrieval of geographic data from Oracle. In addition, ArcSDE offered advanced spatial search functions, spatial geometry verification, projection functions, fast loading databases, and a host of administration tools. The ability to perform ArcSDE administration through a system of cooperative client/server processing and through a clientside task frees the database management system server to concentrate on efficient query of the database. Some of the reasons why DEP chose ArcSDE software are that it provides new functionality including versioning, direct editing of spatial data, and support for new data types including raster files and locators (addresses). DEP was looking for a solution that supports a variety of elements--points, lines, and polygons. In addition, the product had to have the ability to handle both raster and vector data. Thus, the logical choice for the department was ArcSDE.

DEP also wanted a strong foundation for distributing high-end GIS and mapping services via the Internet. Esri's ArcIMS was the clear choice because of the software's ability to enable users to integrate local data sources with Internet data sources for display, query, and analysis in an easy-to-use Web browser. The requirements for eMap PA were clear from the beginning: users need to have a reliable way to interact with maps and their local data, and the choice for providing this solution was also clear--ArcIMS, which provided the Web-based geographic interface that gives users access to available and useful information.

DEP was looking for the most effective method for planning and managing an enterprise network environment where environmentally permitted locations have to be analyzed in depth with a rapid response. Deploying ArcIMS was once again a logical choice to make this site a success.

For the public, getting an accurate response to environmental concerns has now been reduced to a couple of seconds as opposed to days. Money and time have been saved while making DEP more responsive and thereby fulfilling its mission to protect the environment.

Now, if DEP sees a segment of a stream that's impaired, it can pull up eMap PA and see all the facilities the department regulates that are upstream or downstream within any set distance of this point. This enables DEP to see the source of this pollution--whether it is an effluent that is being discharged or drainage from a mine.

DEP's Business processes are now forever altered. Instead of permit applicants not knowing what environmental factors may affect approval, the applicants can check eMap PA and see factors that affect their environmental permit before submitting the application. DEP employees do not have to go on a data hunt to get an answer. The public will not be placed "on hold" while a DEP employee looks for a map or determines what permitted facilities are in the caller's neighborhood.

"They can now all go to eMap PA, which offers all Pennsylvanians the opportunity to know their environment," says Ebby Abraham, supervisor, Pennsylvania DEP Geospatial Data Center. "Environmental awareness by the public using eMap PA will reap rewards over the long term. A knowledgeable public is key to preserving the environment and making Pennsylvania a better place to live."

Through iterative performance testing of various design options, DEP determined the best combination of Oracle database design options; spatial tools such as ArcSDE; Internet mapping tools such as the powerful ArcIMS tool; and languages such as Java, JavaServer Pages (JSP), JavaScript, and HTML. Using Rational Test Manager, DEP was also able to gauge changes in performance brought about by hardware enhancements. The DEP team was able to determine where best to apply hardware upgrades and what those upgrades would do to total application performance, thus avoiding needless expenditures on hardware.

By using state-of-the-art Esri GIS tools such as ArcIMS and ArcSDE, combining the software engineering practices to capture user requirements, and developing and testing design options, DEP was able to exceed its goals within a six-month time frame. DEP has saved time and money through the employment of these tools and the techniques that their use has afforded DEP. eMap PA has exceeded everyone's expectations. The original goals of performance, data availability, functionality, and ease of use have been achieved with widespread praise from users.

Awards

On October 31, 2002, Pennsylvania Governor Mark Schweiker awarded eMap PA the Team Innovation award for 2002. At the National Intergovernmental Technology Conference in Hershey, Pennsylvania, in November 2002, where Jack Dangermond, Esri president, was the keynote speaker, eMap PA was featured as a successful implementation of an enterprisewide GIS application.

For more information, contact Ebby Abraham, Geospatial Data Center, GIS (tel.: 717-772-5890, e-mail: eabraham@state.pa.us, Web: www.emappa.dep.state.pa.us).