Environment

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Environment Sustainable DevelopmentOverview
Opportunities

• Tony Turner, Program Advisor, Environment
  Sustainable Development

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Outline

• GeoConnections  
• Environment Sustainable Development (E-SD)
  theme
• Early E-SD Projects
• Current / emerging GeoConnections funding
  opportunities
• Other E-SD activities
• Challenges

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GeoConnections 1999-2005

• A 60 million federal/provincial/territorial
  initiative launched in 1999 to build the Canadian
  Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI) by 2004
• Objectives
• Increase the amount of geospatial data,
  information and services available on-line
• Creation of data standards to ease data
  integration issues
• Promote the development of innovative
  infrastructure
• Build technologies through private sector
  partnerships
• Simplify the conditions for geospatial data use
  and resale

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GeoConnections 2005-2010
A 60 M, 5 year program to continue this work
and to support decision making on a broader range
of issues, particularly health, public safety,
sustainable development, the environment and
issues of importance to Aboriginal people. How?

• Build applications to serve specifically targeted
  communities of practice
• Provide framework and other thematic data
• Maintain, operate and expand the core
  infrastructure and standards, as required by
  users
• Support consistent geomatics policy development
  to improve use of the CGDI

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GeoConnections 2005-2010
USERS DECISION-MAKERS
APPLICATIONS
NEED
NEED
SUPPLY
SUPPLY
COORDINATION
DATA INFORMATION CONTENT SUPPLIERS
INFRASTUCTURE TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPERS
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CGDI - railroad analogy
CGDI - railroad analogy
Environment
Environment
Economic
Economic
Aboriginal Communities
Aboriginal Communities
Health
Health
Public Safety
Public Safety

• Standard gauge track transports all content
• Content serves specific users and is shared with
  other communities who need it
• Suppliers or users can build branch lines of same
  gauge and add new content
• Various tools (special engines, switches,
  maintenance teams) serve to manage unique and
  collective requirements

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GeoConnections Governance
Legend Fiscal accountability Performance
accountability Advice
NRCan Minister
CCOG
GeoConnections Management Board
ADM, ESS
IACG
Director
Advisory Committees

• Architecture Advisory Committee
• Infrastructure
• Development Network
• 4 Thematic (Health,
• Safety, Env, Aborig)
• Policy

• Program Delivery
• User Capacity
• Content
• Architecture/Standards
• Policy Coordination

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Environment Sustainable Development (E-SD)

• Environment Sustainable Development is a
  priority for GeoConnections because
• The environment is inherently location-based
• There already exist numerous, diverse data sets
  at local, regional and national scales.
• Effective management of Canadas lands and waters
  is requires tools that enable the use,
  integration and assessment and sharing of
  environmental, social and economic data
• Web technologies offers tremendous potential to
  improve the use and sharing of geospatial data to
  support environment and sustainable development
  decision-making

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Applications early E-SD projects, 2006

• 1 Federal
• Integrated watershed planning (Environment
  Canada)
• 1 International -
• Geospatial data and tools for a trans-boundary
  marine area (Gulf of Maine Council for the
  Environment)
• 2 Provincial
• Integrated watershed planning (Manitoba Water
  Stewardship)
• Adaptive management of stewardship and
  restoration practices among conservation
  organizations (Ontario Ministry of Natural
  Resources)
• 3 Non-government at local / regional scales
• Well water data sharing (H2O Chelsea, QC)
• Geospatial access to planning documents (McGregor
  Model Forest)
• River basin management (COBARIC, QC)

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Applications Early E-SD projects, 2006

• Early E-SD project costs 1.9 M (total)
• GeoConnections portion 803,400 (41)
• Proponents and Collaborators share
• 1.1 M
  (59)
• Spending by sector
• Private sector (65)
• Government and NGO (35)

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National / Transboundary Information Systems
E-SD

• National Forest Information System (NFIS)
• information infrastructure to answer on matters
  relating to sustainable forest management in
  Canada.
• National Land and Water Information Service
  (NLWIS)
• on-line access to agri-environmental information
  to help Canadians make responsible land-use
  decisions
• Other emerging regional / national systems

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Content Early E-SD projects, 2006

• Two projects with data suppliers to web-enable
  key data sets of interest to the broader E-SD
  community
• Nature Serve Canada
• National species at risk data, pilot study
• Geomatics Yukon
• Territorial wide biophysical and other base line
  data sets

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Content needs an E-SD perspective
U S E R S
?
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Technology for E-SD early requests

• Geographic discovery and access of non-spatial
  documents to support decision-making

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E-SD Advisory Committee

• 12 members
• Gov, NGO, private, academic
• Primarily represent the user community
• Diverse interests land, water, species
• Meet 3 time per year
• Rep. on Management Board

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E-SD General Priority Areas

• Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation
• Ocean and Coastal Management
• Freshwater Quality and Quantity
• Air Quality
• Land Sustainability
• Valuation of Ecosystem Services

Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory
Committee May 12, 2006
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Announcements of Opportunity E-SD criteria

• Must support decision-making processes,
  particularly
• Integrated land / water management
• Environmental assessment
• Monitoring / Indicators

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Opportunities Areas

• User Capacity
• To help end-users take advantage of the CGDI to
  improve decision-making.
• Directed at end-users / decision-makers and those
  that enable their activities
• Uses the contribution funding.
• Content
• to increase the information/data content accessed
  through the CGDI.
• Directed at data suppliers, except Regional
  Atlases (directed at users/enablers)
• Uses a mix of contribution and contract funding
• Architecture Standards
• To evolve the technical standards components of
  the CGDI.
• Directed at geomatics industry
• Uses primarily contract funding

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Announcement of Opportunities E-SD

• Applications (Sept 15)
• Regional Atlas (Oct. 12
• User Readiness (Oct.20)
• Business plans
• User needs
• Thematic Content (Oct 30)

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Content Opportunities

• Renewing Framework Data (GeoBase)
• Free national reference datasets online
  (e.g.,administrative boundaries, geodetic survey
  points, place names, administrative boundaries,
  satellite imagery and roads)
• Expanding Framework Data
• Fed/Prov/Terr endeavours to provide new national
  reference datasets online at no cost to the user.
  GeoConnections contributes to the integration of
  national datasets that our end users indicated as
  a necessity in a national needs assessment
  conducted in 2005-06.
• Distributed Thematic Content
• allows users to search for/obtain location-based
  data closest to its most authoritative source.
• Regional Atlases
• (e.g. watershed management, emergency response).

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Architecture/Standards Opportunities

• 1. Directed Innovation
• procuring from the private sector innovative
  solutions that have been informed by end user
  consultations.
• Core Infrastructure Technologies
• Discovery Portal (our national search engine),
  GeoBase Portal (for downloading reference
  datasets), GeoGratis (for sharing datasets in the
  public domain), and the GeoConnections website.
• Standards
• CGDI standards (e.g.,ISO, OGC) and related
  profiles will be maintained and developed
  following operational and users requirements

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Other E-SD activities
Discussion Papers CGDI and Sustainable
Development CGDI and Integrated Landscape
Management Surveys Identify E-SD data
requirements, constraints E-SD User Database
(gt500 entries) Notice of announcements
outreach, committees etc. Workshops e.g. Jan.
2006 ILM workshop with PRI report identified
issues, content needs and roles for
GeoConnections MOUs IUCN Canada (managing
reporting biodiversity / conservation data)
Canadian Boreal Initiative (boreal forest,
capacity building within
aboriginal community Committees FBIP (federal
biodiversity information management)
ACZISC (Atlantic coastal zone data and info
management)
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Some E-SD Leaders
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E-SD Planning - Challenges

• Diverse user communities, interests and agendas
• Identifying common, integrated solutions to
  benefit many
• Scale (data / solutions at national scale not
  relevant at local scales)
• Influencing real decision-making processes and
  current govt priorities
• Developing and marketing early success stories
  to other communities
• Develop vision / 4 year plan for a sustainable
  use of CGDI for E-SD
• Breaking down barriers to data sharing

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For more information

• Tony Turner Program Advisor, Environment and
  Sustainable Development 
• GeoConnections Natural Resources Canada
• 615 Booth St, 6th Floor Ottawa, ON, K1A 0E9
• Email tony.turner_at_nrcan.gc.ca Phone /
  Téléphone [phone] Fax / Télécopieur
  [phone]
• www.geoconnections.org
• Please Subscribe on-line!

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Questions?