A National Land and Water Information Service NLWIS

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A National Land and Water Information Service
(NLWIS) Protecting our water resources through
improved land management
Federal Infrastructures Workshop July 2003
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Informed decisions require accurate information

• Diverse information is required for land use
  planning
• Landscape - soils, topography, land capability
• Water - groundwater wells, surface water quality,
  watersheds and hydrology ...
• Climate temperature, precipitation, sunshine
• Land use - forest cover, ownership, riparian
  habitat, zoning, protected areas ...
• Infrastructure - transportation, residences, mine
  operations

• This information is held by a multitude of
  agencies with diverse mandates and information
  delivery strategies

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but important information is not always
accessible

• People may not be aware of that the information
  exists

• Information is not always in the hands of the
  people who need it

• Access to data is not consistent on a national
  basis, in terms of both policies and technologies

• Interpretations of data for specific uses are not
  readily available

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There is an urgent need to bring information,
skills and knowledge together.
The National Land and Water Information Service
(NLWIS) will be

• A coordinated, national approach for managing,
  interpreting and distributing land and water
  resource information

• Focused on Canadians who use our land and water
  resources

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NLWIS Vision

• provide the best available information, analysis,
  and interpretation of land and water resources

• in partnership with others

• to all Canadians

• for improved local and regional agricultural land
  and water management decisions

• within a national framework

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Purpose

• Focus on Agriculture
• Impact of land use and water management decisions
  on agriculture
• Impact of agriculture on land and water

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Scale

• National (environmental reporting)
• Regional (zoning, risk management)
• Farm (best management practices)

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Clients (Internal)

• Ag Can
• policy analysts
• Scientists
• Land management services
• Industry services

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Clients (External)

• Provinces (APF)
• Municipalities
• Producers

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Land Applications

• Erosion management
• Crop suitability
• Land use zoning

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Land and Water Applications

• Manure management
• Nutrient management
• Pesticide management

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Water Applications

• Drought forecasting
• Water use management
• Flood mitigation

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Data

• Soils
• landform
• Climate
• Land use
• Land management
• Groundwater quantity
• Surface water quantity
• Farm locations

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Data flow

• Feds, Provinces, handhelds
• Staging area (NSDB)
• Warehouse
• Data marts
• Desktop GIS and Internet GIS

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Technology

• NLWIS will be built on standards, because it is
  necessary to support a wide variety of
  applications.
• NLWIS will adopt (and promote and develop)
  GeoConnections/CGDI
• Standards for Web Services
• Framework data (such as GeoBase)
• Access tools
• Policies for data exchange

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Networks

• In AAFC
• Based on Agrinet
• With partners,
• deploy Secure Channel, if required

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Software

• Testing, deployment, and maintenance of
• ARC desktop licenses
• Spatial Database Warehouses
• Metadata software
• Web mapping software

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Hardware

• Testing, deployment, and maintenance of servers
  for
• Spatial Database Warehouses
• Web services

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Services

• WMS
• Web Registries
• Geolinking

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Applications

• Development of custom applications for
• Land and water resource assessment and management
• Generic mapping of point and polygonal data

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Support (service as well as help)

• Desktop GIS usage
• GIS database development
• GIS applications development
• Web Map application development

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Training

• For basic mapping, we will first
• Simplify how we do it in the department
• For advanced GIS and applications, we will first
• Facilitate access to GIS tools and data
• Then
• Document
• Give Workshops (e.g. WMS this fall) and
• Tutorials

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NLWIS plans this year

• Develop Vision
• Develop critical datasets
• Develop partnerships
• Develop expertise
• Complete a Proof of Concept
• (hit infrastructure and IT hard right at the
  beginning)
• Secure funding for the next 4 years

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Proof of Concept

• The Proof of Concept project will develop and
  test the critical pieces of the infrastructure,
  by
• developing a data warehouse
• implementing services (metadata and services
  registry, WMS)
• developing a Land Resource Viewer
• deploying HEMS for Manitoba

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A National Land and Water Information Service
(NLWIS) Protecting our water resources through
improved land management
Federal Infrastructures Workshop July 2003