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GIT EA Phase III Hydrography Charter

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Washington State Enterprise Architecture Program

GIT Enterprise Initiative Charter

Hydrography - Surface Water and Streams Standards

Charter – Straw Draft

December 15, 2006

Page 1 of 10 DRAFT 4/8/2023


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Document History:

Date Editor Change Synopsis

12/15/06 Joy Paulus and Hydro Work Group

Initial Draft



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1. Description of the Initiative – Hydrography Initiative

Staff Contacts

Joy Paulus (IAC) / 360.902.2954

Tim Young (WDFW) / 360.902.2350

Dan Saul (ECY) 360. 407.6419

Deborah Naslund (WDNR) /360.902.1666

Description

The Enterprise Architecture Committee chartered the GIT Documenter Team in January 2005 to launch the development of the Contextual and Conceptual GIT Architecture as Phase I of the GIT Enterprise Architecture (EA) Initiative. At a special meeting of the Information Services Board’s Sub Committee on Geographic Information Technology (ISB-GIT) the committee endorses the development of a Hydrography project proposal on July 31, 2006. This charter initiates Phase III of the GIT EA Initiative on Governance and Standards.

Objectives

Review and identify a common standard logical data model for Washington State agencies use in sharing hydrography geospatial data.

o Core elements (LL-ID, stream name etc.) needed to tie critical agency information to a base framework.

o Core features (shoreline, streams, water bodies etc.) need to support core elements and state business needs.

Identify the business processes for managing and maintaining hydrography data including stewardship roles and responsibilities and governance structures.

In Phase III, the Hydrography Initiative will focus on governance and the development of the roles and responsibilities for shared custodianship of a single statewide hydrography data set.

Currently, the State of Washington does not have a single source for surface water (hydrography) data. There are in fact three different sets being used to make regulatory decisions. As a result inconsistent and conflicting decisions are reached on cross-agency natural resource and environmental permits. The Hydrography proposal will feature a consolidated hydro data set, jointly managed by stakeholder agencies and maintained by Ecology.

Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW), Ecology and Department of Natural Resources (DNR), are working to bring together their operational, regulatory surface water geospatial data layers (stream typing, water quality, fish habitat) into one jointly



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managed and maintained enterprise data set. The dataset will be compatible with the National Hydrography Data (NHD) High Resolution Geo-database.

In order for this to be successful, phase III needs to address governance options and renewed agreement on the hydrography data content standard. This effort will start in January 2007 and should be completed by June 2007.

In Scope Out of Scope

To Be Determined To Be Determined

Business CaseNatural resource and environmental management has shifted from an issue specific approach to an integrated landscape and watershed planning approach. This shift has increased the need for agency coordination and data sharing. At the same time, cross-organizational demands for access to surface water information have increased with the growth in watershed-based initiatives. Local watershed planning groups, citizens, tribes, and consultants make frequent data requests to multiple state agencies for separate but similar data. This is driving the need for one contiguous framework of surface water data that all organizations can tie critical information to.

Core datasets (Framework or Tier 1) are defined as commonly used across state agencies – these were outlined in the Phase I GIT Information Architecture, and identify the rationale and architecture implications of managing this data and information as an enterprise asset. Hydrography data set is recognized as being a strategically important for the state and should be managed as a single state data resource.

Enhancing Collaboration and Cooperation

Current governance and coordination mechanisms, helpful in the past, are not sufficient to guide the operation of a statewide enterprise application of this technology.

The creation and management of framework data is a collaborative effort between state agencies and partners to create a widely available source of basic hydrography data for the state and region. The framework motto is ‘build it once -- use many times’.

Reducing the Enterprise Cost of Data and Information

The management, presentation and distribution of spatial hydrography data by Washington state agencies and their partners lacks a true enterprise approach to information management, access and distribution. The lack of a shareable or common data infrastructure results in duplicated update and maintenance of this critical dataset.

The hydrography framework is designed to facilitate state agencies' production and use of geographic data, to reduce operating costs, to improve service and decision making and provides:

o A foundation data that is built once, maintained then used many times across the enterprise



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o The standards based data to which users can add or attach geographic details and attributes

o A reference source for accurately registering and compiling participants' own data sets and for reference maps that display the locations and the results of analysis of other data

Leveraging Technology

State agencies struggle with the implementation of newer GIT technologies. Newer technologies may offer demonstrable efficiencies and capabilities, however the transition to new technologies can be held back by the need to invest significant budget dollars elsewhere and divert key resources.

For hydrography framework to be successful we will need to leverage more collaborative technology approaches. This will mean a significant business process change for state agencies to ensure data is maintained and updated, in one place, over time.

Business Rationale

Hydrography is important to many applications. As with other data themes, many users need hydrographic features as reference data or base map data. Other applications, particularly environmentally oriented analyses, need the information for analysis and modeling of water supply, pollution, flood hazard, wildlife, development and land suitability.

State agencies share attribute information tied to hydrography. A hydrography-related characteristic, monitored or managed by one state agency, often impacts those managed by other state agencies. One common system for feature identification and linear reference facilitates data exchange and integration between state agencies.

Organizations and individuals outside state government are better served with a common state hydrography layer. This common layer creates opportunities to integrate and enhance local, federal and state data. It also minimizes or eliminates variability in data formats and content.

Hydrography data include surface water features on lakes and ponds, streams and rivers, canals, oceans and shorelines. The attributes of each of these features, include a name, a linear reference and a feature identification code. Centerlines, polygons, and points encode the positions of these features. For feature identification code, the developing state framework standard uses a unique identifier (LLID) based on the geographic location of the feature or one of its components (such as, mouth location for streams and rivers, and centroid for water bodies).

Linear features incorporate an addressing or linear reference system that in combination with the LLID allows data users to tie descriptive data to a specific point or segment along a feature. State agencies must crosswalk attributes coded to the Framework LLID/linear reference system to the one federal agencies use, as well as the one implemented in the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD). Many hydrography data users need complete information about connectivity of the hydrography network and the direction in which the water flows encoded in the data. To meet these needs, additional elements representing the flow of water and connections between features may be included in framework data.



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Business Implications

With access to better data, the technology becomes more useful to government policy makers by bringing clarity to issues and providing timely access to information for decision makers and citizens. The GIT EA Information Architecture provides the framework for addressing this information gap

State agencies must agree on standards for hydrography spatial data content, feature identification, linear referencing and the business rules for implementing them.

Costs for agencies to conform or interface to the standard may exceed costs associated with an independent approach while still being offset by reduced cost to the enterprise.

Technical experts must compromise on approach.

GIT EA Phase III hydrography must identify clear lines of responsibility for the maintenance and enhancement of the data.

The state and USGS need to work collaboratively to ensure that attributes can be exchanged between the state framework standard and NHD.

Governance needs to reflect equal participation and ownership of the process that manages the hydro data theme.

Key Stakeholders

GIT Business Executives – ISB/GIT Committee

Enterprise Architecture Program – ISB/EA Committee

GIT Technical Community – WAGIC and Framework Management Group (FMG)

WA Departments of Ecology, Fish and Wildlife, and Natural Resources

Regulated Community

Public

Enterprise Architecture Committee Stewards

For this initiative, the (co)-stewards are:

Steward 1 (lead) – TBD

Steward 2 – TBD

Business Sponsorship

This Hydrography Phase III initiative is jointly sponsored by ISB/Geographic Information Technology Committee (GIT) and the ISB/Enterprise Architecture Committee (EAC). Committee roles are:

ISB/Geographic Information Technology Committee (GIT) – The Committees chartered purpose is to represent the strategic interest of a coordinated, enterprise approach to utilizing geographic information technology and, provide leadership for



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implementation of cost effective, collaboratively developed, spatial data management solutions.

As co-executive sponsor of GIT Phase II the committee will ensure that proposed GIT EA Architecture supports ISB/GIT Business needs and process requirements. The ISB/GIT Committee is composed of executives from 10 agencies that are using the technology for mission critical purposes.

ISB/Enterprise Architecture Committee (EAC) – The EAC is chartered to build and maintain an enterprise architecture program that guides and optimizes state resources The Committee is composed of IT executives from 13 agencies and has been charged by the ISB to build and maintain an enterprise architecture program that guides and optimizes state IT resources.As co-executive sponsor of the GIT Phase II executive ensures that proposed GIT EA Architecture is compliant with Enterprise Architecture Program tenants and process requirements.

Decision Making Process and Vetting Procedure

Generally, decisions are made by consensus of participating agencies under the executive guidance of the ISB-GIT. All decisions and agreements made by the documenter teams are communicated and coordinated back to the teams’ respective agencies, the WA Framework Management Group and the ISB-GIT..

Decisions made by the Hydrography Documenter Team will be made by consensus. Consensus is achieved when:

o Everyone has a chance to offer their ideas and opinions

o Everyone's ideas and opinions are considered

o Most are in support and no one actively opposes the decision

o Everyone will support the decision

If consensus is in doubt, or a critical decision is being made, then a voting procedure will be used. If anyone in the group votes against the proposal, the decision is stalled and discussion must continue until all votes indicate no opposition.

It is understood that key issues and decision points will be identified during the early phases of the documenter teams’ work. These issues will be resolve during a facilitated session to maximize our time effectively and efficiently.

All decisions and information will be shared with the state agencies, with the ISB-GIT, WAGIC and the Framework Management Group via monthly or quarterly reports and/or presentations.

Documenter Team

The following table identifies the members of the Documenter Team for this initiative. This initiative will not move forward until all of the roles above are satisfied by the team membership.



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Member Title

Organization

Phone contact

Email contact

EAP

Team Role

Carol Fleskes Ecology

Admin. Services Director

360-407-7012

[email protected]

Sponsor

Jeff Holm DIS

Senior IT Consultant

360-902-3447

[email protected]

Liason to:

ISB-GIT,

ISB-EA and WAGIC

Policy Adviser

Mac McKay DNR

Data Steward

360-902-1453

[email protected]

Architect

SME

Deborah Naslund

DNR

IT Supervisor

360-902-1666

[email protected]

Architect

SME

Joy Paulus IAC

SWIMTAC Coordinator

360-902-2954

[email protected]

Project Manager

Architect

SME

Dan Saul ECY

Senior Analyst

360-407-6419

[email protected]

Architect

SME

Tim Young DFW

GIS Manager

360-902-2940

[email protected]

Architect

SME

Coordination with Related Efforts

GIT EA Phase III Hydrography Initiative will coordinate with related efforts through a variety of mechanisms:

Other Enterprise Architecture Program (EAP) initiatives

Regular and periodic consulting with EAP Director

Regular (monthly) iteration updates to Enterprise Architecture Committee


mailto:[email protected]







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Regular discussions with Integration Architecture lead architect to stay current with developments and messaging infrastructure deliverables

Review and incorporation as appropriate of mature EAP components

State and Regional GIT initiatives

Use WAGIC as statewide forum and PNW-RGIC as regional forum to communicate progress and stay apprised of similar initiatives

National / Federal / Regional GIT initiatives

Provide periodic updates and provide opportunity to review proposed components to Pacific Northwest Regional Geographic Information Council

Provide continued participation and coordination with the Pacific Northwest Clearinghouse. Updated data will be provided to the regional clearinghouse for consideration and inclusion into the NHD database.

Key Issues or Decisions to be addressed

GIT EA Phase III – Hydrography standards and governance will address the following questions and objectives:

How will individual agencies provide updates to tier one data themes through supported web services?

What is the appropriate technology platform and infrastructure to support an integrated, cross-agency hydrography dataset?

Describe the business processes associated with managing:

o Hydrography framework data and information. These include processes to support: Data Stewards, Data Recovery, Data Change Management, Data Security, Co-incident Registration, Data Retention and Archive, Data Currency, Metadata Currency and, Data Correction and Enhancement. And, data sharing agreements and selected enterprise licensing opportunities.

o Hydrography will be folded into the states shared infrastructure and the PNW Clearinghouse effort. These processes potential include: Data Management, Web Services Management and Shared Repository Management.

o Describe the enterprise process for funding cross–agency collaborative efforts in a way that facilitates the development of enterprise GIT solutions that meet multiple agencies needs.

The hydrography documenter teams will identify key issues during the course of the governance and standards development effort. Key decision point will be identified as well while we reach decision and solutions to our desired objective and our final deliverable of this project.

Potential issue and decision points could consist of:

Stewardship roles & responsibilities

Agency business process changes



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Geographic stewardship responsibilities

Maintenance approaches for hydrography

Deliverables

Narrative describing the business process for hydrography data updating and maintenance for a single statewide hydrography data layer

Description of an agency statewide hydrography logical data model

Description of state agency stewardship roles and responsibilities

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