leading information sharing united states environmental protection agency office of environmental...

Leading Information Sharing

United States Environmental Protection AgencyOffice of Environmental Information

Enterprise Architecture Program

February 29, 2008

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Leading Information SharingIntroduction

EPA’s EA program has a long history of cross-agency and Inter-federal collaboration, promoting best practices, and outreach

EPA is home to one of the leading EA programs in the federal government, with an architecture program that has been in existence for nearly a decade. To spur further growth, EPA actively pursues external and internal collaboration.

External Collaboration: In order to share EPA’s knowledge and learn from peer programs, EPA engages in many of the following:

• Federal forums• Planning committees• Conferences• Speaking engagements

EPA also leverages the National Environmental Information Exchange Network (NEIEN), the largest Exchange Network (EN) in the world today, that allow state, tribes, and local government partners to freely exchange environmental data. This enables our government partners to build their own systems at their discretion and use the EN to exchange the environmental data for the problem at hand.

Internal Collaboration: EPA also promotes information sharing and enterprise tools reuse within the Agency through cross-EPA wide enterprise

services and tools (e.g. geospatial business intelligence & analytics, SOA efforts, and WebART). Finally, the EA program maintains proactive outreach to key internal stakeholders, which increased communications activities

during FY07.

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Leading Information SharingIntra-agency and Interagency Cooperation

EPA, state, local, and tribal governments required an easy and efficient mechanism for exchanging various types of environmental data. To this end, EPA, tribes, and government partners built the NEIEN.

EPA offers NEIEN stakeholders with a single source to submit environmental information to EPA, which is known as the Central Data Exchange (CDX):

• CDX Web: EPA’s site for submitting environmental information through standard Web browser-based forms or via file uploads. Users receive submission confirmation, quality control, and data processing reports.

• CDX Node: EPA’s Web Services infrastructure on NEIEN or EN which supports machine-to-machine data exchanges. EPA and EN partners use standardized web services protocols and XML schemas to share information.

Within EPA, CDX delivers benefits to EPA Programs:• Consistent policy compliance• Centralized administration of data exchange functions• Faster, lower-cost implementation of new modified data flows through re-use and modularization• Improvements in data quality/timeliness• Contract and project management assistance

Today, CDX has 71,000 registered participants, 40 systems in production, and 20 systems in test or development.

NEIEN enables collaboration, data, and information sharing to expedite informed environmental decisions

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NEIEN enables collaboration, data, and information sharing to expedite informed environmental decisions

Two separate studies found that EPA and states garnered impressive returns on their investment (ROI) from EPA’s Central Data Exchange (CDX) and NEIEN. For example, based on two separate studies, ROI ranged from 3 to 271% for EPA CDX and from

20 to 122% for state EN. NEIEN provides several success stories about the benefits from the data exchanges being pursued. Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s (Michigan DEQ’s) electronic discharge monitoring

reports (e-DMR) which track outflows of regulated water discharges. DMRs allow regulatory agencies to monitor the quantity and quality of wastewater discharges on a monthly basis – one of the largest reporting requirements, second only to tax reporting. In Spring of 2003, the Michigan DEQ launched an e-DMRs WEB-based collection system.

Facilities uploaded their e-DMRs and Michigan DEQ then shares the reports with EPA via NEIEN. 22 months later , 40% percent of the facilities were already reporting e-DMRs. Michigan DEQ

estimated saving between $250k to $500k as a result of the e-DMR project based on reduced transaction and overhead costs from manual filings, re-entering of data, and avoided errors.

It is to be noted that Michigan DEQ eliminated its three-year DMR backlog in the first 18 months. Michigan DEQ estimated that facilities reporting via e-DMRs saved $2k per facility, or $2.5 million

statewide. There are four states with e-DMR data flows in production, while two other states are in development

and 19 others are in the planning stage.

Source: http://www.exchangenetwork.net/benefits/index.htm, February 2007

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CA

OR

WA

ID

MT

WY

CO

NM

TX

AK

HI

OK

KS

SD

ND

MN

IA

WI

IN OH

KY

TN

MS AL GA

FL

NC

WV

PA

NY

DE

CT

NH

RI

IL

MO

AR

LA

NVUT

AZ

OR

NM

MS

WV

PANJ

MA

NH

MD

The following outlines the NEIEN nodes implementation progress

DCVA

MI

NM SC

NE

VT ME

In Development

Operational

FLNot Yet Started


Source: ECOS, Nov. 2007

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MT

WY

ID

WA

OR

NV

UT

CA

AZ

ND

SD

NE

CO

NM

TX

OK

KS

AR

LA

MO

IA

MN

WI

IL IN

KY

TN

MS AL GA

FL

SC

NC

VAWV

OH

MI

NY

PA

MD

DE

NJCT

RI

MA

ME

VTNH

AK

HI

2 3 4 5+1NEIEN States with Multiple Data Exchanges

Source: ECOS, Nov. 2007

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OR

OR

WA

WA

DE

WV

WV MI

MI

WI

WI MS

MS SC

SC NH

NH

NH

KS

KS

NE

NE

WA

WA

OR

OR

ID

MS MA

DE

DE OR PA NHKY

ORDE

NJ

NJ GA CA NC

OH

OH

NH

AK

ME VT RI

AZ

AZ

CA

CA CO

CO

DE

DE

ID

ID

IL

IL IN

IN LA ME MD MA

MI

MN

MO

NE

NJ

NM

NM NYOK

PA

TX UT VT

PA NJ

VA IA

MT VA WYKY NCGA Last Update August 30, 2007

MO

VA IN SC MI

eDMR MI WI

NC

SDND

ND SD

IA

IA

COLOR KEYIn DevelopmentOperational

MD

NYME

AKNV

LA

MA

UT

TX NJ

ME

MD

MNMT

WA WV

IL

FL

VA

AL

HI

AL

MS

WA

OK

OK

NJ

WI

WI

WI

WI

NM OR VA NC OK PA

PA

TX

MI

Health WA NY

ND SD

OR

VT

NV

KS

MD

HITN

TN

NY NJ DE

NC KS MT AZ

OH IA DE

KS DE

MA

AZ KS NC PA VA

IL KS

UT

Ambient Air

WQX – Water Quality MI OR TX

NYNV

MI NJ MN MA

OR PA

OH MS WA

NJ NY OR WA

CA AZ MD

MO MT CO NE MA NJ

OH MS WA

DE

MS NJ

CT

NC

AR RI FL

FLARCT

TR

WV

MN CO

MN

MN

NH

NM

IA

WI

NY

OK

MN

KY

WYRILA

DE


Source: ECOS

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There are several types of data being exchanged among stakeholders through NEIEN. Typical examples of data exchanges are presented below:

State-to-EPA• Facility Data to FRS• Drinking Water Data to SDWIS• Haz Waste Data to RCRAInfo• Air Emissions Data to NEI• Air Quality Data to AQS

EPA-to-State• TRI Data Submissions

• Substance and Chemical Data

• Facility Data from FRS

• Air Quality Data

Intrastate • Environmental Data to

Health Departments• Drinking Water Labs to

States• Homeland Security/Law

Enforcement Data• County Water Data

State-to-State• Water Quality Data

• Hazardous Waste Transporters

• Air Quality Data

• Homeland Security Data

Source: ECOS, January 2007

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Leading Information Sharing Further Cooperation

There are several other significant cooperation efforts between EPA and NEIEN stakeholders.

The Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) Data Exchange allows facilities to simultaneously electronically file TRI reports to both EPA and states, reducing transaction costs for all stakeholders.

• In 2004, EPA partnered with the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) to pilot electronic TRI reporting with four states via the Exchange Network.

• This enterprise tool is now shared by 16 states, while eight others are either developing or planning to set up TRI exchange networks.

• The EPA TRI Data Exchange, EPA’s node in the Exchange Network, simultaneously share electronically filed TRI data with the 16 participating states.

• The TRI Made Easy (TRI-ME) software allows facilities to file reports via the Internet and Web services.

• One study found that EPA could release its TRI data 7-8 months earlier if everyone filed TRI reports through the TRI CDX.

• For more information, please visit: http://www.exchangenetwork.net/exchanges/cross/TRI_Success_Story.pdf

Source: OEI and http://www.exchangenetwork.net , February 2007

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There are several other significant cooperation efforts between EPA and NEIEN stakeholders.

The Water Quality Exchange (WQX) - this EPA data exchange enables ambient water quality data to be submitted to EPA and allows this data to be shared with other partners in the exchange network.

WQX was developed to overcome data access problems experienced by EPA’s previous one point source for access to water quality data, STORET.

Currently, WQX is still under development and was originally piloted as part of a multi-state/EPA effort to exchange Water Quality Monitoring Data via CDX using the Environmental Sampling, Analysis, and Results (ESAR) data standard..

WQX uses Extensible Markup Language (XML) and a defined set of data elements. The schema is based on the Environmental Sampling, Analysis, and Results

(ESAR) data standard - EPA’s standard for sharing water, solid waste, and air quality data.

Use other registries of common data, names, and data formats.

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There are significant cooperation efforts between EPA and NEIEN stakeholders.

WQX has greatly simplified the process for submitting water quality monitoring data to EPA by bringing in new partners that have helped to cover gaps in the database. In addition, WQX has lowered the technical barriers for participation, which has opened the door for tribal governments, smaller organizations, and others to share their water quality data.

NEIEN technologies make it easier to produce more desirable sets of information from STORET.

EPA plans to offer new services that will allow users to incorporate data from STORET into their own specialized applications for water quality modeling, data analysis, priority setting, and decision making.

The transition from a distributed database model towards the Exchange Network model for the sharing of water quality data is expected to be fully completed in 2009.

For more information on WQX and the future of STORET, please visit the website of U.S. EPA's Office of Water

Source: http://www.exchangenetwork.net , February 2007

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There are significant cooperation efforts between EPA and NEIEN stakeholders.

The Heartland Emergency Response Exchange (HERE) enables four states (Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska) in EPA Region VII to aggregate and share available environmental, health, and natural resource information with state Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs), EPA, and local emergency responders and planners.

• HERE uses an intuitive yet powerful data retrieval tool to gather and display this information in a format that can easily be queried or analyzed. This business intelligence analytic tool includes features for data aggregation, offline data cache and synchronization, map viewer, and data export.

• HERE allows the latest data to be quickly delivered via secure Exchange Network nodes to emergency personnel in order to most effectively plan for and respond to situations that threaten public safety or the environment.

• HERE adheres to the principles of reuse and data sharing – two foundations of the Exchange Network.

HERE can be expanded to include other partners involved in Homeland Security or Emergency Response planning.

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Leading Information SharingInteragency Cooperation

EPA is engaged in several cross-Agency efforts, specifically within the Environmental Line of Business

Environmental Line of Business - EPA presented at the Chief Architect’s forum (http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ChiefArchitectsForum) in the Fall of 2007.

John Sullivan, Chief Architect for EPA, and Kevin Kirby, EPA’s lead Data Architect, facilitated the session that addressed:

• Agencies that operate “Environmental Management” business lineso Impact on business functions, applications, data, and services

• The chart (right) outlines the breakdown of agency investments as mapped to the FEA BRM

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Goals of the Environmental Line of Business were discussed to ensure alignment of expectations

Share Business• Know what business functions are (or should be) conducted across agencies• Share methodologies and approaches

Share Services• SOA services• Federated business component systems

Share Data• Converging data standards• Ultimately, shared ontologies

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The next steps for the Environmental Line of Business were also addressed

As a collective group, the participants in the Environmental Line of Business will:• Promote continued sharing of Data Assets through common business understanding• Leverage cross-federal data web-services, warehousing, and data integration services

Focus areas for additional Environmental Management break-out sessions:• Air Quality Management• Land Quality Management• Water Quality Management• Geospatial Management (as a service to Environmental Management)

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Future sessions on the Environmental Line of Business will address several different issues

The dialogue prompted by this CAF presentation highlighted the following topics for follow-up discussions:• How agencies are breaking out activities within the BRM – to the FEA Sub-Functions or individual detailed breakouts• What data sets support these business lines - in DRM format• What pertinent applications/services exist and how these map to data sets and business functions• What business lines are shared• What Segment Architecture projects need touch points among Agencies

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EPA’s EA leaders participate in numerous federal initiatives that benefit the collective community of federal EA practitioners

Members of EPA’s EA community are engaged in numerous councils and working groups that support the development of EA throughout the federal community

• EPA’s CIO, Ms. Molly O’Neill, chairs the CIO Line of Business

• EPA’s Chief Architect, Mr. John Sullivan, serves on the editorial board for the Practical Guide to Service-Oriented Architecture and is a board member for the Government’s Information Technology Executive Council, http://www.gitec.org/

• Mr. John Sullivan also sits on the Board of Chief Architects and supports several E-Gov initiatives including the FEA Governance and Maturation committees as well as the Architecture and Infrastructure committee. He also holds a position on the Advisory Board for Federal Health Care

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EPA is also exploring cross-agency collaboration on issues pertaining to water

Federal water community – EPA is planning a strategy of cross-agency collaboration with the Department of Interior to address touch points and areas for greater collaboration

The first meetings on this topic included representatives from the Office of Water at EPA, EPA’s Chief Architect, the EPA EA Team lead, and a representative from DOI• This meeting occurred in the Fall of 2007 and will lead to follow-up meetings to develop a plan of action

Next steps:• Develop a charter for this cross-agency effort to clarify roles• Set up future meetings between representatives from EPA and DOI to develop a plan of action

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Leading Information SharingInter-Agency Tool Collaboration

EPA is leveraging tools with enterprise and federal partners to support the sharing of pollution data

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The Results:

The states also reported that the Exchange Network delivers far more than just financial returns. Automating the exchange of data allows partners to dramatically improve the quality, timeliness, and availability of environmental information. States reported improvements in improved data accuracy, broader access to data by securely sharing data with other partners, earlier and more timely access to data helping to positively impact business processes earlier in the process, standardized data that shares a standard format, reduction of paper required to share and exchange data.

Actual Cost Savings and ROI summary from four states that implemented exchanges through NEIEN.

• Mary McCaffrey chairs the Data Subcommittee of the AIC

• Lisa Jenkins, of the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Management (OSWER), serves on the Segment Architecture Task Force

• Brand Niemann serves on the federal XML Community of Practice

Results

Through AIRNow, EPA, NOAA, USDA, NASA, National Park Service,news media, tribal, state, and local agencies work together to report airpollution conditions.

Leveraging of EA and Enterprise Tools AIRNow leverages EPA’s Central Data Exchange (CDX) and

NEIEN (also known as the Exchange Network) to facilitate air quality data exchanges, to enable the analysis of air monitoring-field data, and to share daily forecasts with the Exchange Network sponsors.

AIRNow accommodates through the Exchange Network real-time exchanges of data and information enabling local agencies to issue public health-advisories about protective actions one can take.

AIRNow provides environmental-health alerts via the EnviroFlash Service from one central Node in the Exchange Network reaching over 1.5 million people via e-mail, Internet, text messaging, and TV.

AIRNow’s business solution tool and public information sharing model have been replicated by numerous countries.

AIRNow’s Web site provided the public with easy access to national air quality information.

AIRNow offers daily air quality forecasts as well as real-time air quality conditions for over 300 cities across the US, and provides links to more detailed State and local air quality information.

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Leading Information SharingInter-Agency Tool Collaboration

Results

Leveraging of Other Federal Partners’ Enterprise Tools AIRNow exchanges air pollution data from the Network

Exchange sponsors with NASA and NOAA in order to provide refined and extended forecasts complemented real-time data from NASA satellites and NOAA weather monitoring stations.

AIRNow leverages air pollution monitoring data collected from NPS in order to develop forecasts that cover most of the USA and sharing of remote camera feeds.

Since 2003, EPA and NOAA have been collaborating on improvements to the capabilities of the air pollution-weather forecasting tools and on making them operational. For example, refining the quality of the current forecasting tool in order to make the predictions more accurate with observations made in the field.

Cost Savings & Avoidance Automation of the real-time delivery of data rather than the

old manual approach reduces transaction costs and has resulted in quicker turn-around times, e.g. from 2.5 hours in 1997-1999 to less than 30 minutes today.

Although cost savings have not yet been quantified, BIA tools for real-time quality assurance allows for faster corrections on erroneous data that saves time down the road.

Although costs have not yet been quantified, several studies have reported health benefits from reduced hospital visits in Los Angeles on poor air quality days when forecasts are available.

EPA is leveraging tools with enterprise and federal partners to support the sharing of pollution data

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Leading Information Sharing Internal Collaboration: Leveraging Tools

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) efforts within the Agency are developing and leveraging business tools to facilitate data exchange

Over the past year, EPA has continued to build on its successful electronic reporting processes for state and tribal governments, as well as the regulated community by extending the Central Data Exchange (CDX) Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) to include new standards and business process management technologies.

The Agency is using SOA service components to facilitate data exchange and save time and money due to standardization and other functions

• Example: The Environmental Agency Reporting System (EARS) significantly reduces time and costs incurred to establish system requirements and design

o It provides a generic electronic reporting capability and offers a suite of reusable options for quickly building unique data flows

o EPA program offices can now choose to use the generic EARS template, rather than developing a unique system for submitting their data to EPA

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Leading Information SharingInternal Collaboration: Leveraging Tools

EPA is leveraging enterprise architecture tools, such as WebART, to stimulate internal collaboration and establish a single repository for EA artifacts

The EA team conducted a baseline refresh of all information in WebART, the Agency’s customized EA repository to support consistency and usability Community Architecture information in WebART:

• Strategic Layer: Enterprise Goals, Objectives, and Drivers• Business Layer: Contractors, Community Programs & Projects• Applications Layer: Community Applications, Application Modules, and Services• Data Layer: Data Entities, Data Marts, and Data Classes• Technical Layer: HW/SW Platforms

Step 1: The first part of the effort focused on ensuring

that the Solution Architecture Artifacts were imported

into ART correctly Step 2: Recently updated READ records were then

imported into ART to create new instances and update

preexisting information.

This effort stimulated interest and use of the tool

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Leading Information SharingInternal Collaboration: Leveraging Tools

The next steps for leveraging EA tools to support internal collaboration include the initiation of a EA tool strategy to supplement near-term tool improvements

Initiate long-term EA Tool Strategy• Establish baseline architecture• Define solution concept and requirements• Establish target architecture• Determine acquisition strategy & define detailed design• Develop strategy for moving to the target architecture

Interim EA tool improvements• Evaluate pros & cons of “quick” WebART improvements• Demonstrate OCFO dashboard for business process assessment• Improve EA/CPIC integration

These efforts will further facilitate and support ease of use

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Leading Information SharingOutreach Materials

In addition to leveraging tools, EPA’s EA program is taking proactive steps to increase communication with stakeholders

Stakeholder Feedback• Conducted the EA Listening Campaign in 2007 to evaluate stakeholder perceptions• Integrated feedback into program plan, communications plan, and associated products

EA Communications Plan• Re-designed plan to create a three-pillared campaign approach to communication; including governance, outreach, and

training• Target communications to different stakeholder segments based on their information needs• Increased communications product development and output

o For example: EA Monthly Update, EA Awareness training materials, Annual Report to Stakeholders, etc.

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Leading Information SharingOutreach Materials

The EA team is currently developing an Annual Report to Stakeholders that addresses EA efforts and successes over the past year

The Annual Report to Stakeholders provides a wide range of stakeholders with a summary of EA activities and accomplishments over the past year

This report, shown here, is scheduled for release in 2008

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Leading Information SharingConclusions

EPA consistently champions and supports cross-agency efforts to enhance federal architecture practices and support internal EA progress

EPA’s EA program will continue to actively participate in interagency efforts, optimize use of EA-related tools, and work to achieve stakeholder buy in

The program will also support internal collaboration efforts through tool enhancements and improved communication

EPA anticipates the release of the following products in the next several months:• Enterprise Architecture Working Group Monthly Update• Annual Report to Stakeholders• EA Awareness Training

leading information sharing united states environmental protection agency office of environmental...

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data processing reports