Victoria, BC 09/25/2007

Victoria, BC09/25/2007

FOSS4G 2007

Transformation With Free & Open Source Geospatial Software

Business Process Re-engineeringUnited States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)

Presenter: Dhiren S. [email protected]

2Filename/RPS Number

Presenter’s Background

Bachelor’s in Science Degree from the Agricultural and Biological Engineering – University of Florida– Specialization in GIS/RS– ARCINFO, AML, Avenue, java programming

Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning and Busi– Focus on Geospatial Statistical Analysis– GIS and Remote Sensing

Previous Experience at Wal-Mart Headquarters – Programmer/Analyst - Informix-SQL/spatial datablade with MapInfo for enterprise geospatial workflows for decision support systems and learning the business process and building criteria and analysis in SQL to support the workflow

Previous Experience at Lockheed Martin – ESRI software development 6000 hours development in ArcObjects– The redeeming fact was that I supported/advocated ESRI software for desktop based GIS

Current Position at Booz Allen Hamilton – Supporting USACE – primarily an advocate for enterprise solutions – spatially enabling the workflow and building open standards based data-model drive spatial databases


Agenda

USACE requirements

USACE strategy

Challenges

Where do things work well?

What problems did we solve and at what cost?

Summary


USACE Geospatial Requirements


Scalability

Scaling hardware/software to extend geospatial analysis and visualization is inexpensive and simple with free and open source geospatial software

Scaling commercial GIS software includes cost of licensing + increase in hardware/software + annual maintenance fees

Cost of Ownership

STRATEGY

Cost


Transparent Data Access Across The Enterprise

Data is stored in native database data type (and not as proprietary binary object)

Available for consumption by every business line of the enterprise

– Ex: Engineering, Navigation, Hydrology, Real Estate

Selecting a DBMS that supports open standards (like: OGC)

– At USACE, Oracle is the supported enterprise DBMS

STRATEGY


Spatially Enabling the Enterprise Data-warehouse

Non spatial data is available to be consumed with spatial data for visualization

– Create a policy driven data-model to support the business logic

– Include spatial tables in the data-model to relate non-spatial data to a location (point, line or polygon)

– For example: Information, collected by Hydrology business unit, about a river is available for use by the Engineering & Construction business unit for building a levee

STRATEGY


Keep the Business Logic in the DBMS

Policy driven business rules and logic are created and maintained in SQL within the DBMS

– The analytical power of a GIS is created and realized in the DBMS

Advanced toolsets that come with commercial applications can be substituted by customized SQL analysis within the database

STRATEGY


Visualization of Geospatial Analysis

Visualization is supported through various software and delivery methods:

– Web-browser with MapServer, ESRI, Google Earth, MapInfo, Autodesk-MapGuide etc.

STRATEGY


System Architecture

One Database Server + One Web Server – KISS (this is possible due to our chosen products)

Minimizing points of failure

Benefits of a simple proven architecture:

– Gives our subject matter experts more time to engage clients in meaningful policy defining discussions

– And allows our DBA’s to spend more time fine tuning the data schema & SQL queries

STRATEGY

Centrally Managed supporting Open

Standards

Data is stored in native database data-type

ORACLE DBMS

Map Server

WMSWFS Google Earth

Google Maps

ESRI

Bentley

Support many products

Registered with ARCSDE


Balanced Use of Commercial and Open Source Geospatial

The standard tools that come with Commercial applications are not fully utilized

Provide commercial products to a subset of people that conduct advanced analysis

Find the right balance between Open Source and Commercial geospatial software to maximize the return on investment

STRATEGY


Challenges for Adopting Open Source Geospatial Software

Swimming upstream against the flow of mainstream commercial GIS applications

– General acceptance and support to use commercial geospatial application (following the herd mentality)

Lack of institutional knowledge to create and implement a strategy for seamless data access across the enterprise

Universities and colleges have access to free ESRI software in America

– Training employees


WHERE DO THINGS WORK WELL

We build systems based on the following:

– We understand the requirements

– We Create business rules to support the requirements

– We put policy in place to support the requirements


WHAT PROBLEMS DID WE SOLVE AT WHAT COST?

CorpsMap Project Notebook (CPN)

Comprehensive Evaluation of Project Datums (CEPD)

National Levee Database – Web Reporting Tool (NLD-WRT)

Wetland Regulation and Permitting Program (ORM)


CorpsMap Project Notebook

We have transformed a 10 year old defunct Digital Project Notebook based on MS-Access database to manage information about the location and relevant attributes about a Project

We created and delivered a centrally managed web-based GUI supported by policy with the ability to capture/manage project location and related project information

We were able to spend time on engage the USACE to define a project and fine tune the business rules to classify projects

How we did it – technical solution:

– Customizing Oracle Application Express and MapServer


Comprehensive Evaluation of Vertical Datums

We have created a centralized web-based GUI to allow people to provide information related to the vertical datum of a project and facilitate upward reporting to the USACE-HQ and the Congress

How we did it:



National Levee Database Web Reporting Tool

We have created an application to display the information contained in the National Levee Database for upward reporting to the USACE-HQ and the Congress

The web based GUI displays a map of the ‘state’ of levees and other relevant thematic rendering of data contained in the National Levee Database

How we did it:



Summary

We are able to provide a cost effective rapid solutions to re-engineer business process with seamless geospatial integration

Simple architecture allows to be more:

– Agile

– Nimble

– Alert

– Responsive

Open source geospatial software provides an unprecedented opportunity to maximize return on investment to deliver open-standards based cutting edge geospatial integrated holistic systems that endure


Q&A

Contact Presenter:

– Dhiren S. Khona @ [email protected]

Documents

Victoria, BC 09/25/2007