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Track: Database Design and Automation
Andrew Battin
U.S. EPA
401 M Street NW
Mailcode: 3405R
Washington, DC 20460
Telephone: 202-260-3061
Fax: 202-401-8390
E-mail: battin.andrew@epamail.epa.gov
Rob Palmer, Theresa Urban, Charles Catlin
Improving Locational Data of Environmental Concern: EPA's Locational Data Improvement Project
Defining Issue: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) relies on a diverse reporting community and Agency databases to monitor over 700,000 EPA-regulated facilities, operable units, and monitoring sites. An analysis of EPA databases revealed that locational data are either inaccurate or nonexistent. As a result, the Agency launched the Locational Data Improvement Project (LDIP) to address locational data quality. GIS Solution: Locational data serve as a resource for a wide array of cross-media analysis such as community-based ecosystem management and environmental justice. The application of GIS is allowing EPA to solve these problems with locational data. Methodology: EPA began the effort by address matching records pulled from Agency databases. The intent of this effort is to acquire as many documented coordinates as possible. Improved coordinates are passed through verification checks (point in polygon) and stored in Locational Reference Tables (LRT). To be loaded into the LRT, extensive
documentation must accompany the data. EPA is working to standardize this documentation. Once coordinates are collected for 100 percent of EPA-regulated facilities, operable units, and monitoring sites, efforts will focus on improving existing data (e.g., replacing/adding coordinates derived from more precise methods such as global positioning systems [GPS]). The resulting data set is available on-line for use in GIS applications. In addition, an on-line mapping application is available to the public. Software: A mapping application was developed in ArcInfo to access the LRT locational data on the Internet. The LRT were built with Oracle.
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