BEIDMS and ARCVIEW An Integrated Solution for Managing Environmental Data

The Bechtel Environmental Integrated Data Management System (BEIDMS) is a relational database management system developed by Bechtel Environmental, Inc. The primary objective of BEIDMS is to store and manage data associated with the environmental data life cycle. The BEIDMS is also a hierarchical database management system. It is designed to achieve standardization and integrity in managing environmental data and to provide shared and centralized data to its users.

The BEIDMS is an ORACLE application developed with ORACLE CASE tools. It is based on a client-server architecture where the database resides on a database server, while the actual application modules run on PCs or other computers connected to the database server through a network. The latest version of the BEIDMS (2.0) runs under the Microsoft Windows environment. Database integrity and security are enforced through the assignment of role memberships and the provision of available menu items.

ArcView has been used to develop a GIS interface for the BEDMS. The data linkage between ArcView and BEIDMS is established through the Microsoft Open DataBase Connectivity (ODBC). This data linkage is a dynamic one in which the changes in BEIDMS data servers will be instantly reflected in ArcView tables. The coupling of ArcView and BEIDMS provides significant benefits for data users: they are able to access and display environmental data geographically. In addition, data users can take advantage of additional functions offered by ArcView to create spatial queries and to perform spatial analyses on environmental data. This can be considered as the first step in moving toward an enterprise solution for managing, distributing, and accessing environmental data.

Introduction

Data management is always an important and complex issue for executing 
environmental projects.  The importance of data management lies in its involvement in 
almost every aspect of environmental projects.  Site characterization, environmental 
monitoring, compliance, litigation, public relations, remediation, and cleanup all require 
strong support of data management to provide sufficient and reliable data.  In a way, 
data management is the foundation for the successful completion of environmental 
projects. The complexity is determined by the nature of multi-discipline participation in 
the working processes of environmental projects.  Data management has to deal with 
heterogeneous data types generated from different disciplines.  Examples of data types 
may include chemical data, radiological data, biological data, geological data, and 
hydrological data.

In the past, we did not have a standard and central system to manage environmental 
data.  As a result, we have suffered problems in dealing with environmental data:  data 
for the same project may be scattered in different places, this not only increases cost of 
data maintenance but also leads to potential problems of data inconsistency since data 
may not be updated simultaneously; duplicated data may be collected for reasons of not 
knowing existence of the same data;  when a project is completed,  data may be difficult 
to retrieve since data were stored in different legacy systems known only to individuals 
who controlled data at that time.
  
In order to overcome these problems,  we feel that the solution is to develop a standard 
and integrated database system to manage our environmental data.  This system should 
provide both centralized data management as well as shared access.  BEIDMS (Bechtel 
Environmental Integrated Data Management System) is the software product developed 
for this purpose.  The keyword for this system is integration which means connecting, 
organizing, and centrally storing multi-discipline environmental data in one database 
system.

This paper discusses the development of BEIDMS.  The first part describes BEIDMS 
system including its objective, development history, design criteria, system modules,  
data structure, and associated procedures.  The second part discusses the GIS interface 
for BEIDMS developed using ArcView.  The last part describes how BEIDMS and 
ArcView benefit the future development of an enterprise GIS.  

Development of BEIDMS
Objective

The objective of BEIDMS development is to provide a total data management solution 
for environmental data life cycles.   Figure 1 describes a typical environmental data life 
cycle.  This cycle starts with 
initial sample planning,  moves through stages of sample collection, sample analysis,  
data processing,  data management, and ends with data use.  If additional data are 
needed, a new cycle will be repeated.   As a total data management software, BEDIMS is 
intended to cover the data management needs raised through different stages of 
environmental data life cycle, and to integrate different types of data generated from 
interdisciplinary work processes.  Examples of data types may include laboratory data, 
geotechnical data, and field measurement data.  The goal of BEIDMS is to provide a 
shared and centralized environmental database with known and defensible quality.   

Development History

The development history of BEIDMS is closely associated with evolution of 
environment projects within BECHTEL offices.  The initial effort was started with the 
data management needs for the remedial investigation, feasibility study, and site 
characterization projects.  These are the type of projects that collect large quantities of 
data and require a comprehensive system to manage their environmental data.  The first 
prototype of BEIDMS was developed in April of 1993.  The beta version (V1.0) was 
completed in December of 1993 and runs under DOS environment.   

BEIDMS has subsequently been applied to several remedial investigation and 
remediation projects within BECHTEL offices.  While being applied to these projects, 
BEIDMS has been continuously improved to address new issues and unique problems 
encountered from different environmental projects.  Four minor versions of BEIDMS 
1.0 were developed during 1994.

In the summer of 1995, version 2.0 of BEIDMS was completed.  This version runs 
under MS Windows operating system. A major improvement of this version is the 
partial automation of selected data validation and verification processes

Design Criteria

The system design of BEIDMS is based on pre-established criteria.  These criteria were 
developed based on the analysis of our customer requirements,  problems and lessons 
learned, and work processes for environmental data life cycles.  These criteria can be 
divided into two groups: system based criteria and data based criteria.

System based criteria are the features required for the overall system to perform.  
Examples for some of the important criteria in this group are:

		  User friendliness 
		  Efficiency
		  Adaptability
		  Scaleability

User friendliness means that the system should be easy to use and to learn.  Features 
such as menu driven operations and on-line help can be helpful to users.  Efficiency 
refers to the optimal system design to reduce overall cost of system maintenance and to 
allow fast data access.   Adaptability requires the system design to be flexible for making 
modifications and to be conducive to the evolution in response to new technology.   
Scaleability implies that the system is cost effective to be used for both large and small 
projects.

Data based criteria enforce various requirements on data stored in the system.  Some of 
the major criteria in this group are:
 
		  Data integrity
		  Data traceability
		  Data retrieveability
		  Data accessibility
		  Data reliability

Data integrity enforces the necessary structural constraints of the internal data.  Data 
fields are checked for permissible values.  Users are forced to enter those data fields that 
are required.  The reference relationships and hierarchy structure among data groups or 
blocks are always maintained.  Data traceability records the data history throughout 
environmental data life cycles.  Chain of custody is one method of maintaining data 
traceability.  Data retrieveability informs users where the data is located, what type of 
formats the data is stored, and how to retrieve data using documented methods.  This 
criteria intends to eliminate problems associated with data control by individual persons 
or group.  Data accessibility requires the system to provide means of distributing data 
locally and remotely across network to end users.  One critical case is to provide data 
access for the field offices.  Client-sever architecture is one way to implement this 
criteria.  Data reliability is to ensure quality and usability of data.  This can be achieved 
through automatic and manual validation and verification processes.  Appropriate data 
review codes should be provided and explained to users with regard to the data quality.

          Figure 1.  Description of An Environmental Data Life Cycle

System Description

BEIDMS is an Oracle application developed with Oracle CASE tool.  As such, BEIDMS 
can quickly adapt to system changes and to meet special requirements for customization. 
BEIDMS can also run on a wide variety of hardware platforms and under a multitude 
of operation system.  For example, BEIDMS can run on standalone PC with the 
installation of PC Oracle.  Typically, however,  BEIDMS runs in a client-server network 
environment.  In this case, the database resides on a database sever while actual 
BEIDMS application runs on PCs.  

BEIDMS is a menu driven application.  It employs pull-down and interconnected menus 
for easy operations.  The multilevel menu structure in BEIDMS is represented by a 
menu tree shown in Figure 2 (Bechtel, 1995). 

                       Figure 2. The BEIDMS Menu Tree

Actions associated with each menu item may be calling other menus, executing 
commands, or running programs.  The availability of menu items is controlled through 
privileges granted from system administrators.  Unavailable menu items are usually the 
results of blocked access and can become available through requests to system 
administrators. 

1) System Modules:  

BEIDMS consists of five major modules:  data planning, data collecting, data 
processing, data administrating, and data use (see Figure 3).  The first four are shown 
in BEIDMS main menu as Plan, Collect, Process, and Admin, respectively while the 
last one incorporates a third part software called SQL Data Browser.  These five 
modules corresponds to the major working processes associated with typical 
environmental data life cycles.

 
                        Figure 3. System Modules for BEIDMS

Data planning covers data for various activities associated with the beginning phase of 
sampling activities.  It includes input menus and Oracle tables to capture information on 
facilities (study areas), sites (sub-areas), projects, sampling events, sampling stations, 
logbooks, planned samples, and sampling event information records (SEIRs).

Data collecting deals with data for activities associated with collecting samples.  It has 
tables to record detailed sample information such as collection method, depths, matrix, 
time, date, containers, and chain of custody (COC).  In addition, these tables also store 
information on field QC samples, sample logs, well construction, field measurement, 
water level information, and strategraphic information.

Data processing deals with loading data into an interim repository from field offices or 
laboratories , reviewing data in the interim repository, moving data into a permanent 
repository, and tracking COC and data packages.  Data review is the most critical 
process in this module.  The purpose of data review is to ensure quality and usability and 
may include data verification, compliance screening, data validation, and data quality 
assessment.  

Data administrating deals with maintaining references tables such as analysis methods, 
sample matrices, units, and container types.  Reference tables in this module are referred 
by other tables throughout BEIDMS.  To ensure the database integrity in BEIDMS,  
these reference tables are generally not allowed to be updated.   

Data use deals with querying, evaluating, and reporting data.  This is the module used 
frequently by end users.  This module is based on the interface with another Windows 
based software called Data Browser.  Data Browser is directly linked with BEIDMS 
database.  It has pre-defined table joins as well as constraints of only showing validated 
and verified data.  Users can create queries or produce canned reports by simply clicking 
listed data columns in the query menu without knowing table structure or worrying 
about getting bad data. 

           Figure 4.  The hierarchical data structure for the RESULTS table

2) System hierarchy

BEIDMS enforces data integrity through the establishment of a hierarchical data 
structure.   Tables in BEIDMS are organized into different levels and referenced each 
other.  This data hierarchy implies that records can not be inserted or deleted without 
working on their reference tables first.  Taking the RESULTS table as an example, 
Figure 4 shows the hierarchical data structure of BEIDMS.  In order to enter a compete 
record into the RESULTS table,  users have to first complete appropriate fields in 
relevant reference tables at the previous eight levels of the data hierarchy.  

Changes in data records ought to follow certain orders along the data hierarchy.  In 
general, data insertion must be proceeded upward from the lowest level to the highest 
level  while data deletion must be worked downward from the highest level to the lowest 
level.

3) System Procedures

BEIDMS is more than just an environmental database management software.  It also 
comes with procedures that define a business model on how to handle environmental 
data from the beginning to the end.  In fact, a major part of the BEIDMS system is its 
procedures.  These procedures were developed based on regulatory guidelines as well as 
lessens learned, and are compatible with BEIDMS database.  

The procedures are not the regular computer software manuals.  They define an efficient 
business model for planning, collecting, reviewing, and managing environmental data.  
Similar to the system design, BEIDMS procedures also follow work processes associated 
with the environmental data life cycles.  For example, planning procedures facilitate the 
automation and implementation of field sampling plan and quality assurance plan.   
Sample collection procedures define business rules for field logbooks and forms to 
ensure that records are traceable, complete, and consistent.   Sample analysis procedures 
specify analytical methods and laboratory subcontract technical specifications, and 
ensure the right data of appropriate quality and delivery formats are provided by 
laboratories.

The GIS Interface for BEIDMS

The GIS interface is an integral part of BEDIMS.  It serves two purposes:  The first one 
is to allow end users to access environmental data in BEIDMS geographically.   This 
means that users can view the data, organize the data, create spatial queries on the data, 
and produce maps and displays based on the data.  The second one is to allow end users 
the ability to overlay environmental data with other related spatial features and to 
provide integrated analysis of environmental data and underlying phenomena.  
Examples of related spatial features may include streams, groundwater tables, 
strategraphy, radwalk over survey, and aerial photos.

GIS Software Selection

The GIS interface for BEIDMS is developed based on existing commercial GIS 
software.  There are several criteria used to select the GIS software.  Some of the 
important criteria are:

		  Direct connectivity to Oracle database
		  User friendliness
		  Capability of reading files from Bechtel Standard CADD (Intergraph 
		   MicroStation)
		  Capability of linking with Bechtel Standard GIS (ARC/INFO)
		  Functions for spatial querying and geo-processing

Several commercial software were considered initially.  ArcView was finally selected as 
the GIS software to interface with BEIDMS.  This is based several advantages that 
ArcView has over other GIS packages.  The strength of ArcView lies in its dynamic 
linkages with Oracle database and its flexibility in creating spatial queries.  In additions, 
ArcView is easy to use in terms of data input, data display, and producing hardcopy 
maps.  ArcView can indirectly read MicroStation files through the conversion of DGN 
formats to DWG formats.  When more complex data processing functions are needed, 
ArcView can act as client and call these functions from ARC/INFO through Inter-
Communication Application (IAC) (ESRI,1995a).

The selection of ArcView does not mean that this is the only GIS software that can 
interface with BEIDMS.  Several other GIS software such as MGE, Atlas GIS, and 
MapInfo can also be used to interface with BEIDMS.  The system design of BEIDMS 
leaves the options of GIS interfaces open to any GIS software packages that can directly 
or indirectly access Oracle database.   

The Linkage Between ArcView and BEIDMS

The link between ArcView and BEIDMS is based on Microsoft’s ODBC (Open 
DataBase Connectivity) standard.  Once the ODBC driver for Oracle database is 
installed and configured,  ArcView is ready to be linked to BEIDMS.  Figure 5 
illustrates how to establish this linkage through ArcView SQL connection menu.  Once 
this linkage is completed and saved, ArcView is permanently connected to BEIDMS for 
the specified ArcView project. 

                Figure 5.  The linkage between ArcView and BEIDMS

BEIDMS facilitates the interface to ArcView by creating two data objects.  The first one 
is the STATIONS table which provides names of sampling stations as well as 
coordinates.  This information can be used in ArcView to create a theme of sampling 
stations.  The second data object is the INTERIM RESULTS view which contains 
information such as sample ID, compound names,  CAS number, concentrations, units, 
depths, and matrices collected for sampling stations.  This information can be joined to 
sampling stations and displayed  in ArcView though query, classification, and chart 
options.

It is worthwhile to note that the linkage between ArcView and BEDIMS is a dynamic 
one.  When data in BEIDMS is updated,  the changes can be instantly reflected in 
ArcView tables using the Refresh option from Table menu.  In addition,  ArcView 
automatically updates data linked to BEIDMS when an ArcView project is initially 
opened.

Applications

Managing Environmental Data
This is the main purpose of developing BEIDMS.  Majority of BEIDMS applications fall 
into this category.  Currently, BEIDMS is defined as the standard database management 
system for Bechtel Environmental, Inc.  Several projects have used BEIDMS, including 
environmental projects for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Department of Energy, 
Navy , and Air Forces.  Activities supported by BEIDMS range from site 
characterization, remedial investigation, feasibility study, to remediation.  Most of these 
projects are Bechtel internal projects with one exception, the DOE Y-12 plant at Oak 
Ridge, Tennessee.  Y-12 plant has adopted BEIDMS to manage both its current and 
historical environmental data.   

Foundation for Enterprise GIS 

One of the most significant advances in recent history of the GIS industry is the 
development and implementation of enterprise GIS (ESRI, 1993, 1995b, Antenucci, 
1995).  This refers to processes of moving data and GIS technology out of a small and 
specialized group or department and distributing them to all users within an 
organization.   In our case, the concept of an enterprise GIS implies distributing the 
environmental database and providing appropriate GIS tools to the desktop of engineers, 
geologists, and scientists.  Data sharing and distributed processing are the key features 
of an enterprise GIS.     

The foundation for any enterprise GIS is the well defined database structure and means 
of distributing data throughout an organization (Rogers, 1995).   The integration of 
BEIDMS and ArcView provides such a foundation:  BEIDMS not only has a well 
defined and integrated database, but also includes means to distribute data locally and 
remotely.  ArcView add additional tools for end users to access and visualize data stored 
in BEIDMS.  

       Figure 6. A proposed system configuration for the Bechtel enterprise GIS

In order to complete an enterprise GIS , however, additional systems need to be 
integrated.   In our case, two major additional systems are: ARC/INFO and MicroStation 
 which are Bechtel standard GIS and CADD systems, respectively.  Figure 6. shows a 
proposed system configuration for Bechtel enterprise GIS.  In this proposed 
configuration, each component is an integral part of the whole system and interacts with 
other component via network communication.  Each component also performs unique 
functions:  BEDIMS provides functions for data management and storage, CADD 
provides functions of engineering design and basemaps, ARC\INFO furnishes tools for 
spatial analysis and geo-processing, and ArcView provides desktop tools for end users to 
visualize data and access enterprise GIS functions. 

Conclusion

We have developed a full-fledged software system for dealing with data generated from 
work processes associated with environmental data life cycles.  BEIDMS is our answer 
to the need of having a generic and standard system to manage environmental data.  
BEIDMS is also our solution to integrate heterogeneous data generated from multi-
disciplines working groups for environmental projects.

The integration of BEIDMS and ArcView provides the possibilities of managing, 
distributing, visualizing, and analyzing environmental data throughout a corporate 
environment.  The realization of this vision requires the development and 
implementation of a new concept called enterprise GIS.  What we have completed so far 
is the foundation for an enterprise GIS.  We need to expand the current foundation to 
incorporate additional systems and to work toward a functional enterprise GIS system.  


References

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ESRI, 1993, Enterprise GIS - Using GIS in the Corporate Environment. ESRI White
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ESRI, 1995a,  ArcViw Network Connectivity,  ArcView White Paper Series. Redlands,
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ESRI, 1995b, System Design Strategies - A Methodology for Designing ARC/INFO and 
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Rogers, M., 1995, Enterprisewide GIS Brightens Electric Utility=s Future, GIS World.
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