SA Environmental Protection Authority - Electronic Reporting of Monitoring Data (ELMO)
The Client
The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) is a division of the South Australian Department for Environment and Heritage. Under delegation from the Environment Protection Authority the EPA administers the Environment Protection Act 1993, which seeks to ensure effective environmental protection, restoration and enhancement.
The Challenges
The Environment Protection Act 1993 states that an environmental authorisation is required before certain activities can be undertaken, e.g. chemical storage; oil refining; petroleum production; sewage treatment. The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) issues licences to industries and organisations that undertake these activities.
As a condition of the licence, some licensees are required to develop an environment monitoring program and report to the EPA the results of this program. There are approximately 1000 licensees who currently have this requirement.
The reports submitted to the EPA come in many forms. A report may be a few pages of paper or large reports compiled by consultants with supporting data on CD or e-mailed MS Excel spreadsheets containing data and charts.
The diverse variety of formats of submitted monitoring reports make it difficult for the EPA to perform analysis (e.g. trend analysis, total pollutant load for a region etc) on the monitoring information to determine the licensee's compliance to environmental standards.
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The Solution
The objective of the Electronic reporting of Monitoring data (ELMO) project is to develop a web application for EPA licensees to submit monitoring data in an electronic format via the Internet. The submitted monitoring data will be stored in a central repository and to allow access to it to all authorised EPA staff.
The ELMO system will be used by EPA licensees to enter and submit monitoring data and by EPA staff to review and accept this information. Currently, the EPA receives Licensee monitoring reports in different formats and by different means. On receiving the reports, the Licensee's EPA Coordinator reviews it for compliance to the Licensee's licence conditions. The Coordinator will file this report in one of many different physical or electronic locations.
One aim of ELMO is to provide a single point and method for the Licensees to submit their monitoring reports. Another aim is to deposit the reports into a single storage location once a Coordinator has reviewed them. Once stored, the reports will be accessible to other EPA staff.
To achieve this, ELMO was developed as a web-based application with a simple and clear interface developed on EPA/DEH IT guidelines composed of several distinct components:
- Licensee web site - this will be an Internet web site allowing licensees to submit their monitoring data in a secure environment;
- EPA staff web site - this will be an Intranet web site, used by nominated EPA staff to review Licensee submitted data and maintain Licensee user accounts;
- ELMO interfaces to existing EPA systems- namely the Integrated Information System (IIS) and Environmental Data Management System (EDMS). These interfaces are used to both retrieve information from these systems and send updates and new information to them.
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The Technology
Oracle Database
J2EE Compliant Architecture
J-Reports
Apsec LDAP Security
The Services
Project Management
Requirements Definition
Technical Development
User Interface Design
System Documentation
Testing
Training
Ongoing Support
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