Workflow Automation in Environmental Data Management

As the volume of soil and groundwater contamination data increases for known and suspected contaminated sites, many environmental agencies, industrial firms, and environmental consulting groups seek to automate large parts of the environmental data management process. While it is necessary to build ad hoc queries and look at data in different ways, it is also possible to build automated systems and sub-systems that operate on the data in a fixed manner. Automated systems for data loading and data reporting in response to specific “triggers” in the data have been developed and are being implemented widely across the United States using EarthSoft’s EQuIS.

 

With a standardized format for incoming Electronic Data Deliverables (EDDs) in place, incoming EDDs can be screened for correctness and completeness by the data provider and then sent to EQuIS for loading into EQuIS. Upon a “pass,” the submitter receives an email acknowledging the completed data submission and the data are loaded into EQuIS. Upon a failed EDD, an email is returned with the error log and the data are not loaded (see Figure 2).

 

EQuIS Environmental Information Agents (EIAs) take workflow automation one step further.  Agents are software modules that monitor data elements, such as the date or a particular data item, and then perform action(s) when the date or data trigger conditions are met.  Reports are then emailed to a list of designated recipients (“no-keystroke reporting”) or made available on the Internet/intranet/private network “dashboard” or portal.

 

Benefits of workflow automation include increase of correct data loaded, more incorrect data rejected, improved productivity of expensive engineers, increased accountability to labs, more reports and graphics on more desktops and better decisions. These benefits are easily measured for metric-based statistically-driven process quality improvement.