Permissions

Forester Web as an effective collaboration tool

Morag HawkinsProgramme Manager

V1.0 (final)

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Collaboration04/10/20162

importance of collaboration is to The Forestry Commission and how collaboration has been an important driver in our strategic vision.

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FC Ownership04/10/20163

As Britains largest land manager, the Forestry Commission has the duty of care for nearly 900,000 hectares of land across Scotland and England.

At the heart of our approach is the importance of balancing the environmental, economic and social benefits of forests and the recognition that our forests serve a wide range of objectives.

complexity of land management requires specialist multi-disciplinary teams to collaborate in order to achieve our goals from strategic to local levels

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economic

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We generate revenue by harvesting and selling timber, Our main source of income is from timber production, and this is supplemented by income from other activities like, renewable energy, all of which helps us to finance the sustainable management of the Estate.

working with commercial partners to offer new ways to experience and enjoy our woodlands and develop business activities.

The Forestry sector in Scotland alone employs 25,000 people and is worth 1 billion to the Scottish economy

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Social

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Our Forest are regarded as one of the most extensive resource for outdoor recreation.

We have over 5000km of paths and cycle ways in Scotland and England

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Social04/10/20166

We actively encourage visitors to our forests and invest in high quality facilities that attract visitors and help visitors experience an enjoy the outdoor environment6

Environmental

04/10/20167

From ancient hillforts, cairns and burial chambers to abandoned townships, we look after a unique and valuable collection of historic sites on our land7

Environmental04/10/20168

The national forest estate host many different habitats for wildlife including ancient woodland, moors etc

In Scotland, we aim to increase in broadleaved tree cover from the current 8% of woodland cover to around 20%

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Environmental04/10/20169

Our Forests contain a wide range of protected and priority species and habitats.

For example, the red squirrel which is a particularly vulnerable and it is important that we take specific conservation action

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Environmental04/10/201610

Rigging 10

FC District offices04/10/201611

So that is what we do, but where do we do this?

FE staff are located in 16 Forest District offices across England and Scotland.

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Forest District Office04/10/201612

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Field office04/10/201613

The FC Van

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Berlingo

Cover large geographical areas, In the VanWith FDsBetween FD National functions and cover the whole of England or Scotland,

Complexity of what we do and where staff are located makes collaboration a challenge.

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Challenges to CollaborationComplexity of what we do and balancing our objectivesLarge geographical area covered by staffLimited access of appropriate information in the fieldContent siloed in District officesDifficulty in sharing contentDifficulty in having a holistic view at a GB, Country and management area levelContent out of dateLimited access to appropriate collaboration tools

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About 5 years ago it was recognised that we have a number of business challenges including collaboration.

Limited access of appropriate information in the field. Issues of communication infrastructure in rural areas, poor bandwidth, mobile signal.

So why do we have such constraints? Some of this can be attributed to the way that GIS and the business has evolved in the FC

About 5 years ago it was recognised by the business that we had to address these challenges ( and more!).

So lets look at how the Forest Enterprise GIS, called Forester has evolved.

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The Roadmap

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One standalone PC per Forest District office1990s30 users2 modules

ArcView 3.x

Platform one

In the early days of Forester development in the late 1990s there was ONE PC in each Forest District. At that time the only spatial dataset that was captured and that was the Forest inventory and the ability to quickly run it through a timber Forecasting programme.

Collaboration was limited. Personal GIS

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The Roadmap

04/10/201617

Platform oneOne standalone PC per Forest District office1990s

2005+

Platform twoMulti-user Client/Server Desktop per Forest District office1000 users30 modules

ArcGIS for Desktop& Server 10.x30 users2 modules

ArcView 3.x

Over time this developed into geodatabase server in each FD with a number of client Forester desktops with multiple concurrent users.

This distributed model was due primarily due to poor network speeds in rural areas, we had no option but to have this decentralised distributed model at that time.More and more functionality developed in the bespoke Forester desktop application.

At its peak of use on desktop, over 1000 staff used Forester desktop to edit and maintain their own data in a controlled and standard way, with Forester desktop applying business rules and managing the integrity of the data.

If it had to be used by non-GI professionals Forester desktop had to be simple and easy to easy to use. Consequently it was/is used by a whole range of staff to manage their business assets each with their bespoke Forester desktop module on the one enterprise geodatabase.

Collaboration potential has increased, many more staff relying on shared content. Easier to collaborate within a Forest District office. ( but difficult in the field, between offices and at a National level)

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The Roadmap

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Platform oneOne standalone PC per Forest District office1990s2005Now 2018

Platform two

DesktopWebMobileDevice

Platform three

Multi-user Client/Server Desktop per Forest District officeAll FC staffResponsively meeting business needs through configuration30 users2 modules

ArcView 3.x1000 users30 modules

ArcGIS for Desktop& Server 10.xArcGIS Platform

However , we had become the victims of our own success. We had a desktop application that was difficult to change and costly to maintain and didnt meet all the demands from the business.

The business wished to drive change and set us a number of strategic business challenges that had to be addressed.

Consequently 5 years ago we embarked on a new strategic vision that has resulted in a highly configurable, responsive web and mobile platform that would supper the entire organisation.

This platform enables full collaboration

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Where are we now?

Delivering to the business a highly configurable, centralised, cloud based web and mobile platform with the ability to provide SaaS The Forester platform

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Everything, everywhere for everyone19

Our Vision Making the Forester Platform available to everyone

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Forester Platform

Public Engagement

Management

Staff work anywhere

Volunteers / ContractorsArcGIS Platform

Everyone

Forester web Extends use to everyone in the organisation

just need a web browser.

full range for web editing tools that are available in the web, enforcing the same data integrity and business rules as desktop.

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Our VisionMaking the Forester Platform accessible everywhere04/10/201621

Forester Platform

DesktopWebDeviceServerOnline Content and Services

AppsServicesArcGIS Platform

Everywhere

Given the very poor bandwidths in rural areas we have developed Forester web to run on bandwidths as low as 512Kbit/s

Mobile and cloud will also extend access, it can then be literally consumed from everywhere. Even the Berlingo van

So we now have the technology in place and staff have access but what about the data, the content?

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Our VisionMaking the Forester Platform accessible for everything

Forester web is seen as the one stop shop it is the place to go to for all spatial content.Content can be easily searched and found.Easy to share content Staff have confidence in the data - as staff are the owners and maintain the data in Forester webData is up to date as it can be

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Everything

Collaboration depends on reliable content

We can share that content both internally and externally

Data is up to date as it can be - we will consume WMS from third parties where available e.g. OS data.

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Our VisionTo aid collaboration we developed a simple set of configurable tools to make the process of collaboration easy.

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We now have a sound basis to collaborate BUT how can we make this easy for staff to collaborate?

We have generic collaboration tools that allow staff to comment on any area of the national forest estate.

Collaboration: Post, Respond, Enhance

Woodland creation plans (WCPG) involving input from Area and National Office teams;23

Our Vision

Video of collaboration scenario

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One team approach04/10/201625

This Vison would not have become a reality without a one team approach - We have a good working relationship with the Esri staff based in Edinburgh since 1989.We also work with an offshore team ( via Esri) based in Russia. This photo is from earlier this year where all three teams were together.

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SummarySound basis for collaboration

Staff have appropriate toolsKnowledge base of reliable content that staff trust inAccess to content everywhere by everyone.

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Summary

The Forester platform makes our data accessible everywhere by everyone and that underpins the engagement and collaboration with our staff

The FC now have a truly integrated, configurable, enterprise platform in Forester web and it is transforming the way that we work

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We have moved from a record of content ( asset management) to a system of engagement and collaboration

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