Environmental Modelling & Software 18 (2003) 581–585 www.elsevier.com/locate/envsoft
Experiences with GIS-based planning tool for spatial eco-balances R.J.M. Lenz ∗, A. Beuttler Institute for Applied Research, University of Applied Sciences, Schelmenwasen 4–8, 72622 Nurtingen, Germany Received 29 November 2001; accepted 23 August 2002
Abstract During the last several years, environmental impact assessment, regional or spatial planning, and environmental balancing seem to develop similarities, e.g. joint basic methodological approaches like the use of environmental indicators, the focus on same environmental goods like air, water, soil, flora/fauna, etc. (Lenz, 1999). Especially Geographical Information System (GIS)-based software systems show their multiple applications in these fields. Experiences from a set of regional environmental (or eco-)balances show a wide range of advantages as well as disadvantages of the widespread use of GIS-based planning tools. With the background of concepts and examples for spatial eco-balances for the district Pfaffenhofen (Upper Bavaria, Germany; cf. Lenz, 1997) and the municipality Mulfingen (Hohenlohe, Germany), both related to the concept of environmental indicators of the advisory board of environmental affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany (SRU, 1994) and the Federal Environmental Agency (UBA, 1995), we can show GIS-based information systems of a high practical relevancy. Aims were to balance environmental effects in a map scale of 1:5000–1:50,000, in order to provide the administration with tools for an environmentally sound and sustainable development of their area (Lenz, 1997, 1999; Beuttler et al., 1999). In this contribution we will discuss the technical and practical designs of these information systems. 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: GIS; Eco-balances; Environmental planning
1. Introduction The approach of regional eco-balancing combines the classical landscape planning (predominantly for the protection of environmental compartments and recreation properties as zones in landscapes) with balancing of a distinct, but—in terms of environmental protection— broad set of environmental indicators for (effect) ecobalances. Hence the latter becomes spatially related. By taking on board the district administration and establishing an information system, a high practical relevancy and acceptance of the final users can be achieved. Aim is to balance environmental impacts in a map scale of 1:10,000–1:50,000, in order to provide the district administration with tools for an environmentally sound and sustainable development of their region (Lenz, 1997). In this context it should be mentioned that since years
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eco-balancing is already a classical tool of ecological planning, but the term was successfully (re)introduced by business management because of the origin of balances in economy. Hence life cycle assessments (LCA), business managers much more often carry out process— or business—eco-balance than ecologist. If there are classical ecological planning units and procedures (e.g. regions, landscapes, watersheds, and related tools like land consolidation), then we should consider the already developed approaches as well as the high importance of having ‘state of the art’ ecological indicators. These indicators (listed in Fig. 1 SRU, 1994; UBA, 1995) and the further quantification of their status are the basis of the quality of every ecological balancing, besides the tools provided by environmental informatics. 2. Technical design The technical instrumentation is based on a PC concept, using Windows NT and application software as mentioned below (cf. Lenz, 1997). There are three major inter-linkages to be established.
1364-8152/03/$ - see front matter 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S1364-8152(03)00033-1
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Fig. 1. Amoeba with environmental indicators and action fields ‘regional eco-balances in the district of Pfaffenhofen’. The darker the gray color, the less good is the environmental status of an indicator in the action filed, respectively.
2.1. GIS (ArcView)–HTML–DBMS (Access) When starting the ArcView-projects, simultaneously Netscape will be started, and the HTML-page, which gives later on the access to the choice of maps, will be written (dynamical generation). 2.2. Establishment of new views/layouts/themes: ArcView→DBMS→HTML When in ArcView, one of the documents is elaborated, three steps while storageing will follow: 1. In the DBMS the following inscriptions will be done: author, date of establishment, last change, name of ODB-files (name be put together from date and time). 2. Storage of the new document takes place as ODB-file (ODB-export) with the corresponding name. 3. The HTML-page, which contents the register of maps and themes, will be updated with an Avenue (which is the programing language in ArcView) script (as line file of the corresponding HTML-syntax).
2.3. Call of existing views/layouts/themes: HTML→ArcView→DBMS→ArcView 1. Via Netscape a selection of the view/layout/theme will be carried out. The chosen name will be delivered to a Visual Basic-file (communicate.exe). 2. VB-program will call an Avenue-script and delivers the (view/layout/theme)-name. 3. In the DBMS, with this name the ODB-file will be searched. 4. The ODB-file will be loaded and displayed (ODBimport). 2.4. Documentation of a theme: HTML→ArcView→HTML 1. In order to get information over an active theme, on the HTML-page ‘documentation’ has to be selected. This calls the VB-file, which starts an Avenue-script. 2. Via the script the HTML-documentation-page will be generated dynamically. 3. The HTML-page will be displayed.
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3. Results The technical system is rather elegant and powerful, and especially in combination with scenarios, it started to get accepted within the administration. Nevertheless, only a few people in the district administration are able to run the software—although it became a standard one in all districts in several states of Germany—and hence this aspect is still the most relevant restriction of the use of the system. In addition, many other feed backs on the system from our target groups where like: “technically and scientifically very good, but too complicated/oversized for policy and administration….” What all of them appreciated very much, was a graphical illustration of the outcome of the environmental balancing in a very aggregated way (cf. Ten Brink, 1991), as shown in Fig. 1 (cf. WG, 2000). The map in Fig. 2 shows the main land use types in the municipality of Mulfingen, where we also applied an eco-balance by the support of a Geographical Information System (GIS). One of the easiest exercises is the calculation of area consumption over past and future times. Municipality planning can therefore be compared and assessed. For environmental balancing we use a GIS, because it allows us a spatial as well as consistent relation between basic data and calculation results, and vice versa. First, in the GIS the basic data (ATKIS = digitales Amtliches Topographisch-Karthographisches Informationssystem; ALK = Automatisches Liegenschaftskataster; ALB = Automatisches Liegenschaftsbuch) are stored and prepared for further overlays. Secondly, we added data provided by additional sources, like interpretations of areal photographs to delineate land use types, a soil and fauna map. The district administration provided us extensive data on protected areas (nature conservation, water), which can be used by the munici-
Fig. 2.
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palities. Besides these spatial data, further information is used for calculation procedures of the indicators, where collection and preparation are supported by the specific administrations. The digital preparation and processing of the data enables an extensive environmental information pool for the municipality. This analysis aims at the detection of weak points as well as the development potentials. The following examples will illustrate the applications possible for the municipality. 3.1. Solar energy potential In using the GIS software ArcView3.2, roof areas can be derived from ALK data. After subtraction of areas with expositions, inclinations, shading, and other restrictions making them unsuitable for solar energy use, the actual roof area can be multiplied with the annual insolation. The result is the amount of regenerative energy from solar radiation, which could be used by the municipality either for heating or for power supply (Fig. 3). Hence, for the whole municipality of Mulfingen we could produce 2600 kW h per inhabitant by photovoltaic, or 6500 kW h by collectors. In comparison, if we take the annual average energy consumption of every inhabitant in Baden-Wu¨ rttemberg in 1998 of about 24,000 kW h (household, traffic, etc.), solar energy could potentially provide 10 or 25% of this consumption, respectively. A concrete example for the future use of this energy substitution potential by solar radiation is an accepted proposal of the municipality government, in all new building areas to investigate the optimization potential for solar energy! Furthermore, within the restauration of the primary school, a solar energy collection will be established.
Land use types, municipality Mulfingen (in German).
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Fig. 3. Energy substitution potential by regenerative solar energy in the several parts of the municipality Mulfingen (in German).
3.2. Area consumption Table 1 shows, that area consumption in Mulfingen is increasing since 1981–1990, but is still in an average category of ‘sparingly consuming’ compared to many other municipalities in the state Baden-Wu¨ rttemberg. In order to ensure a sustainable development of settlement areas, in the long run the annual area consumption must not exceed 0.01% of the total area of the municipality (Enquete-Kommission des Deutschen Bundestages, 1997). 3.3. Drinking water consumption For another detection of eventually weak points, the indicator of ‘drinking water consumption’ will be illustrated. With the aid of annual consumption data and number of inhabitants in the several parts of the municipality, we calculate the daily drinking water consumption per person. The different results indicate increased values in some part compared to reference values in Table 1 Annual area consumption municipality Mulfingen (1981–2010) Eco-balance municipality Mulfingen Annual area consumption (average) 1981–1990 1991–2000 2001–2010 1981–2010 Assessment of the area consumption more than average (Nation, 1993-95) sparingly consumed sustainable (Enquete-Kommission des Deutschen Bundestages, 1997)
0.0157% 0.0219% 0.0505% 0.0294% ⬎0.1% ⬍=0.1% ⬍0.01%
literature (Zeisel, 1998, see Fig. 4). For the municipality the tasks remains, to detect the cause of this weak points and to establish measures for a reduction. The indicator ‘drinking water potential’ is suitable— due to its basic data—for an annual balancing. For the environmental balancing in Mulfingen, we used the programing language Avenue in ArcView3.2 to develop a user-friendly tool for the calculation. With this user interface, it is easy to update the data annually by the administration (Fig. 3) and ‘control’ the trends. This is an important function—to control the development of the state of the environment—of environmental balancing. A regular data collection enables us to follow the status of indicator values. The digital processing makes the ongoing balancing easier as well as other planning in the municipality. Restrictions in the availability of (digital and others) data is a typical limitation of this approach. Single indicators can only be roughly estimated, because data are missing or can be only collected with high expenses. Especially so-called impact—and reaction indicators (in comparison to status indicators) need extensive data sets for balancing. For example, indication of soil erosion need detailed soil as well as relief and land use data, which are not generally available. Noise impact from roads can only be assessed, where counting of traffic had been performed. A positive aspect of this fact is, that gaps in data can better be detected, and specific fields of problems can be elucidated. In future, more data will be provided by district administrations for better use on lower level planning, like for municipalities, so that data quantity and access is improving (Beuttler et al., 1999; Lenz, 1997, 1999).
4. Outlook
Eco-balancing is understood in various ways—as a standardized procedure according to ISO guidelines, as well as a cataster-like inventory of the state of the environment. The approach we followed is very much comparable as the one for (normally) single environmental issues like critical levels and loads in various spatial scales (cf. CCE, 1995 and following). Until now we did not see any other more or less complete balancing of the environmental status, based on an environmental indicator set and balanced spatially explicit. Especially the spatial reference to all land use activities allows regional planning not only to set priorities in action fields but also relate them to priority areas. Hence a powerful GIS software, although it still causes limitations in administrative handling, is necessary.
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Fig. 4.
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Water consumption of the several parts of the municipality in 1999 compared to reference values from state statistics (in German).
Acknowledgements We would like to thank the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) and the German Federal Ministry for Education, Research and Technology (BMBF) for financial support.
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