Territorial Data Management

Systems - GCNWA

ExperienceHugo Mailhot Couture

Ndakinna Office – Grand Conseil de la Nation Waban-Aki

Round table: your expectations /

needs?2

Table of content

1. Management of consultations and computerized Solutions - What do we stand to gain?

2. Data management: from a necessary evil to a structuring element

3. Developing a database

4. GCNWA’s app

5. Development / collaborations

3

1. Management of consultations and

computerized Solutions - What do we

stand to gain?4

What do we stand to gain?

1. Environmental communication and analysis for consultations

2. Monitoring of the consultations and commitments of developers

3. Credibility during negotiations/consultations

5

Environmental communication and

analysis for consultations

Integration and analysis of data on:

Land use and occupation

Aboriginal ecological knowledge

External sources (western science)

The components/impacts of a project

Facilitated and credible presentations and communication:

Environmental and cultural sensitivities

Stakes of the Nation

Implications for rights and interests

6

Example 1: Energy East consultation

(First Nations issues are not limited to

fishing sites)7

Example 2: Data analysis for a

developer – Asking the right questions

Has the fish habitat

changed?

8

Monitoring of the consultations and

commitments of proponents

Centralize the information on:

Important steps and dates of each consultation

Environmental commitments to the Nation

Expected dates for accountability

E.g.: Developer’s report following a development project (5 years after construction)

Making information available for the team:

Flexible access according to tasks

Institutional memory in the event of staff changes

9

Credibility during negotiations/

consultations

Communication history (have we been adequately consulted?)

Crown

Proponent

Etc.

Easier to evaluate/prove compliance (or lack of compliance) with

commitments

10

2. Data management: from a

necessary evil to a structuring elementBackground information on our process

11

Sample data – Biography mapping

Course of the interview

Directed interview lasting

approximately two hours

Marking (by interviewer) coded

on paper map

Digitization and georeferencing

12

Database VS spreadsheet

Database Pros

Nearly infinite connections between data

Management of large amounts of data facilitated

Easy to use (if properly set up)

Helps to standardize the data

Cons

Complex to set up

Requires expertise for maintenance

Can be costly (acquisition)

Spreadsheet

Pros

Easy to set up

Simple to use

Allows for certain analyses (dynamic

crossing-referencing table)

Affordable (Excel)

Cons

Limited connections between data

Tedious analysis (amount of

important data)

13

Database – structuring element

Confidentiality and security

Institutional memory

Work efficiency:

Linking of information

Automation of operations

14

3. Developing a database - How

does it work?Best practices and pitfalls to avoid

15

Know your organization

What data do you have? (Land use, Membership List, etc.)

Do you want to add new data types?

How are they currently managed?

Who is responsible for managing them?

Who uses them?

Who generates it?

16

Understand your needs

Why did you collect these data?

Speciofic objectives?

Projects / tasks that need it?

Are these data used for these reasons?

Yes How?

No Why?

Are these data used for other purposes?

17

Talk with users / "producers" /

managers

Get to know:

Their interactions with the data (When, what, how, why)

What are their tasks, how do they realize them?

Target potential improvements by knowing:

Limits in their work (lack of time for X, too much Y, etc.)

What would they like to do with the data?

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Some basics

Table - Excel sheet equivalent

Field - Equivalent of a "column" in excel

Unique field - Reference when creating relationships

Relationships - Link data from multiple tables

Forms - User interface, allows data entry

19

Planning the structure - Tables and

relationships

Schematize tables and relationships before you start!

What are the "logical" links between "tables" that you already have?

Example: Interview participants VS Interview results

Anticipate possible links with your future data

Provide unique identifiers (yes, numbers!)

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How does it work?

Table: Participant

Participant number (u)

Last name/First name

Address

Etc.

Table: Interview

Interview number (U)

Participant number (ref)

Place

Date

Time

Subject

Etc.

Table: Use of the land

Point number

Interview number (ref)

Resource used

Season

Etc.

Table: Region (importation)

Table: Province (importation)

Table: Cities (importation)

Table: Type of resource

Table: Participation in a consultation

Table: GCNWA employee

21

Plan for uses - Forms

Data Entry Forms (normally one table only)

Forms and report see data (links between tables)

Data analysis

Use of data

22

Data entry form23

Analysis form / report24

Advice

Assess capacity before starting (undergo training if necessary)

Long-term planning (plan functions / tables)

Segment the job (phase / functions / tables)

Plan backups for data

25

Developing?

Pros

Flexibility/adaptability

Limiting recurring costs

Sustainability

Adoption by the team

Will exactly meet your need.

Cons Higher initial cost

Internal expertise required (creation and maintenance)

Minimized by FileMaker

Required IT infrastructure

Depends on the chosen scalability

Development dependent on your "free time“

Requires the ideal conditions (expertise + initial funding)

26

Purchasing?

Advantages

Development independent of:

Internal expertise

Available time

Initial cost minimized (depending

on the provider)

Advanced features available

Concerns Sustainability vs. Intellectual

property?

Dependence on an outside provider

Recurring costs (vs. "variable" financing)

Confidentiality and control

Physical location of DB vs. legal context

Features/development adapted to other clienteles

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4. GCNWA’s appFilemaker interface, server and database

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Features

Current use

Research data

Interview data

Information on the members

Telephone interview forms

Access/security management

Consultations: interactions with

the members (development)

Needs/To come

Consultations: interactions with

developers/governments

Environmental and commitment

monitoring

Archiving of documents

(limitation)

Complex statistics and analyses

(limitation)

Map interface (limitation)

29

User interface

Simple

navigation

30

Respondent’s formImportation of

data (survey

results)

31

Return from the field – data entry

Standardization of the

data

Institutional memory

32

List of respondentsRegion / province /

country automatic33

Why is this of interest?

Too much useless data?

A resident from Wôlinak is obviously in the Centre-du-Québec region!

Each field is "searchable" and can be sorted

34

Example: Sorting by region35

Example: Search by hunting area or

hunted species

36

Viewing data and links (personalized

forms)E.g.: All participants who

spoke about a resource

• Planning of interviews

• Understanding of the

activities and dynamics

• Response to the

consultations

37

Telephone interviews for a

consultation?

Rendering automatic (decreasing

entry errors):

• Creation of the forms

• Member identifiers (#)

• Identification of the interviewer

• Links

38

Telephone interview form (cont’d)

Who participated in a

consultation?

What consultations did a person

participate in their life?

Who from our team spoke to which

member of the Nation for a given

consultation?

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5. Development / collaborationsFuture features / Needs

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Current main limitation: GeomaticsConnections and updates between

FileMaker and GIS are done manually

(limitation = internal expertise)

41

Needs / development

Consultations: monitoring and interactions with proponents /

governments

Archiving documents

Geomatics interface / environmental data

"Standard" resources and procedures (not computerized)

42