Staff from MNIT and BWSR partnered with Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs) across Minnesota and state partners like Department of Natural Resources and Department of Agriculture to develop BuffCAT, the Buffer Compliance and Tracking Tool. BuffCAT helps review more than 500,000 parcels and also helps SWCDs maintain a consistent approach.

BuffCAT was developed to aid Minnesota’s new buffer law in 2016 to improve water quality. That law established a perennial vegetation buffer up to 50 feet along lakes, rivers, and streams and 16.5 feet along ditches. The Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) needed to reduce the time and expense of SWCD compliance reports by eliminating paper-based compliance forms.

BuffCAT was custom developed to allow for a systematic and consistent approach to collecting data related to buffers using GIS mapping and a mobile collector application for field use. BuffCAT is also critical to validating success and the progress within the 500,000 parcels that need state review. BuffCAT tracks this progress while reducing administrative time and costs.

BuffCAT is exceptional because it is a creative and valuable application of GIS technology used to target specific enforcement of a new law. Beginning with a prototype to help gather requirements, the application was created in collaboration with end users and the local SWCDs. Their feedback helped inform design decisions and get stakeholder buy-in. After using the prototype, 90% of users recommended moving forward with the application statewide. End users were provided with training and documentation for the application.

The project had limited resources and a small IT staff. Using project fundamentals of a project charter, executive sponsor team, project schedule, and regular status reports kept the project on track and managed the impact of resource constraints.

With a limited budget and tight timeline, the team decided to develop a prototype using ArcGIS Online, a technology well understood by IT that was also uniquely suited to the business needs. This would also help build stakeholder buy-in. The team validated that the required datasets were available and that one statewide map would meet the business need.

By using a prototype, end users were able to visualize the user interface and workflows with real data. It took about two months to develop the prototype, that was developed and demonstrated first to BWSR, then to SWCDs. After giving them time to test the prototype, feedback was solicited from the participants. One form of feedback was a survey to the SWCDs that provided valuable responses and insight to the current release.

GIS is not a simple application and skills vary across the user base. The team worked with Department of Admin to offer a Collector for ArcGIS training for field users. Documentation and guidance was created for users to reduce the number of support issues the application would encounter.

Start to finish, the business need was met in approximately seven months, giving SWCDs a full year of use of BuffCAT in order to make the compliance assessments needed for public waters, and two years for public ditches.

The team worked with the Minnesota Geospatial Information Office (MnGEO) to collect spatial parcel data statewide. Prior to the development of the BuffCAT application, statewide parcel data had only been collected by MnGEO for less than ¾ of the state. Due to the need for parcel data to allow SWCDs to report buffer compliance to the state, submission of parcel data from all 87 Minnesota counties to MnGEO was completed within several months.

Upon passing of the buffer law, the DNR was required to map all streams and ditches that were applicable to the law. The BuffCAT team worked with DNR staff to be sure the most recent version of this “buffer map” data was incorporated into the BuffCAT application.

By the end of 2016, over 90,000 parcels of land have been reviewed by districts with BuffCAT. In one day, more than 6,000 parcels were reviewed and edited by SWCD staff around the state. Progress continues and a compliance map generated from BuffCAT shows the percentage of buffer compliance by county. Being able to demonstrate progress with a visual is beneficial to the buffer law, the conservation districts, and the state agencies working to improve water quality.

As reported by the Pine Journal, Carlton County SWCD employee Laura Christensen used BuffCAT to review 6,356 parcels. She used the BuffCAT application tool to determine that 6,079 parcels were already compliant. The remaining 277 county parcels needed field verification. This demonstrates the applications impact and cost savings for just one county. BuffCAT is helping SWCD’s work smart all across Minnesota.

Testimonial

“The BuffCAT application was extremely user friendly. By providing multiple layer options such as aerial overlays, parcel data and LIDAR, I was able to easily discern 99% of my counties compliance without having to step foot in the field. Communication between BWSR and the SWCDs was key in the BuffCAT’s success. BWSR and MNIT did a truly great job in communicating maintenance schedules as well as thoroughly and promptly answering any questions that arose. In my experience, the IT behind the program did, and is doing, a truly great job. Very personable and helpful.”-- Laura Christensen, Conservation Technician, Carlton Soil and Water Conservation District