Best Practices for Sharing Sensitive Environmental Geospatial Data

This guide to Best Practices for Sharing Sensitive Environmental Geospatial Data from GeoConnections is written to provide practical guidance to those interested in developing their own sensitive environmental geospatial data sharing policies and protocols. It was developed in consultation with organisations from across Canada, including practitioners from government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), industry, and academia. The intention is to support programmes, services, businesses, and/or applications related to the environment and sustainable development.

The guide highlights issues and concepts associated with the protecting, sharing, and utilisation of sensitive geospatial data related to the environment and sustainable development; provides frameworks for assessing data sensitivity; and describes potential mechanisms for facilitating the sharing of data, including online transactions.

From the Executive Summary: "[T]here is no consistent mechanism for assessing whether a dataset should be classified as sensitive or not. What was revealed was that the concept of sensitivity changes with context (time and recent events), an organization’s regulatory environment (legislation, policy, competition, etc.), jurisdictions and the personal views of Data Contributors/ Owners/Custodians and in actuality, there is considerable intertwining of these elements. Anyone who is assessing a dataset to determine whether it should be considered sensitive or not should be aware of these elements and the potential impact on the credibility of their organization if sensitive data is mistreated.... The Guidelines consider environmental geospatial data to be thematic geospatial data that could be used for analysis in areas such as environmental impact assessments, land use planning, land management, sustainable development, resource management, airshed management, etc."

The guide proposes a categorisation of sensitivity to assist an assessor (typically, the Data Custodian) in understanding which aspect of sensitivity may apply to the dataset in review, and it recommends published criteria per organisation on sensitivity. The document lists 5 possible criteria for sensitivity, including confidentiality, natural resource protection, cultural protection, safety and security, and legislation/policies/permits. The need for establishing organisational frameworks stems from the requirement to support open government unless legitimate and documented reasons permit information protection, varying organisational policies on information sharing, and a range of user search and access processes for existing data.

"The Best Practices identify basic principles that can be applied to assessing sensitive environmental geospatial datasets in order to classify sensitivity consistently:

1. Unless the dataset is classified as sensitive it can be provided free of restrictions;
   
2. Information cannot be considered sensitive if it is readily available through other sources or if it is not unique;
   
3. The Data Custodian of the information is the only agency that can determine whether an environmental geospatial dataset is to be classified as sensitive;
4. Data Consumers of sensitive environmental geospatial datasets must honour the restrictions accompanying the information in the form of an agreement, license and/or metadata; and
   
5. Organizations should document and openly publish their process, criteria, and decisions.
   

These Best Practices also present an example decision framework for assessing whether an environmental geospatial dataset is to be classified as sensitive."

Once a framework is established and a dataset is defined as sensitive, the appropriate mechanism for sharing data thus classified can be adopted. "At its core, the successful long term sharing of sensitive environmental geospatial information is about trust, risk management, the credibility of the participating organizations and their overriding desire to disseminate information."