The Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) implemented the Strategic Online Natural Resources Information System (SONRIS) in 1999 to provide petroleum exploration/ production and coastal restoration/management data to its staff, industry and the public via the Internet. SONRIS consists of Oracle databases, electronic document image access, and custom online interactive map production via a geographic information system (GIS).

DNR will showcase SONRIS at the GEO Expo 2005, to be held in the Galvez Conference Center, Baton Rouge, on May 11. Several other state agencies will also attend the conference. Admission is free and open to the public.

DNR’s Oracle database consists of millions of records related to oil and gas exploration/production data from the early 1900s, mineral lease information dating to the 1930s, and coastal restoration/management data from the early 1980s. SONRIS also makes available over 7,000,000 electronic page images on the Internet, including Conservation field orders, Mineral Resources lease documents, and Coastal use permits.

The SONRIS Interactive Map GIS component, updated regularly to enhance functionality, offers more than 40 spatial data layers available to the public, with several more in development. SONRIS GIS receives about 275,000 visits from the public each month, representing over 2,700 unique companies and institutions.

To encourage system usage and respond to requests from the public, DNR has trained over 1,000 private sector users in the usage of SONRIS GIS. DNR offers periodic SONRIS training workshops in four Louisiana and two Texas cities, in addition to custom training on a regular basis in Baton Rouge along with daily personal consultations by telephone and e-mail.

These Web services and trained users provide Louisiana with a significant economic benefit by making the business of exploration/production of petroleum products and coastal management/restoration much easier than in other states.

Since Louisiana DNR implemented its first public oil/gas well GIS Web site in 1998, the number of users of DNR’s data has increased at an astounding rate. It is estimated that the oil and gas industry could be saving millions of dollars per year by their use of SONRIS. Savings result from having industry staff conducting preliminary work for drilling oil or gas wells or leasing state lands and waterbottoms from their offices, many of which are not in Louisiana, instead of having to spend days and even weeks at the DNR main or regional offices using public network computers or paper files for each project. The coastal industry benefits by having complete access to regulatory files and huge amounts of coastal restoration project and scientific monitoring data available.

GIS data sharing is largely responsible for the success of GIS in Louisiana. DNR provides its GIS data available to other state agencies, federal and local agencies and the public on a daily basis. DNR offers most of the GIS data on the Web site to the public via download for use in their own databases and/or GIS. Also, the DNR Office of Mineral Resources offers a GIS CD subscription service for its state land and waterbottoms leasing data. Non-DNR reference maps on the Web site that are not available for download from the DNR site are made available to the public by other state entities.

The Web site for the Expo is located at http://www.geoexpo.lsu.edu and visit the department’s web site dnr.louisiana.gov.