Abstract |
The Permit Tracking System (PTS) was developed to track information on the wetland resource affected by permitting, as opposed to information on the permit status and activity (e.g., acceptance or renewal). The authors designed the PTS to complement existing systems that track permit activity to avoid duplicating the efforts of other agencies. It is designed to track information from three types of permit systems, permits issued under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, Section 401 of the Clean Water Act, and state authority. There is also an option to track data from other permit systems. The Permit Tracking System (PTS) is divided into two main components: data entry and query. The PTS simplifies the process of data entry. In most cases, the user is merely required to check off items, as opposed to doing a lot of typing. Standardized categories, with definitions, are given for items, such as Cowardin wetland types (Cowardin et al. 1979), project types, and wetland functions. Selecting items and entering minimal verbiage eliminates most of the errors typically associated with data entry. The PTS also contains a program that sorts and prints all the items listed in each category, making it easy to recognize information that has been entered incorrectly. After data have been entered, corrections, additions, and deletions can easily be incorporated into the PTS. |