Spatial data for environmental regulation: a GIS-based framework for streamlining the Swedish permitting process

Abstract

Environmental permitting is a critical regulatory mechanism for ensuring that industrial and infrastructure projects comply with environmental protection requirements and broader sustainability goals. In Sweden, however, the permitting process remains slow, fragmented, and heavily dependent on document-based workflows, despite the fact that many permitting decisions rely on inherently spatial information such as protected areas, hydrology, biodiversity, land-use constraints, and environmental monitoring data. At the same time, recent national reform proposals (SOU 2024:98) emphasise the need for improved digitalisation, interoperability, and more structured use of environmental information in permitting procedures. This paper presents a conceptual GIS-integrated framework for environmental permitting, using the Swedish system as a case study. The study combines a structured literature review, document analysis, workflow analysis, and geodata inventory to identify spatial data requirements across different stages of the permitting process and to analyse fragmentation within the current geodata ecosystem. Based on this analysis, the paper proposes a GIS-enabled permitting architecture linking spatial datasets, geospatial analysis functions, and regulatory decision points throughout the permitting workflow. The framework is further supported through expert-based plausibility validation involving GIS and spatial-data specialists representing applicant-side, municipal, and international geospatial perspectives. The analysis and expert interviews suggest that GIS already plays an important role in environmental assessment and planning processes but remains insufficiently integrated into formal permitting workflows, where spatial information is often reduced to static map attachments and PDF documents. The analysis also highlights key implementation challenges related to fragmented data governance, interoperability, metadata quality, and access to authoritative spatial services. Rather than proposing a fully implemented system, the paper contributes a conceptual and methodological foundation for future digital permitting architectures. The study proposes that GIS could function as a foundational integration layer with the potential to support more transparent, efficient, and interoperable permitting workflows, while also supporting future extensions involving AI-based decision support, knowledge graphs, and spatially enabled environmental compliance monitoring.