111 *Livio Mandrile MUDE Piedmont - a unified digital system for building permits: an organizational project Translation by Ilene Steingut Keywords: MUDE, unified digital system for building permits, digital paperwork, dematerialization. Abstract The re-engineering of administrative processes can come about through information and communications technologies - defined as “computer-supported cooperation” - opening new prospects for simplifying the relationships between citizens and public administrations and facilitating the exchange of documents and information. MUDE Piedmont (MUDE is the acronym for the Italian modello unico digitale per l’edilizia – trans) - a unified digital system for building permits - is an information system created through the collaboration of the region’s different governmental levels. This system creates a digital archive of permit applications submitted to the Buildings Department Unified Hub, using information technologies for the interaction between professionals and public administrations and for the exchange of information between administration databases. The MUDE Piedmont system creates an environment for the use/ updating of regional and administration databases. These databases - accessible to numerous individuals and public authorities - are in constant evolution with input from all users involved in the building/planning permit approvals process. project partners The partners participating in the project are listed on the MUDE portal, along with related information. • The list of participating municipalities, currently 135, is published on the MUDE Piedmont portal and includes the municipalities of various sizes located in different provinces, including associated municipalities and provincial capitals. • Aside from Turin, the principal municipalities are: Acqui Terme, Casale Monferrato, Collegno, Cuneo, Grugliasco, Ivrea (with 28 municipalities of the Canavese area), Moncalieri, Mondovì, Novi Ligure, Pinerolo, Rivoli, Venaria Reale, Vercelli. • Other public authorities involved are: Piedmont Region, Piedmont Provinces, ANCI Piedmont, Board of Surveyors, Architects’ Association, Engineers’ Association of the Province of Turin, Turin Polytechnic, and the Turin Province Landscape/Landmarks Authority. • The collaboration agreement, initially signed by the Region, Provinces, City of Turin, 10 other municipalities, and professional associations is published on the MUDE Piedmont site. Still open to all interested parties, the agreement pledges to use unified application forms and allows the reuse of the system developed for the management of the branch offices for building and planning permits by means of documents that are digitally stored in the document management system created by the Piedmont public administration. * Dirigente del Settore Servizi per l'Edilizia e l'Urbanistica del Comune di Torino 112 Livio Mandrile Goals MUDE Piedmont – the unified digital system for building permits - has the goal of streamlining administrative procedures through the computerization of the building permit procedure for municipalities and other concerned authorities. It is also correlated with land registry requirements through the integration of buildings department and property registry databases. The MUDE Piedmont information architecture is a true information system for monitoring regional development and building projects. MUDE pursues the following specific goals: • Standardization of application forms for building permit requests throughout the region and participation in the implementation of standardized national forms; • Standardization of the municipal management of building permit applications procedures, creating a “community of practice” for the uniform interpretation of building codes; • Integration of building permit and land registry procedures through shared and consistent descriptive data regarding properties and their alterations by means of the identification of the permit application through a unique, nationally-recognized “MUDE number;” • Computerization of the Municipal Buildings Departments Unified Hubs through “cloud” applications and hosting services; • Dematerialization of paperwork (forms, reports, drawings) for simpler and more economical document management; • Creation of a single storage memory for private permit applications for all Public Administrations involved in various capacities in the consultation of building and development projects; • Integration of geographic information systems and municipal management systems with the creation of ACI - Anagrafe Comunale degli Immobili (Municipal Buildings Registry) to provide a municipal “point of view” on building characteristics thereby contributing to the evolution of the integrated national registry with certified data. Figure 1 MUDE’S front office services for eliminating the paper submissions of building permit applications. Accreditation Compilation Submission Interaction • Registration • Geo-referencing • Digital signature • Integrations • Variations • Cadastre • Attach • Notifications documents • Open • Directions • Communications server • Receipt/ space Notifications MUDE Piedmont - a unified digital system for building permits: an organizational project 113 tHe project’s institutional fraMework The project grew out of experiments carried out by the City of Turin starting in 2003 with the first e-gov project (PIM - Owning a property) and takes on its current form through Turin’s participation (2009) in the Cadastre and Taxation Measure of the ELISA Program - Local Innovation System (www.programmaelisa.it). The FED_FIS project is funded by DAR - Department of Regional Affairs, the PORE initiative - Project Opportunities of European Regions - in partnership with several other municipalities in other regions. Underlying the project is the requirement for sharing administrative processes which led to the involvement of many other local authorities, the Piedmont provinces and the Piedmont Region. The Regional government adopted a Deliberation - DGR n. 4-296 on July 12, 2010 - which subsequently led to a Collaboration Agreement signed on September 30. This agreement - still “open” to broader participation - was signed by: professional associations, ANCI Piemonte, Turin Polytechnic, the Turin Landmark/Landscape Authtority, and now includes 110 municipalities. Moreover, the following institutions have also expressed their interest in the project: ANCE, the Bilateral Construction Industry Board, the Chamber of Commerce, local health authorities, the Fire Department. The agreement provides for the adoption of standardized procedures for the submission of building permit applications, the unification of their paperwork, and the reuse of applications already developed for electronic submissions. The highly integrated approach regarding information and communications technology was made possible by the organization of Piedmont’s public administrations, which use the CSI Piemonte - Consortium for Information System – created by the project’s principal actors for systems and operational support. The City of Turin also represents ANCI on the commission established by the Prime Minister’s Decree of May 6, 2008 entitled “Approval of the single digital system for building permits” pursuant to Article 35d of Law 80/2006, together with the Agenzia del Territorio and the Regions. Representing ANCI, Turin sits on the Joint Board for monitoring cadastral services set up by the State-city and local government conference pursuant to Article 19 of Decree n. 78/2010. project ManaGeMent MUDE Piedmont is managed by the Project Coordination Group, composed of the Piedmont Region acting as coordinator, the Province of Turin, the municipalities of Turin and Buttigliera Alta representing ANCI Piedmont, CSI Piedmont as system implementer, Architects’ and Engineers’ Associations and the Board of Surveyors. 114 Livio Mandrile Figure 2 Home page of Portale MUDE Piemonte. The project was the subject of numerous meetings with other agencies and organizations, as well as initiatives of inter-regional and national coordination. Among these, collaboration with the Emilia- Romagna Region in sharing MUDE’s XML layout was fundamental; it also included hosting provided by MUDE for post- earthquake reconstruction aid applications in 61 Emilia-Romagna municipalities. The MUDE Project is funded by the City of Turin and the Piedmont Region. The Turin Province provides infrastructure support for the e-learning platform and collaborates in coordinating the municipalities. While many member municipalities do not participate with direct funding, their staff does collaborate by participating in the formulation of the project’s specifications. The MUDE Piedmont Portal introduced new procedures to facilitate interaction between public administrations and citizens/professionals. The portal uses such tools as blogs and forums that innovate not only the management of these relationships but also the image of the public administration itself in terms of transparency and collaboration. A call center guarantees essential operational support, especially during the initial phases of the system’s use. MuDe’s builDinG perMit inforMation systeM is closely relateD to tHe real estate reGistry ManaGeD by tHe AgenZia Del territorio. The MUDE system is characterized by its approach to information focused on built “objects” and their characteristics and alterations. In administrative practice, the enormous wealth of information contained in building permit applications submitted for