Water & Wastewater Treatment

www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | DECEMBER 2015 | 33 In the know Digging deeper: geographic information systems Bringing data to life By creating accessible visual models of geographical data, GIS represents a leap forward for specialist teams in water utilities Paul Hart ConSulTanT, InfoRMaTIon ManaGEMEnT anD analyTICS BlaCk & VEaTCh G eographic information systems (GIS) allow users to see geographic aspects of a body of data in ways that can be interrogated and manipulated - with a combination of speed, flexibility and detail - that has not been available previously. Consequently GIS brings the ability to visualise, question, analyse, and interpret data; to understand relationships, patterns and trends – sometimes in wholly new ways. way they act. This means that while their approaches to GIS differ, some common ground exists. Most commonly GIS are being used by teams of specialists: discrete technical groups familiar with the GIS and how they can help meet water companies' needs. This currently encompasses groups such as network modellers and asset planners. An example of this application of GIS is the Pipeline Routing Optimisation Method (PROM), which is currently used by five water and sewerage companies. The method's ability to quickly generate pipeline routes that reflect specific priorities has been useful in AMP6, when outcomes need to reflect a range of differing customer priorities. The GIS at PROM's heart allows different weightings to be assigned to factors which affect pipeline routes: environmental designations, geology, buried utilities, hydrology and pumping requirements, for example. Weighting can be customised to reflect things that customer consultations show are valued. The method quickly provides high-level routes which rapidly broaden choices at the optioneering stage. GIS have also been used to help minimise the impact on customers in a major UK city for a water company's entire AMP5 infrastructure programme. The Project Risk Optimisation Visualisation Engine (PROVE), was developed to represent visually the client's entire programme of work in the city spatially and over time. In essence it was possible to see where on the ground work occurred, or was planned, for any given time; past, present and future. Where customer outcomes are to the fore, this sort of tool can help significantly in the management of disruption and reducing the impact of work. PROVE's databases included information about customers with special needs, both domestic and commercial, as well as vital community resources such as hospitals and schools. By combining this information with a risk rating score it was possible to readily assess the consequences of activity on the ground. Because the tool carried information of historic as well as forthcoming work it highlighted which areas of the city were subject to intensive activity and enabled co-ordination of separate projects in a manner that reduced disruption. Typically, the GIS expertise within The Project Risk optimisation Visualisation Engine (PRoVE) in action. Colour denotes conse- quence (number and vulnerability of customers), while height denotes probability (number of projects during time period) – information vital for an approach based on customer outcomes Water companies have large physical asset bases, distributed in varying concentrations, over regions of mixed topography, geology and land use. As a result GIS have a potentially significant role to play in planning and executing capital and operational programmes. Water companies are not a homogenous group. Differences in ownership, size, and business goals – for example – influence the

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