Water & Wastewater Treatment

www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | DECEMBER 2015 | 35 In the know Digging deeper: geographic information systems Evolution of GIS from AMP5 to AMP6 Primary GIS use in AMP5: ● Collecting data ● Adding sensors and telemetry to networks; driven by greater accessibility and fall- ing cost of the technology and the development of smart city concepts ● Creating 'big data' Anticipated GIS use in AMP6: ● Consolidating data through Business Intelligence (BI) into useful, accessible infor- mation ● Converting data into available intelligence ● Big data analytics ● Sharing data; encouraged by government bodies such as Ordnance Survey and the Environment Agency making data freely available ● Location intelligence: all water company data relating to location can be leveraged to add an extra dimension to analysis surveyed due to the time lag between the site visit and a surveyor's ndings being made available to the project team. The approach was incompatible with the scale of the task. Black & Veatch's Information Management and Analytics team addressed this by creating an online platform for managing the surveyors and capturing the data they were gathering. Surveyors were given 3G enabled iPads allowing them to receive online details of the surveys they were undertaking, and to upload their survey ndings in the eld. Each survey plan was created using a live feed from a database created from historic data. Surveys usually included circa 200 pits. Surveyors received the plan on their iPads as GIS enabled maps. The process of allocating survey plans to the ten teams could take as little as half an hour. This saved a signi cant amount of administration work and improved the quality of allocation process. Once in the eld the iPad's GPS pinpointed a surveyor's location. This removed any ambiguity about which asset they were surveying and, because the feed to the map was real- time, the possibility of the same asset being surveyed repeatedly. Upon reaching a location identi ed from the historic database, the surveyor uploaded information about the asset – or its absence - and a photo using the iPad's camera. The data was shared online with the central database, making it available instantly to all surveyors and oŠ ce- based members of the team. By using customised o‹ -the-shelf soŒ ware the system could be operated by sta‹ without specialist GIS training. Each survey took around 15 seconds. The teams were able to cover around 2,000 cable pits per day. Having a live online connection between database and surveyors allowed the creation of real-time dashboards. Reporting included: • Daily updates by each team: allowing the challenges of underperforming teams to be addressed • Breakdown of asset condition: asset data that did not correspond with the historic databases was easy to access; photos helped assess the feasibility of full inspection • Time out on site: location 'pings' returned show how long a surveyor was in the eld. This mobile GIS application would not have been viable six months ago. At that time the technology to enable surveying in this way was not available in a cost-e‹ ective manner. The falling cost of data coverage and greater availability of map soŒ ware, however, have led to demonstrably rapid advances. The pace of change is not likely to abate. Dashboard showing real-time, on-site updates from team surveying location and condition of 30,000 utility assets in urban locations

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