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Daily Workflows with GIS + GPS
Oldham County Water District
Who & What We Are
Providing the best quality water to it's customers has always been the priority at OCWD! A staff of 20 serves more than 8600 metered customers. The organization has been a long-time user of mapping technology. Located adjacent to the State of Kentucky's largest city, OCWD is still considered a rural water district. Some quick facts -
- Water is sourced from 10 wells along the Ohio River
- The wells are 130 feet deep in the aquifer
- The system has 370 miles of water main
- There are 13 water tanks for system storage
- 3.5 million gallons of daily water use
- 13 million gallons of daily treatment capacity
- 1.2 billion gallons of water treated annually
Public facing web application.
Well field and water treatment plant location.
Two of ten production wells located adjacent to the Ohio River. These are 130 feet deep into the alluvium, where natural filtration occurs prior to being pumped to the water treatment plant. The flood waters seen here would have no impact on the purity of the water when pumped.
There are ten pumps at the water treatment facility. A clear well with a capacity of 2 million gallons is adjacent to the building. OCWD uses SCADA to monitor the system in real-time. The antennas on the tower relay the signals for viewing through a web page.
What Will Be Covered Today
- Brief history of GIS and GPS use at OCWD
- Daily workflows for OCWD field crews using GIS/GPS
- Using GIS/ GPS for 811 locates
- New construction and as-built collection processes
OCWD GIS History
OCWD was originally formed in the early 1960's, with infrastructure as old as 1953. Digital mapping of the water system began in 2001 with the first purchase of GIS software. A majority of the system was digitized using scanned drawings. Many as-built and as-designed representations were scanned, georeferenced, and used to digitize buried components as close to actuality as possible.
At the same time a map grade GPS was obtained. This was used to collect and map visible infrastructure. The unit shown required downloading and post-processing of field data. Normal accuracy at the time of collection was sub-meter, as a general rule. Once finalized, this unit was capable of 30 centimeter.
Timeline of significant changes -
- 2007 - adopted the Esri ArcGIS Solution for Local Government template
- 2013 - purchased a survey grade GPS unit
- 2016 - hired a full-time GIS manager
- 2017 - signed a Small Utility Enterprise License Agreement with Esri
- 2017 - purchased first high accuracy GNSS receiver for use with mobile devices
GIS + GPS Workflows
After a diligent research and testing period, OCWD purchased a new receiver, connecting it to a dedicated tablet. The one selected ( Eos Arrow Gold ) is a centimeter accuracy device with RTK (real-time) connection. As staff were trained with the new equipment, it became evident that field capturing workflows could be made more efficient.
In order to track locations that needed to be captured in the historic workflow, a "Field Communications" layer and web map had been constructed. As staff would alert the GIS department that something needed collected with GPS, it was placed on the map as a 'to-do' item.
The first GPS + Collector combination was assigned to one of the two OCWD field crews. A new workflow was attempted where the crew would use the Field Communications layer to capture new meter installations. This would preclude the need for an extra trip for later collection.
This process was also extended to any work the crew did that would add better information to the system data. In this case a natural rupture provided an opportunity to install an additional valve which would limit the number of out-of-service customers for future breaks in the area. The new configuration was collected, then added to the system map shortly afterward.
In many cases, a rupture allows for updating of the water main location. This small leak repair resulted in a nearly 9 foot correction. This can have huge ramifications when responding to line locate requests. Especially when marking smaller diameter lines.
“Installing each meter used to cost us approximately $211.91 in labor and fuel. With the high-accuracy mobile GIS workflow, the cost per meter went down to $111.19.” - Kenny Ratliff, OCWD GIS Manager
Line Locate Requests
Website for Kentucky 811.
New Installations and As-Built Capture
Bonus Material!
Dashboard for tracking field communications activities.
Dashboard tracking locate request activity.
Web map tool that allows for filtering of field activities or archived records, by various attribution.
Summary - What does the future hold?
“We want to be as accurate as possible capturing our data. Although extremely helpful it is not necessarily for today, but I firmly believe it will be of greatest importance years down the road, when the cost of potholing and repairs are sure to be much more expensive.” - Russ Rose, OCWD CEO
- Kentucky future legislation may dictate an additional GPS / Collector configuration
- Continue to expand the use of high accuracy GNSS collection for more efficiency
- As mobile application (Collector) capability evolves, update staff training to leverage (such as map scaling, snapping)
- Implement the new Eos line locate connection for use with wire locating wand
Thanks for attending today's webinar!
Presenter Information -
Kenny Ratliff, OCWD GIS Manager
kratliff@oldhamcountywater.com
Phone - 502.222.1690