Integrating GIS with utility Information management Systems
Steven W. Uhrick
P.E., Chief, Technical Services Section, Environmental Engineering Division
Broward County Office of Environmental Services, 2555 West Copans Road
Pompano Beach, Florida, 33069, U.S.A.
E-mail: Suhrick@co.broward. fl.us
Daniel H. Feinberg
GIS Specialist, Montgomery Watson Americas, Inc., 560 Herndon Parkway, Suite 300
Herndon, Virginia, 22070, U.S.A.
E-mail Dan.Feinberg@us.mw.com
Abstract
The Broward County, Florida, Office of Environmental Services (OES) is developing a water and
wastewater master plan. As part of the master planning effort, OES is implementing a geographic
information system to automate mapping and data management operations and to develop automated
links between the GIS, an existing infrastructure database, and hydraulic models. The GIS
implementation and system integration required a carefully planned database design, custom application
development, and significant organizational changes. A pilot implementation was performed to test the
results, and the GIS design, applications, and procedures are being updated accordingly. This paper
discusses the challenges of linking independent information systems with the newly-formed GIS.
Introduction
In the past few years, advances in infrastructure management technology have been occurring at an
accelerated pace. The development of database management systems (DBMS) and geographic
information systems (GIS) are greatly expanding the potential to integrate independent utility operations,
computer information systems, and applications. This paper describes the integration of an existing
infrastructure inventory system database and hydraulic modeling applications with a newly developed
GIS for the Broward County, Florida, Office of Environmental Services (OES) water and wastewater
utility operations.
Primary objectives of the integration effort include utilization of the OES’ existing infrastructure
management system database as a centralized database, development of a GIS to query and display
infrastructure data and to generate map products, and development of GIS-based applications to
automatically prepare water and wastewater hydraulic models. This paper provides background for the
integrated information system and a brief description of the system organization, and describes the
methodology applied to integrate the infrastructure management system, GIS, and hydraulic models. The
resolution of conflicting representations of water and sewer network facilities and the development of
automated routines to transfer information between several end-user software packages are described.
Also discussed are organizational and operational changes made to support the integrated system.
Broward County is located on the southeast coast of Florida between Dade and Palm Beach counties.
The OES, one of the five oflices of the Public Works Department, is responsible for both retail and
regional water and wastewater services. OES provides regional wastewater service from the 80 m.g.d.
North Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant and provides raw water supply to several communities via
the County’s Regional Raw Water Supply System.
OES is responsible for planning, construction, operations, maintenance, customer service, and financial
management for its retail customers, as well as providing water for resale to Coconut Creek, a City of
33,000 residents. Retail service is provided to three non-contiguous districts ranging from the northern to
the southern borders of Broward County totaling in size to 44 square miles. OES retail operations serve
50,000 water customers from water plants with a total capacity of 52.7 m.g.d. through 600 miles of
distribution mains. 33,000 wastewater customers are served by 340 miles of gravity sewer, 190 lift
stations, and 70 miles of force main sewer. The number of new customers increases by 1 percent per
year. OES currently has 350 employees and has a five-year Capital Improvement Program budget of
$240 million.
In 1994 OES made the decision to replace its 1988 Master Plan. The new Master Plan effort has the
traditional master plan goals and some additional goals including the following:
- Set performance goals for the retail water and wastewater infrastructure and then compare
existing facilities to those goals to determine where improvements are needed;
- Set performance goals for operational practices and then compare existing practices to those
goals to determine where improvements are needed;
- Forecast new infrastructure needed to serve future customers;
- Construct new hydraulic models of the water distribution system and model the wastewater
collection system for the first time;
- Integrate several independent information systems in use within OES; and
- Convert the OES’ 350 water and wastewater system maps from paper to GIS format.
The Master Plan is being prepared by Montgomery Watson, Inc. with heavy involvement from OES
staff. All final deliverables will be in electronic format (GIS, database, CADD, word processor for the
report document) so OES staff can maintain the Master Plan into the future.
