Web-based Knowledge Management Systems
Diane Humetewa, Daniel Baker
City of Phoenix Water Services Department
5616 S. 91 st Avenue
Tolleson, AZ 85353
Introduction
As public water and wastewater utilities move into the 21 st century, the pressure for more
efficient operations, enabled by immediate access to supporting information, grows ever
greater. Fortunately, the explosion of technologies related to the Internet and World
Wide Web have provided us with the capability to access and retrieve information in new
and exciting ways. One way to refer to the systems and technologies that exploit this
information is to speak of “knowledge management systems”. This paper will attempt to
explain the development, application, and use of web-based knowledge management
system in public utilities such as the City of Phoenix Water and Wastewater Department.
Overview of Knowledge Management Systems
Knowledge management systems cover a wide range of information gathering and
presentation purposes. They can also provide information to the greatest cross-section of
an organization, from operations and maintenance staff to the utility director or manager.
In all cases, they provide a point of integration for many seemingly disparate information
systems and applications.
Some of the systems that are candidates for integration with a knowledge management
system include SCADA control systems, computerized maintenance management
systems (CMMS), geographic information systems (GIS), electronic document
management systems (EDMS), operations and maintenance manuals, and many others.
The vision of this integrated knowledge management system, one access point to
enterprise-wide information, is presented in the graphic below.
SCADA systems can be integrated with web technology in a couple different ways. One
configuration is to customize dynamic links to the SCADA historical and alarm database
to view, monitor, and report on specific data. This data can be presented in table, graph,
or other customizable views. Other solutions can also be developed, such as an on-line
operations log that shows the most current system alarms and allows operator entry of
responses. Another, simpler configuration is to use the web-enabled software provided
by most control system interfaces and embedding it within a customized web site shell.
This typically offers the quickest solution but, often, it is also less flexible for integration
with other system data.
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