Automation of TV Inspection Sewer Data

Automation of TV Inspection Sewer Data

Jozef Szilagyi
IMS Programmer Analyst

Geoff Linschoten
Infrastructure Management Specialist

Capital Planning & Data Technologies Planning and Public Works Department The Regional Municipality of Halton

Introduction
The Regional Municipality of Halton is located on the northwest shoreline of Lake Ontario in southern Ontario, Canada. Geographically, Halton encompasses over 938 km² (362 mi²) of land, including a 25 km (15.5 mile) shoreline on Lake Ontario. In 1996 the population was approximately 339,000, this population is expected to reach almost 442,000 by 2006, with this anticipated growth Halton has become one of Canada’s fastest growing areas.

The Planning & Public Works Department for Halton provides planning, design, construction, operations, maintenance and management of water, wastewater, regional roads, and storm water service on regional roads for the four municipalities located within the region.

In the case of Halton, the estimated value of this infrastructure used to deliver these services is currently over $2.8 billion (cdn). Given the anticipated growth described above, Halton will be challenged by the competing needs of maintaining, upgrading, and replacing the ageing infrastructure while forecasting the future needs of a growing system.

One of the key components of the infrastructure that Halton is responsible to maintain is over 1,350 km (838 mi) of wastewater mains. Not unlike most municipalities, Halton’s past practice has been to use Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) Inspection Survey reports to assist with maintenance, design, and to identify the long-term needs of the existing underground wastewater collection system.

These CCTV inspection reports consisted of paper documents containing photographs depicting the general pipe conditions. Also included with the reports were notations of the observations captured by the CCTV inspector, along with a VHS videotape of the actual pipe inspection. This video was obtained to assist staff in the review of the pipe condition and to provide a tool to verify the conditions identified. As one can imagine, reviewing the VHS video, was both time consuming and tedious work.

The purpose of this report is to discuss the requirements used to develop an automated condition audit and inspection program for the wastewater pipes currently installed within the Region of Halton.

System Requirements
To identify future requirements and enhancements to the CCTV system, a detailed analysis of the existing CCTV inspection system was conducted. This initial review indicated that there was a definite need to enhance and streamline the CCTV inspection process. The following shortcomings were identified within the existing process:

Several individual groups within the department were responsible for ordering CCTV Video inspection reports for pre-design, post construction survey and maintenance requests;
The VHS videotapes and hard copy reports were a challenge to store and share due to the district offices being located at different locations across the region;
This paper-based system was not integrated with the corporate GIS infrastructure data; and,
The actual pipe condition ratings varied due to the individual pipeline inspector’s interpretation of pipe conditions, hence there was a potential for the same pipes to be surveyed and interpreted differently.

A detailed review of the automated systems available on the market was conducted. This review demonstrated that there was no system available on the market that met all the specific requirements identified by Halton users.

The main objective of the proposed automated system was to ensure that there was current, consistent, reliable, and functional data available and accessible to support the decision making process.

To meet this objective the requirements of the new system were identified and documented. The needs identified for the new system were to:

Allow all approved staff the ability to order and track new CCTV reports;
link the data to GIS (Geographic Information System) data;
identify pipe deficiencies in a consistent manner;
estimate the pipes remaining service life;
identify upgrade/replacement options;
prioritize work order activity;
schedule further inspection or evaluations;
link to the Systems Operations group Work Order Management, and
provide for remote access of the information to outside field staff and district offices.

Intranet Based Document Management
The first step in streamlining the existing manual process was to scan all of the relevant or current paper reports (over 16,000) that were stored in separate district offices located throughout Halton. The industry standard JPG file format was chosen and used for the scanned file format. A database structure was also developed that allowed Halton to record the pertinent attribute information associated with each report. This information consisted of the following:

The date of the inspection;
The location of the survey (including street names and the municipality);
The contractor that carried out the survey inspection;
Linkage of the documents to actual pipe ID’s in GIS; and
Capture pipe material and survey lengths.

This attribute information was collected and entered in an MS Windows based application developed with Visual Basic. The input application ensured that all of the required data fields were populated before any data was uploaded into the main system. Once the scanned images were available, and the required data fields were populated, the input application had the ability to automatically upload the renamed report image files. The newly obtained report information, along with image names, was then populated and made available in a centralized multi-user database system. Access to the scanned reports and data was made available by developing a custom intranet based application. This Web based application was designed to query and report on the available reports based on street names and municipality name. A component based on ESRI’s Internet Map Server was developed to allow users the ability to navigate an interactive map of the Region. To accomplish this task the user simply selects a sewer pipe on the map, and the available reports are displayed.

Figure 1 - CCTV document management system diagram
Centralized Inspection Report Order Management
The next step in the developing the system was to streamline the report administration and management process by eliminating the potential for duplicate ordering, determine order status, and process invoices by different groups within the department. By centralizing and streamlining the above functions, Halton was able to:

Reduce administration time;
Eliminate duplicate requests;
Data quality checks for CCTV contract adherence; and
Ensure all new data is imported into the system; and,
Monitor CCTV order status.

Data Collection Standardization
Due to the non-standardized methods used for the inspection of pipe conditions by previous contractors, past inspection reports varied in content. This resulted in interpretation problems and the subsequent ranking of the inspection details was not consistent. An investigation into a standard method of interpreting and collecting CCTV pipe condition was undertaken.

In 1999, Halton started to acquire sewer inspection data conforming to the Manual of Sewer Condition Classification from the United Kingdom Water Industry Engineering and Operations Committee. The UK WRc (Water Resource Centre) standardized methods provide an internationally accepted inspection-coding system. This allowed Halton to collect survey data that is consistent in data collection methodologies and urvey interpretation.

Implementation of the standardized data collection system was achieved through a detailed Request For Proposal (RFP) process, seeking contractors to provide this service. The RFP outlined the technical requirements for the inspection methods and data delivery to be used, by the contractor. These requirements included:

Operators were to be trained and licensed to collect data in a WRc format;
ability to adhere to the digital image standards to ensure image consistency;
detailed camera equipment specifications including resolution, consistency, focus iris illumination and speed;
detailed data media and report requirements; and
collection of observational photographs.

Pipe Condition Rating System
Based on the newly available WRc coded CCTV inspection data, the existing system was re-designed to automatically assign a structural and maintenance “score” to each pipe condition. With scores assigned to each defect, the system has the ability to calculate total structural and maintenance scoring, and to flag problem areas requiring further investigation. In 2002 this data will be linked to a new Work Order Management system.

With each CCTV observation scored, a total pipe rating is assigned for each pipe that is surveyed. A rating from 1 to 5 is assigned based on the following total scores as outlined by the WrC.

Total WRc Score	Total pipe Peak score	Pipe condition description
1	<10	No Problems
2	10 – 39	Possible Future Defects (Minimal Risk)
3	40 – 79	Defects But Not Collapse
4	80 – 164	Collapse
5	>164	Immediate Need

Figure 2 – Calculated structural scores for pipe and brick sewers.
The new system also has the functionality to link the calculated pipe condition scores to the GIS data sets. From this, thematic mapping can be produced to:

analyse geographic locations with high condition scores;
analyse the relationships between pipe scores, pipe materials and the age of the sewer;
plan for maintenance activities to resolve problems such as root penetration;
assist in the planning of the capital works program; and
plot trends in pipe conditions to assist in the Infrastructure Management System.

The web based reporting application was also revised to produce graphical representations of pipe observations based on the WRc data.

Digital Video Integration
The defect tracing system in use has the ability to record the time, location information for each observation and defect condition that occurred within the survey inspection. These time observations are linked to the video recording of the inspection survey. As identified earlier, historically this video was always obtained on VHS tape. With the ability of capturing inspection information to a precise observation time within a database, it is now possible to link a defect observation to a specific time contained on the inspection tape.

Throughout the implementation it became apparent that by acquiring digital copies of the CCTV inspections, the existing system could be modified to allow the ability to provide a "hyperlink" to a specific inspection video segment for instant playback.

Within Halton’s RFP, digital videos were requested in the following formats;

Industry standard MPG 1 format delivered on CD-ROM media; and
Streaming video versions of the MPG 1 video in Microsoft’s Windows Media Player ASF format delivered on CD-ROM media.

With the availability of the digital video files, the web-based application was modified to allow:

Linking to the WRc observation data and the digital inspection videos;
Enterprise wide access to CCTV inspection video files stored on a network server and streaming the content across the Intranet; and
The ability to review locally available MPG 1 digital videos that are not on the streaming server.

Figure 3 outlines a block diagram of the revised system.

Figure 3 – Enhanced CCTV management system diagram
Implementation Challenges
Throughout the implementation a number of challenges were identified and resolved, including:

Ensuring that the data is correct and complete;
Ability of video inspection time to "drift" from the WRc inspection time; and
Data importing to the system.

In order to resolve these issues various checks were included within the applications to assist with the QA/QC process. Manual systems used to review and retrieve information were replaced with various queries, comparisons, logical checks, etc. within the applications.

Detailed research into the “drifting” issue was conducted and a resolution was built into the input application. It was determined that the error was occurring upon the initial data capture by the contractor. A solution was created that enabled Halton to rectify the problem within the application and update the data collected to date. The contractor was also informed of the issues and the data capture agreement was reviewed and modified where required.

Goals and Benefits
Throughout the development process, the primary goal of Halton was to become more proactive with respect to the planned replacement of the mains within the wastewater network. This would ensure better management of financial resources, eliminate costly reactive and emergency repairs and associated downtime, facilitate extending the service life of the wastewater mains where possible, reduce CCTV contract administration time, and deploy information to operational staff more effectively.

Specifically, at the outset of the program, the Region set a number of goals to maximize the value of the work being undertaken, including:

compile a baseline condition report of the wastewater network;
identify where inspection updates or gaps are located;
justify and rationalize projects in order to fairly weigh them in relation to other non-plant and facility projects;
reduce un-scheduled capital repairs;
support long-term and short-term financial planning for capital expenditures and needs;
enhance existing "pro-active" planning and maintenance,
develop a needs/timing database; and
identify reports by age, or where no reports existed.

Halton’s inventory of CCTV reports incorporated in the system to date includes over 820 km (509 miles) of mains. Of these, 246 km (152 miles) have been completed and scored using the new WRc format. The available CCTV reports are providing the basis for requesting additional funding to carry out the required maintenance or replacement needs discovered as a result of the program.

The list below summarizes the improvements and benefits in Capital Planning within Halton through the implementation of the program:

data collected will be integrated with other Project and Financial Planning software currently in use, thus improving the co-ordination and distribution of competing funds;
improved cost savings through economies of scale (maintenance items and small capital); and
integration of identified deficiency corrections with water and area road projects already identified.

Future Initiatives
Having taken these initial steps to evaluate the condition of the existing wastewater network, Halton now needs to determine appropriate future steps and how to manage and best utilize the enormous quantity of data collected.

A number of future initiatives are planned, or in the process of being implemented, to ensure that the maximum value is achieved from this ongoing program. The first step is to complete the assessment of remaining wastewater mains.

Additional planned works include:

Linking the database software and asset information with Life Cycle Analysis routines;
Tracking the geographic location of work orders associated with the CCTV inspections;
Upgrading the software to track the work completed on defects, and update reports to show the improvements;
Interim reports to evaluate the long-term savings realized by the program; and
Integration of the inspection of new mains as they come on-line.

Conclusion
The Regional Municipality of Halton, as with all municipalities today, faces the challenge of maintaining, upgrading, and replacing ageing infrastructure, requiring an effective program to be implemented to ensure that available financial and staff resources are strategically allocated.

Through this project, Halton Region has been able to meet its goal of becoming more proactive with respect to the planned replacement and upgrading of the infrastructure. This proactive approach permits better management of limited financial resources, elimination of costly reactive and emergency repairs and associated downtime, and improved returns on investment due to prolonging the remaining service life of pipes in the wastewater system.

The project involved a systematic approach to the inspection program, including background review, field investigations, data review and report preparation. This comprehensive analysis resulted in the ability for collected data to be organized and stored within a custom SQL database created to specifically allow the ease of retrieval and updating of information. However, users benefit beyond the efficiencies developed to automate and streamline cumbersome processes of the past. The added value of the system allows identification of maintenance and capital needs required on each main inspected, or on a more macro, system-wide basis.