Leveraging GIS Beyond Mapping
Land Base Development
Since a high level of accuracy was desired, we chose high resolution aerial photography,
which needed to be conducted during perfect weather with no foliage. Photographing our
1000 square mile service area took more than four years. In those days, digital storage was
more expensive than labor, so digitizing the photos (rather than using a raster land-base
layer) was the only way to go. The digitizing of the land-base was completed in mid-1982.
During that process, we decided to scrap the idea of including sidewalks and driveways.
Pipe and Service Asset Development
Also by 1982, we began converting our gas mains, valves, and regulators from paper maps
and drawings into the main and services portion of our FMS. By 1983, we started converting
our service record cards.
As many utility companies discovered at this time, the conversion process was tedious,
expensive, and for some, overwhelming. But rather than abandon our vision and investment,
we upgraded to a newer and much faster generation of graphics hardware workstations, and
contracted out the remainder of the pipe and service asset conversion. Over the next five
years, we completed the conversions, and made several improvements to the system
configuration and hardware, evolving into our “second generation” GIS.
Early spatially spatially intelegent solutions
Ten years after we started, we were finally publishing and distributing copies of electronic
maps to our engineering, operations, and field personnel, realizing the initial part of our
vision. But the part about connecting systems and users to better manage the assets and
customer relationship still remained.
Network Analysis. One of the first “beyond mapping” solutions we developed was a direct
interface between our FMS and our Stoner Network Analysis model. By 1988, we were
adding over 10,000 customers per year to our system. This interface enabled us to extract
portions of our as-built piping network to the model, and better examine our growth
alternatives.
Graphic Inquiry. In 1988, we expanded FMS access to users via a new graphic interface
that no longer required dedicated workstations – they now had direct desk-top PC access.
We also provided several graphic inquiry tools that enabled users to access facility
information easily. For example, if a customer called reporting a leak, a customer service
representative could call-up the location within the FMS, and direct leak response personnel.
A Critical Internal Study
By 1990, a number of factors that drove our decade long development of FMS had changed.
Deregulation, competition, and perhaps the most critical of all, upper management. A new
management team had called for a re-examination of all our FMS. This study not only revalidated
our vision, but garnered additional support from our upper management team. The
study identified several additional “beyond mapping” solutions that needed to be developed
at an accelerated pace.
On-Line Service Updates. Due to the volume of new services being added, we enabled a
“decentralized” approach to performing and validating these updates. Prior to this time, all
facilities modifications were performed on the graphics workstations. Now, they could be
performed on PC’s.
Safety Sector Analysis. Our piping system model provided a number of benefits. By
performing traces of our model, we were able to define and locate those valves that could
safely isolate sections of our system in the event of an emergency. The Safety Sector
analysis became part of our overall emergency response plan.
