Building a G.I.S - a fist full of dollars,or,a few dollars more

Building a G.I.S - a fist full of dollars,or,a few dollars more
C. Eugene Talmadge, R.A.
Planning Administrator and GIS Program Manager
Las Virgenes Municipal Water District

Background:
This paper discusses some of the numerous aspects of GIS Program implementation – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Each GIS Program implementation goes through all these steps to one degree or another. The start is typically the infatuation of the magic of a GIS and defining what you think you want from your GIS Program - The GOOD. Then come a long series of many decisions on the GIS Program; deciding where and when to use a consultant for work and assistance, deciding the GIS software platform to be used, making the conversion (or creation) of data to populate the GIS database, conducting the inventory of existing data sources (tabular data, drawings, etc.), developing the many “applications” to be used for the GIS to assist in management decisions, staff training and familiarization with the GIS, and numerous other requirements to be satisfied – The BAD. Finally, there is the realization of the actual costs in time, dollars and “sweat equity” needed for the organization to implement the GIS Program to reach success – The UGLY. But none of these aspects need be “show-stoppers “. Rather, they form the framework for the implementation of the overall GIS vision for an organization. They show incremental project accomplishments (victories) for the organization to see, feel and use in the normal course of events. Recognizing and overcoming these potential pitfalls allows the GIS Program to become a major part of the information systems used by the organization’s management to make better-informed decisions regarding its core business and support to its customers.

Las Virgenes Municipal Water District (LVMWD) began developing the concept of an enterprise-wide GIS program in 1994 with an initial Feasibility Study of GIS Needs and Requirements. Since then the district has moved from the task of winning approval from their Board of Directors to implementing their GIS Program and a wide variety of GIS applications. It was key to receive not only the endorsement of the concept of a GIS Program but the commitment to long-term funding of the program as well. This move from dream to reality was a long road of many action steps fraught with setbacks, cost escalations, and many other unknowns. However, with a good strategic vision and plan in mind, the GIS dream can become reality.

LVMWD is a small to medium sized water/wastewater utility the serving a 122 square mile area in the western portion of Los Angeles County in California. It provides potable water, recycled water, and wastewater treatment services to a population of approximately 70,000 persons (behind 19,500 metered connections) in the unincorporated County area and the incorporated cities of Calabasas, Hidden Hills, Agoura Hills and Westlake Village. The wastewater service area also includes portions of eastern Ventura County (refer to Figure 1).

Figure 1: Las Virgenes Municipal Water District Location
LVMWD is a member agency of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD). LVMWD has no local water supply of its own (surface runoff or wells) and is 100% reliant on MWD for all its potable water supply. LVMWD has over 250 miles of potable water transmission and distribution piping, 60 miles of recycled water distribution piping, and 50 miles of trunk sewer mains. The overall setting of the district’s area is in the Santa Monica Mountains with services provided at a wide variety of elevations (700 to 2600 feet above sea level). Accordingly, there are numerous pump stations, tanks and other facilities for the many pressure zones of service. LVMWD owns and operates its own 10,000 acre-foot seasonal storage reservoir and water treatment filtration plant. (This storage is used for seasonal “peaking” requirements as well as emergency supply in the event of natural disaster, like earthquakes, that would interrupt normal water deliveries from MWD.) The district operates and maintains its own wastewater treatment plant, and it provides recycled water for irrigation within its service area. The district’s service area in Los Angeles County is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: LVMWD in Los Angeles County

Recognizing the need for GIS (“The Good”):
By the early 1990’s, some senior staff and management at the district was convinced that LVMWD needed to implement a GIS program. They had learned enough about GIS technology to be convinced that it would provide a significantly better tool than existing methods and procedures for performing many of the tasks that were central to the utility’s effective business. Key elements were master planning, demand analyses, facility operations, and customer service. As noted above, the district’s geography and method of operations places a significant importance on pumping, distribution, storage, and pressure regulation to serve its water customers. To effectively manage this type of operation, there was a significant need to have current, accurate information available to analyze data with a geographic reference to optimize operations and service. Included were overall facilities management, system operations, mapping and real estate interests, and information management and integration between diverse sources of data, and emergency response management, to name a few.

Further, the district did not have in-house capability to perform hydraulic modeling for its water systems and relied on consulting engineering support for that planning function. Operations and planning staff were constantly struggling with ways to present their modeling results to managers and the Board of Directors. Further, the hydraulic model being utilized was “static” in nature and could not adequately address dynamics of changing operational scenarios. There were other limitations to the water demand analysis regarding the inability of the system to relate changes in land uses with resulting water demands. Also, there was no easy means or method for overlaying the pipeline system on a base map to illustrate how various changes in parameters would affect the water distribution system.

At that same time, the district was just coming out of an extended drought period and it was apparent tools were needed to support aggressive water conservation programs they were mandated to perform within their region. They needed better means to analyze and thematically map trends and variations in water consumption within its 30,000 parcels. In addition, district staff needed relatively detailed land use information with which to analyze, design and plot individual irrigation plans for the many large land holdings that exist with the district’s service area. Periods of drought are common to the Southern California region and Drought Management Plans are quite important in managing the scarce resource of water. The GIS was recognized as a significant analytical and quantitative tool in that effort.

Finally, senior staff realized that taking steps to integrate the district’s many diverse sources of information would pay dividends in allowing staff to work more efficiently. Using GIS technology would allow staff to catch up with backlogged work and, most importantly, to maintain the district’s high standards of customer service by allowing quick access to accurate and reliable facility infrastructure information in response to customer calls.

Beginning the GIS Implementation (more of “The Good”):
In 1994 the district entered into a contract with a consulting firm to conduct a GIS Needs and Feasibility Study. The consultant first determined the nature and extent of the district’s information systems architecture (a Windows based system with PC’s networked on a WindowsNT system). Numerous interviews were conducted with staff members to determine their respective management information needs, potential uses for GIS technology, and to determine a relative sense of priority of various GIS applications that may be developed. The consultant also conducted an extensive inventory of databases already maintained by the district staff (the kind of data, format of the data, software used, current uses of the data, frequency of updates, and the like). This inventory of data assets represented potential links for the GIS to use so that data was not being duplicated unnecessarily and that regular updates did occur. The results of this inventory caused the district to standardize its data formatting so that everything would be maintained and available in a Windows compatible format, such as Excel or Access, and that the data would be maintained in a unique location of responsibility to ensure integrity.

The Feasibility Study report was presented and adopted by the district Board of Directors in 1995. The study concluded that a GIS was not only feasible but was necessary for integration of numerous data sources, proper facilities management, providing numerous mapping outputs, and relating spatial data to real world questions and inquiries for management attention and decision. The study also laid out an implementation strategy and timeframe of accomplishment, cost parameters and assumptions, and a priority order of high, medium, and low GIS applications.

Bump in the road (“The Bad”)
As with many projects that are large, complex, and implemented only after a significant investment in time and money, there are always delays that occur. It may be fear of the unknown, other priorities taking precedence, or simply unwillingness to make the investment without fully understanding the potential results or outcome. In any event, the GIS implementation plan was put on “Hold” for two years awaiting available funding and other resource commitments.

This delay, however, did not mean there was no action on planning for the GIS implementation. Rather, the hiatus afforded staff an excellent opportunity to revisit the overall GIS implementation plan and more fully understand the steps needed to win support and commitment to the GIS. Staff was able to review and understand more of the state of the overall GIS industry and where it was headed, develop the strategy of how to proceed with subsequent steps, garner support from other staff and the Board of Directors, and refine budget estimates. In general, the GIS implementation involved numerous strategies and decisions:

Development or acquisition, of base map information (parcel specific with roads and other details relevant to utility operations);
Refinement of a scope of work and the decision to use consultant services to develop a detailed GIS implementation plan. This included an RFP and related evaluation criteria for the GIS software platform, development of a data conversion RFP, implementation of high priority GIS applications, and other support services to the district staff;
Refinement of the priorities of GIS applications to be implemented. This was done in consultation with other district operations and customer service staff;
Integration of Master Planning efforts of demand analysis and facility requirements into GIS data base information;
Training and exposure to GIS potentials by market research and discussion with other users of GIS, especially in the water and wastewater industry. This was done to glean the best of the “lessons learned” by others and blend them into our thinking so that we didn’t make the same errors or mistakes they did;
Recognition that internal databases needed to be consistent and accessible to the GIS when needed. This effort was undertaken with the Information Systems (IS) and Operations groups;
Analysis and cataloging of record drawings of water and sewer systems to develop an inventory and record of each into an MS Access data base for easy reference and retrieval; and,
Based on the previous Feasibility Study, develop a detailed cost estimate and plan for GIS implementation.

Despite the two-year gap in “measurable” progress, there was higher level of confidence and understanding by staff in where the GIS program was going and how it was going to get there successfully. This planning phase proved to be very valuable in later implementation phases.

A Phased Program Budget/Implementation (Recognizing “The Ugly”):
The LVMWD Board adopted and approved the GIS Program and Implementation Plan in late 1997 (to start in fiscal year 1997-98) with an implementation budget of $1,038,600 to be expended over a 3-4 year time period. This was a significant milestone to be achieved yet the challenge now placed on the staff was formidable and set in motion the commitment to build the GIS. (The overall budget as adopted is presented in Table 1. Also shown for reference are costs as they have actually occurred during the implementation period to date.)

Table 1
LVMWD’s GIS Implementation Budget

Expenditure Category	Budget	Actual
1. Consulting (GIS platform software, database design, custom applications, etc.)	$248,600	$285,000
2. Hardware Acquisition	$85,000	$20,000*
3. Software Acquisition	$55,000	$15,000
4. Database Development
- Base Mapping	$80,000	$55,000/yr
- Pilot Study Data Conversion	-	$85,000
- Contracted Data Conversion	$450,000	$225,000
- In-house Data Conversion	$75,000	$25,000*
5. Training	$45,000	$45,000*
6. Other Contractual Support	-	$25,000*
7. Application Development	-	$150,000*
TOTAL	$1,038,600	$995, 000- 1,040,000*

-Estimated costs. In some cases other district funds have been used for some acquisitions, notably for district network compatible upgrades serving other functions and the GIS. Also, some costs continue to accrue as expenditures are made annually, or will occur in the near term future.

It was now time to execute the various contracts and staff effort needed to perform the work. The planning, understanding, and confidence referenced above are now really put to the test.

The first step was to negotiate a contract with a consultant to develop the detailed Implementation Plan. This was accomplished and the next major milestone was the identification of the GIS software platform that would be used for the overall implementation. The consultant assisted in preparing the Request for Proposals (RFP) for these services and products and acted as a technical advisor in evaluating the proposals received.

Although the Board had approved a multi-year budget, the District’s implementation team knew that on-going support for the program relied on achieving early results. To this end, we worked with our consultant to define a system development plan focused on the early delivery of GIS capabilities. We knew that the development of the water and sewer system data models and subsequent database conversion would take a relatively long time to accomplish, so we did not want to wait on the completion of these databases before showing results. We decided to first focus on establishing a base map and implementing a few key applications that would be visible to our Board and senior management.

Building an appropriate GIS support environment (Getting “Better”):
An important aspect of the success of our current GIS operation as well as our GIS expansion program is the development and maintenance of an institutional support environment. At LVMWD we have achieved this through two primary mechanisms: 1) establishing the institutional responsibilities to ensure the GIS is properly administered and 2) providing for routine, on-going training.

Establishing Institutional Support
The district splits responsibilities for administering the GIS between two primary divisions. Responsibility for maintaining the network and performing database and system administration is assigned to our IS Group. They are also responsible for administering the district’s office LAN/WAN and Customer Information System. 5 LVMWD staff assigned to the Planning division perform the technical administration and maintenance of the GIS. The Planning Administrator is serving as the overall GIS Program Manager. The District’s GIS “Guru” is a Civil Engineering Associate who has received extensive training at the software vendor’s training facilities. Two Drafting Technicians perform day-to-day use of the GIS program as well as updating existing databases related to various applications. The final user is the Civil Engineering Assistant whose responsibilities deal primarily with district real estate functions (easements, rights-of –way and the like). What is notable about this institutional arrangement is that the district has not attempted to formally create a separate GIS Division, or hire additional staff. Rather, the GIS program has been directly integrated into the on-going work functions of the Planning staff. The “pre-GIS” roles and responsibilities of these 5 individuals have not substantially changed. In the case of the Planning Administrator and the Civil Engineering Associate, GIS responsibilities have been added to their previous work functions while the others who perform GIS functions and database updates have altered their current work methods (using manual techniques or Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) and the like) to using the GIS to perform map and data updates.

Providing On-going Training
LVMWD has also made a conscious commitment to provide on-going training and personal GIS skill development of the staff. The district budgets approximately $15,000 per year to send its GIS staff to GIS vendor training for core training or for training updates as the vendor’s software evolves. The GIS Program Manager and “Guru” also attend numerous sessions in advanced training with the vendor, professional conferences, and participation in related “User Groups” for Water and Wastewater industry GIS professionals. They also assume responsibility for the training and daily assistance to others in the effective utilization of the GIS. The district has also opened use of its GIS to other agencies in the area to perform training and prepare land-base related studies and project work facilitated by the GIS format.

Implementation Plan
In general terms, we decided to phase our implementation as follows:

Phase 1:

Develop base map
Develop a few high visibility applications (land-based)
Implement an initial configuration of GIS hardware and software
Implement water and sewer data conversion pilot

Phase 2:

Complete water and sewer geodatabase model
Complete water and sewer data conversion
Implement maintenance and basic user applications
Expand the GIS hardware and software configuration to add users

Phase 3:

Implement key system integration applications (link to Customer Information System and hydraulic modeling)
Expand the GIS hardware and software configuration to add users

Base Mapping
An issue confronted by all water utilities is that they need an up-to-date base map but their primary business has little to do with updating the base map – they are base map “information users” but they are not base map “maintainers”. The issue of most importance is maintaining current parcel-specific information for the parcels within the jurisdiction. Lot line splits, parcel consolidations, tract map recordation, and changes in parcel ownership happen very often (we experience about a 10-15% change in the parcels each year). Yet the district has no direct access to the data to know when these changes occur – it is information retained and updated by the County. Some water utilities “bite the bullet” and hire the staff needed to perform base map maintenance, while other water utilities make arrangements with local city or county agencies to receive periodic updates to their base map.

Figure 3: LVMWD Service Area

Since the majority of LVMWD’s service area was in Los Angeles County, an early plan had considered purchasing the county’s base map and then receiving periodic updates. Upon investigation, however, we learned of a third-party company serving as a valued-added broker of the county’s base map information. The company provides a subscription service that provides an integrated map database of parcels, easements, street rights-of-way, Thomas Brothers map information (including street names, political jurisdictions, parklands, schools, and the like), assessor data, other county public works information, and a commercial-style real estate ownership data (similar to TRW information about “improved properties”). The subscription was available with annual updates for approximately $50,000 per year for the District’s service area (and buffer areas as well). We elected to use the subscription service because it delivered an immediately useable base map and allowed us to avoid other more costly alternatives. Refer to Figure 3 for the district service area and Figure 4 for the district’s parcel base map with the water distribution system super-imposed.

Figure 4: Water Distribution System and District Service Area

Showing Results
Achieving early success in acquiring a base map allowed us to move quickly in developing several key applications that are highly visible and that provide real value to the District. During the early years of our GIS implementation program we feel these applications played an important role in showing early results. Particularly effective applications that we developed during this early time period included:

1. Board of Directors Division Boundary Map.
For this application product we combined information collected from the registrar of votes with our base map to prepare maps and data summaries of registered votes within the geographic divisions represented by each of our Board members. This application product allowed our Board members to see the power of the GIS and its ability to quickly produce information of real relevance to their view of the world (refer to Figure 5).

Figure 5: District Division Boundaries

2. Development Activity Tracking
As a regional entity, LVMWD has responsibility for tracking land development activity and periodically reporting this information to the local governments within its service area. Early in our program we developed a tracking application that allowed us to prepare maps and data reports of the status of development activity within our region. We now routinely provide this information to the governmental agencies in our service area, including the cities of Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Westlake Village and Hidden Hills, as well as the County of Los Angeles and other resource agencies (National Park Service, State Parks Service, and the like). This analysis also assists in district budget preparation by showing when various development fees may be received (refer to Figure 6).

Figure 6: Development Activity Tracking

3. Sewer Annexation Tracking.
LVMWD tracks new developments to determine if they are occurring in areas where sewer infrastructure had been built using bond funding. When new development occurs within these areas, fees must be calculated and assessed for the repayment of bonds by these new customers. Before GIS, this task had been a research-intensive process that required a fair amount of time and effort. With the development of this application, were we able to show to the District’s management and Board how GIS can create real work efficiencies and improve the District’s effectiveness in capturing revenues.

4. Other Land-based Applications
The district assesses a standby charge on all parcels in the district that either currently receive or have the potential to receive water service. Exemptions from this charge are possible based on certain criteria. The GIS was an ideal media to show district management this parcel specific information in a single glance. This graphic portrayal told the whole story in a single picture, while the related database provided accurate budget estimates of income from this revenue source (see Figure 7).

Figure 7: Water Standby Charge Properties

District staff has also performed many “ad hoc” queries and prepared numerous exhibits for presentations and other analyses with the GIS to support funding requests from outside agencies (federal and state grant funding), to develop management information tools for review and many representations of facilities mapping.

One small project done with the GIS compared various County regulations concerning disposal of wastewater biosolids throughout the state of California. Data for this project was obtained from public internet sources and publicly-available mapping sources. The outcome was a map that clearly indicated the limitations on disposal methods and locations that may be available to the district.

Another very useful application was relating tabular data developed to record the location and type of leaks that have occurred on district water mains and service lines. By integrating this database to the geographic locations shown in the base map information, it provided a very clear representation of potential problem areas that may need special attention in future repair and replacement programs for the district (refer to Figure 8).

Figure 8: Leak Report Map

Current Status and System Integration Goals
Currently, the district has completed Phase 1 of its GIS development program and is well into implementation of Phase 2. The base map has been developed and refined for our needs, land-based applications have been implemented, all record drawings have been scanned and indexed and are ready for data conversion, and the water and sewer system data conversion pilot has been completed.

The work done on the pilot data conversion project allowed the district to make considerable refinements to the data model that would be used for the overall data conversion effort. The software system bought and deployed by the district initially evolved through a significant upgrade and philosophical shift in data structure and design. Because of that, the district made the strategic decision to contract directly with the software vendor to complete the pilot data conversion effort.

When the initial pilot study and data conversion effort was begun, we were utilizing the older version of the operating software. However, the change in the software moved from a strategy of database design in a coverage system format to an object-oriented system with an associated geodatabase. Concurrent with the pilot data conversion effort, the district became a “Beta” test site for the new software system. This partnership between the district and the software vendor led to numerous changes and refinements in the overall data model that were ultimately incorporated into the release of the new software system-wide for the vendor. This whole effort became very rewarding for the district because we could be in on the ground floor of developing the new data model. We also decided to perform the pilot study utilizing the new data model and geodatabase rather than perform the data conversion in one system and then try to migrate into the new system at a later time.

The district has recently awarded a contract to a consultant for full data conversion services direct into the new geodatabase structure utilizing the data model developed by the software vendor that has been customized by the district for particular local conditions. The overall data conversion work will take approximately 8 months. The resultant revisions made to the data model are shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9: Water Data Model

With the completion of our water and sewer system data conversion, we will move into the 3 rd phase of our GIS program that will focus on achieving several key system integration goals. A primary goal will be to achieve a data-sharing interface between our Customer Information System (currently an Orcom software program that is being replaced by another system) and the GIS. This important point of integration will allows us to collect and analyze water use data in support of our conservation program. It will also us to quickly respond to customer information requests by providing a link between our customer database and our GIS facility database.

Another system integration priority at the District is achieving tighter data integration between the GIS and our hydraulic model. We are currently working with Haestad Methods (an older version of Cybernet was used and integrated with the GIS base map when the district updated its Potable and Recycled Water Facilities Master Plans in 1999) to explore the best approach for sharing data between these two information systems. We anticipate that with a tighter integration between the GIS and the hydraulic model we will improve our ability to update the hydraulic model, increase our ability to generate and analyze alternative system improvement scenarios, and enhance our ability to display and report the results of our water modeling.

Finally, district staff, with the help of selected special consultant effort, will also be creating new applications for use by all in the district to better manage the information and facility needs. We will also link internet capabilities into the GIS for not only internal use but by our customers as well. One example of this effort will be developing further the intranet and internet applications of the GIS to our internal and external customers for information about the district.

Conclusions:
LVMWD’s experience with getting approval to implement GIS has and will continue to be an exercise in constant and determined effort that pays huge dividends. Realization of this dream – both in terms of finally realizing our GIS vision and in terms of implementing a system that is now recognized as making an important contribution to the District’s operations – is a story of success. Our experience, success, and honor of being recognized within the GIS industry as a leader and an award-winning program, provides other organizations with an example to follow. Those who find themselves in situations of “luke-warm” support for GIS implementation can benefit from our story and it provides encouragement and ideas for them to follow. Looking back, our current success seems to be attributable to several factors:

Constantly keeping the message alive
working diligently and creatively to educate all levels of the organization
Including the Board and top management in routine briefings on GIS
Focusing on building understanding on how GIS would benefit the organization and developing a consensus to move forward
Using the right mix of staff and consultants at key junctures of the program to develop the plan, assisting with winning approval, preparing a database design and data conversion services, developing custom applications, and follow the execution and implementation of the plan
Seek opportunities to develop partnerships and direct contract support with software vendors to assist in implementation planning and execution (especially quality control measures)
Generating early results that are meaningful and visible to the organization and your management