Northern Kentucky Sanitation District No. 1 Integrates Maintenance Management and GIS
Collection Systems Integration
To take advantage of the software features now implemented on site, the district took on the
huge project of converting and manually entering details from about 30,000 historical work
orders. Once the initial data was entered in the system, district personnel were able to recreate
routine maintenance work using the specific GIS application. "Now we have the flexibility to
schedule work by drainage areas," said Braun, explaining how the maintenance management
software application has provided the tools necessary to effectively manage the system’s work
orders. The subset functionality available in the specific GIS application allows district personnel
to select and assign basins to routine maintenance work orders. Scheduling work directly from a
map allows more efficient resource utilization by centralizing the work performed. Once work is
completed, this work history is available to all the software database users through ArcView or the
rest of the database application suite. The program provides a complete history of each line,
all the work performed on the line, and a list of all of the equipment used to complete each task.
GIS Integration
While the work history was being entered the GIS Department was working to improve their
maps. The Sanitation District shares data with several partner agencies. The original planimetric
maps were created from aerial photos taken in 1985 and projected on the Lambert Conformal
Conic in the Kentucky State Plane NAD 1927 coordinate system. The sanitary sewer maps were
digitized on top of these planimetrics. Recently, the partner agencies decided to move to a more
accurate coordinate system from the Albers High Precision GPS Network (HPGN) revisions to
NAD 1983. With storm sewer mapping projects pending, the district decided that
implementation of the new software database application would be a good time to make the
conversion. Coordinate corrections were made in ARC/INFO, and the GIS Department used a
toolkit of the specific GIS application to update the databases with the new coordinates.
The toolkit is a map maintenance utility shipped with the specific GIS application. It is an
ArcView extension adding flexibility to map maintenance. The software allows users to update a
map and a database from several different data formats including drawing interchange files
(DXF), shapefiles, and GPS unit outputs. Data quality checks are built into the map maintenance
utility. They ensure the data being transferred is reasonable, valid, and does not modify previous
GPS submissions.
Entreprise Wide Usage
In addition to the GIS and Collection System departments, other public works professionals
associated with the agency utilize the software on a read-only basis. "They can easily get to the
information they need," Braun concluded, "They don’t have to be computer literate or a technowiz
to use the software and view information."
The Future
"I’m sure we are not using (the software) to its fullest potential," said Braun, "right now we are
just trying to input the inventory data and determine procedures for rehabilitation." As more
information is collected through the maintenance management software database and
complementary sewer management software applications, Sanitation District No. 1 will improve
its ability to assess sanitary sewer rehabilitation needs, find and correct problem areas, and
improve work efficiency.
In addition to sanitary sewer systems, the Sanitation District has acquired the software
application for storm systems to track storm sewer inventory and maintenance. Currently, the
Sanitation District is working with local contractors to conduct a detailed inventory of the storm
sewer using GPS technology. The District also plans to purchase additional software applications
to track fleet and equipment to enhance management of fleet operations and to track equipment
maintenance and inventory.
