The NPMS — A decision support tool
Samuel W. Hall
U.S. Department of Transportation
Office of Pipeline Safety
400 7 th Street, S.W.
Washington, DC 20590
Abstract
The USDOT Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) has partnered with other federal and state
agencies and the pipeline industry to design and cost-effectively build a National Pipeline
Mapping System (NPMS). The NPMS has been established and consists of a single
National Repository and presently twelve state repositories. The NPMS will depict the
location of the natural gas transmission pipelines, hazardous liquid trunklines, and
liquefied natural gas facilities operating in the United States. The system will be used by
OPS as a decision support tool for emergency planning, focusing inspection resources,
and determining where additional precautions are needed to protect people and the
environment. The NPMS will also allow federal and state agencies and the pipeline
industry to exchange pipeline locational data. The presentation will include an overview
of the NPMS and focus on how operators can participate by providing their pipeline data
to one of the participating NPMS repositories. Standards have been developed that
describe the content and format requirements for the pipeline data and the submission
procedures for the pipeline operators. Software templates have also been developed that
guide the operator through the process of creating digital metadata and attribute files to
include with their data submission.
Introduction
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) has been
working with other federal and state agencies and the pipeline industry in the creation of
the National Pipeline Mapping System (NPMS). The NPMS is a full-featured
geographic information system (GIS) and is now operational. The NPMS is collecting
the geospatial and attribute data and metadata of the natural gas transmission pipelines,
hazardous liquid trunklines, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities operating in the
United States. The success of the initiative relies on the participation of the pipeline
industry. OPS is working to reach out and educate the industry about the NPMS and how
they can participate.
The NPMS has and continues to be an inclusive process. From the beginnings of the
NPMS, there has always been a collaborative effort involving state and federal
government agencies and pipeline industry representatives. The need for teamwork in
the operation of the NPMS continues. One of the goals of the NPMS is to minimize the
level of redundancy in the collection of pipeline data. To this end, several state agencies
already collecting pipeline data have been selected as state repositories for the NPMS.
The ultimate goal is to better coordinate state and NPMS submission requirements to
alleviate multiple submissions.
OPS is collecting several other geographic data layers to be used in the NPMS. These
layers include natural disaster probability areas, hydrography, and transportation
networks. Large liquid operators can expect a final rulemaking in November of 2000.
The rulemaking, entitled “Pipeline Integrity Management in High Consequence Areas
[Operators with 500 or More Miles]” incorporates several geographic data layers. “High
Consequence Areas”, or HCA’s, are defined as populated places, commercially navigable
waterways, or Unusually sensitive areas. Populated places consist of layers derived from
the Census Bureau’s Urban Areas and the Incorporated Places boundary files.
Commercially navigable waterways are derived from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’
Navigable Waterways data set. Unusually sensitive areas are currently being created and
represent environmentally sensitive areas based on endangered species habitat and public
drinking water supplies.
OPS and pipeline operators will use the NPMS as a decision support tool. OPS will use
the system to depict pipelines in relation to the public and national resources, to
coordinate information with other government agencies, to better prepare for a possible
pipeline release, and to work with other government agencies and industry in the event of
a release. Pipeline operators will have access to NPMS data and associated data sets
through an Internet mapping application.
