Each day, in communities across the globe, millions of gallons of water and wastewater travel through underground pipes to be treated, distributed, or consumed. In the U.S. alone, water main breaks have increased by 27 percent in the last six years. The majority of these breaks occur on pipes that are more 50 years old—nearly 30 percent of all installed mains.
Utility organizations tasked with caring for and maintaining an otherwise invisible underground infrastructure need an effective way to identify and manage their riskiest assets.
ArcGIS has become the predominant asset database for water and wastewater utilities, and the Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA) in North Carolina is no exception. OWASA uses the Cityworks web GIS-centric platform to track not just their physical assets but also the work, materials, cost, and inspection data associated with those assets.
For example, the Cityworks-WinCan CCTV interface allows OWASA to track the pipe condition data collected from regular TV inspections. That push-button integration provided by WinCan, a Cityworks development partner, has greatly improved OWASA’s system of engagement for their field crews.
Read: 3 Cityworks software utilities for unique workflows
Now, when OWASA field crews are assigned a TV inspection work order, they can access the work order digitally in their TV truck. Once the TV inspection is complete, the data and media files collected by WinCan automatically populate the appropriate Cityworks inspection fields. Hyperlinks to the CCTV videos are included in the GIS data for specific pipe segments.
OWASA engineers can view the GIS data and media files within ArcMap. Because this information is available through a map, in a single environment, OWASA engineers can plan with greater awareness, ultimately putting them on a path to sustainability.
Read the full story on the WinCan blog.
