GIS in Action 2019

Applications of GIS at NW Natural
Laurel Garrett and Shivon Van Allen, NW Natural
NW Natural provides natural gas service to over 740,000 customers in Oregon and Southwest Washington. A team of two specialists and nine technicians utilize GIS to map and manage assets, interface with customer account information, support data for feeds to internal clients, draft construction plans, and manage emergency response. Mapping and modeling natural gas distribution is critical for maintaining network integrity and meeting regulatory requirements. The importance of GIS is recognized by company leadership, and opportunities to update technology and expand applications are growing. Current and future projects include conflation to utilize public parcel landbase data, implementing an improved field mapping solution, and planning for the transition to the ArcGIS Pro utility network. This presentation provides an overview of everyday uses of GIS at NW Natural and highlights several utility-specific applications and challenges. We will also demonstrate an emergency response feature of a NW Natural web application.

Field Mapping Challenges and Solutions for Utilities
Patrick Gronli and Ben Hillam, Portland General Electric
Maps are integral to safety and reliability for the utility crews who keep the gas flowing and the lights on in our community, but the culture that exists "in the field" has traditionally been reluctant to adopt new mapping tools and workflows. The data behind the maps are often misunderstood by map users, who are quick to identify discrepancies or inaccuracies but who aren’t aware of the complex work processes that exist to get the data from design to construction to maps. It’s a virtual juggling act for us GIS Professionals, who must manage not only data and map products, but expectations as well. At PGE, opportunities to improve GIS data accuracy, visibility, and accessibility are ever-present; this discussion will introduce some of these opportunities and the solutions that have been developed to help our crews “keep the lights on”.

GIS In Utilities: Using Spatial Analysis for Stormwater and Sanitary Sewer Asset Repair Prioritization
Gavin McRobbie, City of Hillsboro Public Works Department
The City of Hillsboro Public Works Department shares a common problem with most municipal utility agencies: aging infrastructure and deferred maintenance due to funding shortfalls. Historically, stormwater and sanitary sewer utility repairs within the City of Hillsboro have been prioritized based mostly on CCTV inspection ratings combined with a labor-intensive video review to ensure these ratings are valid (they are often not). While identifying the most important repairs is a thoughtful process, the approach is subjective and doesn’t easily allow for comparison amongst all assets throughout the City. In order to reduce bias and increase efficiency, a standardized scoring system has been developed for a data-driven, risk-based approach to rank and prioritize repairs. Utilizing spatial analysis alongside asset attributes and inspection data, this score provides a holistic assessment to predict an asset’s likelihood and consequence of failure. Employing an automated process to generate the score enables staff to quickly identify the worst assets city-wide or within a focused area while reviewing only a fraction of what was previously required, thereby freeing up valuable staff time for other projects.