At both meetings you will see a preview of how water, wastewater and stormwater utilities can benefit from an ArcGIS Online Subscription.  The detailed agendas for each meeting are:

Northern California Water/Wastewater GIS User Group Meeting

Registration Website

Tuesday May 15, 2012 – 9 AM to 12 PM
Central Contra Costa Sanitary District
5019 Imhoff Place
Martinez, Ca 94553

• 8:30 – 9:00 – Check-in
• 9:00 – 9:15 – Introductions
• 9:15 – 10:00 – Integrating GIS Technologies at Central San
• 10:00 – 10:15 – Break
• 10:15 – 10:45 – Utilizing GIS and Modeling to Prioritize Aging Pipeline Replacements / Repairs – Innovyze
• 10:45 – 11:30 – Extend GIS data and apps throughout your organization using templates, out-of-the-box viewers, and ArcGIS Online Subscriptions
• 11:30 – 12:00 – Discussion

Southern California Water/Wastewater GIS User Group Meeting

Registration Website

Thursday May 17, 2012 – 9 AM to 12 PM
City of Huntington Beach
2000 Main Street,
Huntington Beach, Ca 92648

• 8:30 – 9:00 – Check-in
• 9:00 – 9:15 – Introductions
• 9:15 – 10:00 – Integrating GIS into Water and Wastewater Operations in Huntington Beach
• 10:00 – 10:15 – Break
• 10:15 – 10:45 – Utilizing GIS and Modeling to Prioritize Aging Pipeline Replacements / Repairs – Innovyze
• 10:45 – 11:30 – Extend GIS data and apps throughout your organization using templates, out-of-the-box viewers, and ArcGIS Online Subscriptions
• 11:30 – 12:00 – Discussion

Legacy Approach

What we call “The Legacy Approach” to meeting water utility GIS needs was an approach commonly used about 10 years ago.  This approach was typified by water utilities building their GIS from the bottom up, often with many projects over a multi-year period.  With this approach water utilities were spending a lot of time and money assembling a GIS platform and then creating customizations to perform industry common functions.

By assembling a GIS platform we mean that utilities were typically deploying GIS technology components in a piecemeal way, usually as multiple stages or phases of projects to build out their desktop, web and mobile GIS applications. For example start with a desktop GIS to edit data and create maps, a few years later go to a multiuser editing environment, a few years later start deploying web applications than after that deploy a mobile GIS application.   Efforts were often more focused around bringing in pieces of technology (“I’m implementing SDE” “we are deploying ArcIMS”) rather than the applications supported by the GIS technology.  With each new piece of technology brought into the GIS platform, the utility would have to modify existing customizations, build new customizations that utilize the new technology, create new workflows and perhaps make schema modifications.

When talking about the Legacy Approach, we’ve had some astute people say, the term “legacy” has a negative connotation to it.  Absolutely, it does…  today.  To be fair, this was a logical approach years ago, but with the advancements of ArcGIS and more broad advancement in information technology, knowledge about deploying GIS in the water utility industry and the financial realities of running a modern water utility this isn’t a viable approach any longer.

The ArcGIS System Approach

About 5 years ago we began seeing more water utilities taking what we call “The ArcGIS System Approach”.  This approach was typified by deploying ArcGIS as a single comprehensive system or platform for geo-spatial information at a water utility.  This enabled water utilities to meet their general GIS platform needs with a COTS system with all the components designed to work together.  Water utilities need to utilize GIS through desktop, web and mobile applications as well as to integrate GIS to other enterprise systems through IT standards and have all applications working off a single authoritative source of data.  At a platform level, this is what the ArcGIS System does.  Deploying ArcGIS as a platform eliminates the need for the utility to assemble a custom GIS platform in a piecemeal manner.

Implementing ArcGIS as a single geo-spatial platform at a water utility still leaves a gap to meet the needs of an individual water utility.  That gap is comprised of industry specific needs and unique organizational needs. Water utilities were bridging this gap by “do it yourself” implementations/customizations, purchasing 3^rd party applications that sit on top of the ArcGIS Platform and/or hiring consultants.  If you think about meeting the GIS needs of a water utility as project, the ArcGIS System Approach enables water utilities to reduce the cost, time and risk in comparison to the Legacy Approach.

It is important to note that many water utilities used Esri’s water and sewer datamodels as a way to address some industry specific needs, in particular having a geodatabase schema to store water and sewer pipe networks in GIS.  The old Esri water and sewer datamodels were both ground breaking and very beneficial for water utility GIS, however their focus on pipe networks caused water utilities to have to build out their own custom schemas to accommodate things like operational data and base mapping.

As we interacted with water utilities that were deploying ArcGIS as platform, we observed that there were common customizations that utilities were creating to meet their industry specific needs or more appropriately their industry common needs.  Those customizations are what first drove the creation of the Water Utility Templates which ultimately evolved into ArcGIS for Water Utilities.

ArcGIS for Water Utilities Approach

The “ArcGIS for Water Utilities Approach” is to deploy a focused set of maps and applications that utilize a harmonized information model on top of the COTS ArcGIS platform.  The ArcGIS platform meets the general GIS platform needs of a water utility and the ArcGIS for Water Utilities maps, apps and the Local Government Information Model meets industry common water utility needs.

Deploying the COTS ArcGIS platform gives water utilities desktop, web, and mobile GIS applications configured for a water utility as well as the ability to spatially enable other enterprise systems.  The COTS platform utilizes a single authoritative source of data and includes ArcGIS Online for cloud based geo-collaboration.  So simply put the ArcGIS for Water Utilities maps and apps and the Local Government Information Model are configurations deployed on top of the COTS ArcGIS platform.

The ArcGIS for Water Utilities approach enables water utilities to focus their GIS efforts on meeting true organizational needs through do-it-yourself activities, purchasing 3^rd party applications that sit on top of  ArcGIS for Water Utilities and/or by engaging consultants.  The types of efforts typical to bridge the gap between ArcGIS for Water Utilities and an organization’s unique needs are extending the maps, apps and/or the information model or deploying new maps and apps that utilize the information model.

By following the ArcGIS for Water Utilities approach water utilities can reduce the cost, risk and amount of time it takes to meet organizational GIS needs.  Of course to maximize your benefit from ArcGIS for Water Utilities, you must embrace the industry common functionality included in the maps, apps and information model and also have a clear understanding where true organizational needs require additional effort and the effort is worth the cost.

ArcGIS 10.0 Service Pack 4 (SP4) for English, is now available to our users for download via the ArcGIS Resource Center. This Service Pack contains performance improvements and maintenance fixes. Here are links to the downloads:

ArcGIS 10 SP4

ArcIMS 10 SP4

ArcSDE 10 SP4

Release Note: ArcGIS 10.0 Service Pack 4 for the other five languages (French, German, Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Spanish) will be released in the next two weeks. A follow up blog entry will be posted to announce the availability once they are ready.

If you do want to narrow your focus, just click a Category (under Technical Communities and Industry Communities) or Tag to see the posts for that particular area. You should find a category or tag that matches up with the subject area for each of the old separate blogs. A few may have been overlooked or thought to be unnecessary. We appreciate your feedback on specific categories or tags that should be added to help focus in on subject matter that is of interest to you.

We think you’ll find the new organization fits more cleanly to how you use the ArcGIS system a whole.  You can browse, search, or subscribe to the articles as coarse-grained or as fine-grained as you want.  Some still match, like the old Mapping Center blog and the new Mapping category, same goes for Mobile and Geodata.  But some are organized a little better, for example, articles that used to be on the ArcGIS Server blog you’ll find more easily filtered by Web, Services, or Developer, depending on what kind of topics you’re interested in.

Our goal is to make this transition as seamless as possible for you. We’ve worked hard to migrate the 2800+ posts written over the past 5+ years into the new ArcGIS Blog and to redirect old links and feeds to their new location. In a fraction of cases, the migration and redirects of posts and feeds have not been in place or are not working correctly; we are fixing those issues as we find them. Please continue to let us know if you discover any of these.

While redirects are in place, we suggest that you update your feeds at your earliest convenience. This will eliminate the duplication of posts that you may be seeing in your RSS Readers if you subscribed to more than one of the team blogs. You can subscribe to the entire blog feed (http://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/feed/) or you can subscribe only to those categories or tags that are of interest to you, http://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/category/arcgis-online/feed/ or http://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/tag/flex/feed/ for example.

Thanks,

Resource Center Team

The meeting started with an overview and update on ArcGIS for Water Utilities. Presenters from American Water Service Company, New Jersey American Water, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, Erie Water Works, EMA, GIS Solutions and GeoDecisions presented on Capital Investment Planning, Infrastructure Management, Data Integrity, Asset Management, Enterprise GIS applications, and Mobile GIS.

Presentations will be posted to our Team Water/Wastewater web page for those of you who missed the meeting or would like to review.

Thank you to Critigen who sponsored breakfast for our group and EMA who sponsored lunch!  

If you missed the meeting, be sure to attend our next Team Water/Wastewater meeting on July 21, 2012. Registration is FREE and it’s a great way to stay in the loop, or as a forum to showcase your own work and solutions with GIS and Water Utilities.  If you would like to be on the meeting invite list, contact Team Water/Wastewater at iswater@esri.com.

Partners in the ArcGIS for Local Government Partner Specialty provide one or both of the following:

• Complementary applications that are based on the ArcGIS for Local Government solution
• ArcGIS for Local Government implementation services

Recently, several Esri partners have applied to be part of the Partner Specialty, and we are pleased to announce that we now have a growing network of partners that can assist Esri users to install, configure, and extend ArcGIS for Local Government. In the coming days, you’ll see these approved partners highlighted on the new ArcGIS for Local Government resource center.

Several Esri partners (GISi, CyberTech, PenBay, and True North, just to name a few) are already implementing the ArcGIS for Local Government maps and apps in organizations across the country. We will highlight those experiences and build a network of partners to help local governments implement ArcGIS for Local Government in their organizations.

In addition, partners are evolving their application offerings to take advantage of the ArcGIS for Local Government solution, and we’re working with those partners to add their maps and apps to the growing map and app ecosystem. Our goal is to work with those partners to ensure their applications can be deployed with the Local Government Information Model and by Esri users.

You’ll find partner apps in the new expanded gallery on the resource center and can filter the apps by module, ArcGIS platform and version, and contributor. When you select partner contributions, you’ll see a complete inventory of apps available under ArcGIS for Local Government specialty (GISi’s Economic Development App is the first to make it to the gallery). You can also find these same apps in a new group featured on ArcGIS.com.

We look forward to growing and evolving the network of ArcGIS for Local Government partners and providing users with a way to discover which partners can help them implement and extend ArcGIS for Local Government in their organizations.

If you’re a partner and would like additional information on the ArcGIS for Local Government specialty, please contact your partner manager.

If you’re a user and would like to contact one of the partners in the specialty, feel free to contact your sales representative or the team here at Esri supporting ArcGIS for Local Government.

GIS has always been a system that water utilities relied on to capture individual knowledge, institutionalize it and make it available to all within the organization.  So we thought it would helpful to explore some of the ways GIS can help preserve an organization’s knowledge.

Why is GIS an ideal system to capture information at a water utility?

That’s an easy answer – because you interact with GIS data in the form of a map.  A map is one of the easiest ways for human beings to understand information and water utilities are very map centric organizations.  With a quick look at a map, water utility staff can see where data is missing or incorrect.  Simple interactive mapping applications give water utility workers an easy and intuitive way to add their knowledge.

Even if GIS isn’t the system that a utility wants to permanently store some of the captured information in, you can still can and should use an interactive GIS map as a simple method of capturing information.  Utilities can store information captured via an interactive map in a variety of systems such as CIS, CMMS, EAM, workorders etc.  By spatially enabling these systems with GIS, you can give them a map based front end.  So workers enter data via the map interface and through the integration with GIS the data is stored in the system you want.

How does GIS capture knowledge at a water utility?

Utilities can deploy a multitude of GIS applications using a variety of clients that can capture information and store it in a centralized data repository called the GeoDatabase or send it off to another system.  In plain language – all utility staff can access a shared set of GIS maps and data through whatever is the most appropriate way.  So everyone can contribute their knowledge.  Of course you should only enable staff to edit data that they posses knowledge about.

So your staff can either use the map to contribute new knowledge or can edit existing data on the map. To make it easier for staff to contribute or edit data we suggest you deploy simple to use role based applications.  For example if you want field staff to contribute knowledge, give them a mobile GIS application that is designed for field use – better yet replace their paper field maps with a mobile GIS application.  To make data edits simple for field crews you could just give them the ability to edit a few pieces of information like valve open or closed and create redlines where more complex edits are needed.  A GIS data editor in the office could review incoming redlines and make the appropriate edits.
If you wanted to deploy a web browser based GIS application for office staff in your Maintenance  Department you could let them make some simple edits like setting dates when valves should be exercised and also give them the ability to create redlines where more complex data edits are needed by GIS data editors.

In our example above, the water utility’s GIS is sharing the same centralized GeoDatabase through both the mobile GIS application to field users and the web browser based GIS application to office users.   So everyone is interacting with the same shared data sets.  Each user is contributing knowledge specific to their role because the GIS application they use only let’s them edit data that their department is the steward of.  Both the web and the mobile GIS application allow creation of redlines so a GIS data editor can review the redlines and make edits if necessary or can commit the redlines to a map note layer for all GIS users to see. Now everyone at the utility can contribute their knowledge and it will be stored in a utility wide system that is accessible to all.

How does GIS enable knowledge sharing?

We’ve already covered the fundamental way GIS allows captured knowledge to be shared above. To reiterate – through GIS applications and maps you can enable everyone at the utility to interact with a centralized source of data in the way the best suits their daily work.

Change management is a key to success

In our experience with water utilities using GIS to institutionalize knowledge, the hard part is change management and not deploying the technology.  Some water utilities have a culture where employees are primarily concerned with maintaining their personal information (ie. “my field book”) or their departmental information.   Sometimes this is because there was no centralized place to store information, sometimes this is due to a perception that not sharing information results in job security (“If I’m the only one who knows this, I’m indispensable” ) or increases the chance of getting hired as a consultant after retirement.  So it can be a radical shift in thinking to get everyone bought into the need of maintaining a shared source of information that is accessible to all.

For some water utilities it can be a very radical change to go from a climate where workers are responsible for just their individual information (ie “my field map book”) or their departmental information to being bought into the need and recognizing the benefits of creating and maintaining a shared source of data for all.  So here are some lessons we’ve learned from the water utility community to manage the change:

Get buy in – Sell the importance of building a centralized system to capture knowledge to each department.  Engage with each department, draw out their pain points around creating information or accessing information from other parts of the utility and explain how you will solve that problem.  Point out the benefits to the staff roles in the department, the department as a whole and the entire utility.

Demonstrate the technical solution – after you’ve gotten buy in, go back and demonstrate the technical solution and solicit feedback.   Just by the simple fact you are demonstrative interactive maps, you will put staff at ease.   Through soliciting feedback you’ll most likely end up building a better solution and staff will now have some ownership in the technology and process.

Perform a pilot – Pilot your applications and workflows.   Choose who participates in your pilot project wisely.  Select staff that have a high level of comfort with technology and will champion the benefits to others.  Once you go into production have the staff that participate your pilot be a resource for those around them.

Train your users – No doubt you’ll be deploying applications that are intuitive to use, but human beings like training.  Don’t assume that your apps are so easy to use that everyone will just get it.

Support your users – Establish a formal means of support, such as a person to call, an email alias, etc.  Also printing out a one page user guide is helpful.  Laminate the user guide for your field crews.

Build the proper workflows – If you don’t have the proper workflows to support deploying GIS to capture knowledge from around the utility you will fail.  Pay particular attention to workflows that take information contributed by staff and drive data edits.  If you can’t keep up with data edits staff will stop using your system.

Close the loop – If you don’t allow users to edit data directly (for example they create a redline) than when someone acts on a redline and makes an edit let the person who made the redline know action was taken.  This could be as simple as an email back to the person who created the redline.

Recognize your knowledge contributions – Publicly recognize and reward staff that contribute new knowledge or enhance existing data.

Want to share your thoughts on using GIS to capture and share knowledge at a water utility? Please leave a comment.