Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District Pilots ArcGIS Utility Network for Its Sewer System
Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District (EVMWD) is a public, nonprofit agency with a mission to provide reliable, cost-effective, high-quality water and wastewater services to the people it serves. EVMWD has leveraged enterprise geographic information system (GIS) technology to support this mission. When ArcGIS Utility Network was released, EVMWD recognized the need to migrate to this next generation solution.
Although EVMWD wanted to move from ArcMap to ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Utility Network, its staff did not have the expertise to understand what was needed for the migration. Questions that needed to be answered before moving forward were
What benefits can be gained by implementing ArcGIS Utility Network?
Does EVMWD data need to be improved to meet implementation requirements?
What is the level of effort and skill needed for implementation and beyond?
As straightforward as these questions might sound, they were not easy to answer. EVMWD had a comprehensive dataset that was well connected topologically and to other business systems with industry-standard feature classes and fields. Sewer data included most invert elevations, with accurate geometry and attribute information. It also linked to other enterprise systems such as Maximo. The geometry was in 2D format; however, the invert elevations from as-built drawings were present as attributes for most of the data.
Figure 1. This is a 3D view of the sewer utility network. Z-coordinates were updated from invert elevations.
Partnering with DCSE, EVMWD decided to perform a pilot study of ArcGIS Utility Network for its sewer system. With a treatment plant, a couple of lift stations, and four subareas, the Horsethief Canyon was an ideal pilot area. The project was planned and managed in an agile project tracking environment. EVMWD participated in meetings with DCSE to monitor progress, provide information, and make critical decisions. The data migration process included identifying and addressing data gaps, mapping source data to the sewer asset package, updating the z-coordinate on the sewer infrastructure, and configuring subnetworks and containments. DCSE also deployed Utility Network to ArcGIS Enterprise to test accessing, tracing, and editing on the enterprise. Though Utility Network can be set up on a file geodatabase, its maximum potential is experienced using ArcGIS Enterprise by sharing data and applications (such as tracing and isolation).
Headquartered in Laguna Hills, California, DCSE is an Esri partner holding the Utility Network Management Specialty. With more than 30 years of experience, DCSE supports utilities with a broad range of GIS services, including road map development, data migration, integration, and application development. DCSE's core strengths are in implementing ArcGIS Enterprise with specialized frameworks such as the Utility Network and ArcGIS Parcel Fabric.
The project was championed by EVMWD staff—Darryn Flexman, Director of IT, and Anthony M. Vazquez, GIS technician. Flexman and Vazquez partnered with Adam Stein, Ali Diba, Latha Palakur, and Haritha Vendra from DCSE.
"Partnering with DCSE on the pilot of our sewer utility network gives us useful insights as to the approach we need to take to integrate the Utility Network for our water and recycled water systems, which will enable our field staff to take advantage of GIS tools not previously available to them."—Darryn Flexman, Director of IT, EVMWD
Figure 2. This network diagram provides a visual of the flow in the system, from terminal maintenance holes to the treatment plant.
The pilot study resulted in an understanding of how to implement ArcGIS Utility Network. Challenges and exciting functionality were identified. The team learned that implementation of Utility Network requires data preparation ahead of time. The Utility Network framework was stable and provided a complete asset package and the necessary tools needed for the migration.
Data visualized in a 3D format; advanced tracing capabilities; network diagrams of the sewer sheds; and most importantly, improved data quality demonstrated to EVMWD that the migration effort was well worth it. EVMWD intends to use this functionality for both office and field solutions. The enhanced capabilities and data accuracy will benefit staff in all aspects of system management.
EVMWD's GIS staff was thoroughly involved in all the migration steps and kept the ball rolling with their efforts following the pilot. Currently, the sewer system migration of the whole system is in progress, and EVMWD is also in the process of migrating the water system.
What's really important is that modernizing our GIS will enable us to create applications that make it easy for EVMWD staff to perform geospatial analysis and understand the wastewater system without the necessity of being an expert in GIS.
—Anthony M. Vazquez, GIS Technician II, EVMWD
Learn more about ArcGIS Utility Network for Water
Connect with the Water team