Using ArcGIS Mobile to Support Field Operations

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Using ArcGIS Mobile to Support Field Operations
NCTGITA Professional Geospatial Luncheon December
4, 2008
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Tarrant Regional Water District

• Created in 1924 as a political subdivision of
• State of Texas
• Facilities located in eight North Central Texas
• counties
• Two primary missions
• Water Supply
• Flood Control

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TRWD Water Supply

• District provides only raw, untreated
• water.
• Primary wholesale customers are
• Arlington, Fort Worth, Mansfield and
• Trinity River Authority.
• Ultimately serves 66 cities in an eleven
• county service area.
• (Denton, Ellis, Freestone, Henderson, Jack,
  Johnson,
• Kaufman, Navarro, Parker, Tarrant, Wise)
• Current service area population is 1.7 million
• projected to increase to 4.3 million by 2060.

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GIS at TRWD

• Pipeline Utilities Asset Management
• Hydrologic Modeling Studies
• Future Water Supply Studies
• Provide Support to Real Estate,
  Environmental, Engineering, Operations

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Field Operations

• TRWDs field operations are extensive, cover a
  large geographical area, and span multiple
  business functions
• - Pipeline Right-of-Way
• - Dock Septic Inspections
• - Facilities Inspections
• - Utility Crossings
• Paper intensive
• Streamline GIS support to field operations

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Field Operations (Pipeline ROW)
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Initial Phases

• Develop a field application that met the
  following criteria
• - View enterprise GIS datasets
• - GPS locate
• - Light weight GIS functionality
• - Seamless integration with current hardware
  software infrastructure
• - Easy to upload/download field data
  (eliminate manual steps as much as
  possible)
• - Expandable
• COTS vs. Custom Development

• ArcGIS Mobile 9.3 Platform

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TRWD Field Mapper Phase I
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TRWD Field Mapper Phase I
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TRWD Field Mapper Phase I
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TRWD Field Mapper Phase I
Field Unit
VPN
LAN
Web Service
ArcSDE
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TRWD Field Mapper Phase I
Field Unit
VPN
LAN
Web Service
ArcSDE
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TRWD Field Mapper Phase I
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TRWD Field Mapper Future Plans

• Expand Pipeline module to support specific
  field activities
• - Cathodic Protection readings
• - Pipe to Soil readings
• Expand field capabilities to other departments
  and business functions
• - Land (Inspections)
• - Environmental (Septic)
• - Operations (Permitting Inspections)

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TRWD Field Mapper Future Plans
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Advantages of ArcGIS Mobile

• Leveraged existing architechture (HW SW)
• Out-of-box or highly customizable
• Easy data synchronization
• Up to 50 licenses by default (cost parameters)
• Highly efficient for repeatable, structured
  workflows

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Lessons Learned

• Imagery is tricky
• Caching can be time consuming (if imagery is
  involved)
• Limitations on file sizes
• Compromise between differing HW specifications
  (disk space, screen size, etc.)
• GPS accuracy
• Relatively new technology, so there are some
  bugs

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