NEW GEOMETRIC NETWORK IMPROVES SERVICE AND QUALITY

When West Hempstead Water District was ready to start developing their digital water supply and distribution system management program, they asked H2M to create a new GIS. In the process, we converted their existing AutoCAD-based distribution map into an ArcGIS geodatabase format. The new GIS map contains over 15 themes, including roadways, street names, water mains, valves, fire hydrants, tanks, buildings, parcels, and municipal boundary lines.

The water distribution system was also digitized into a “geometric network” format. This format allows the District to perform special GIS functions in the future, such as plotting a main break and automatically identifying which valves need to be closed. In addition, the District could automatically determine which customers are affected by the break and generate notification emails.

Distribution system water mains, valves and fire hydrants were all placed into the GIS along with the available attribute data, such as main sizes. Over 167 historical valve sketches and field notes were scanned and hyperlinked to their respective geographic valve locations. We provided and installed the new GIS on the District’s computers, making a free, read-only version of the GIS map available for District personnel use. The District is in the process of planning the continued development of the GIS to further improve their operations and management capabilities.