Engineering and billing staff members have had the similar problem locating parcel maps, as-built drawings, and records of survey and route maps by physically searching for documents that may or may not exist. Historically, searching for these important records has been time-consuming and therefore, a costly and weighty procedure.

The implementation of a spatial-based assets management system based on Autodesk MapGuide technology revolutionized the workflow process at Cabanatuan City Water District (CCWD), the largest and most progressive city in Central Luzon Island.

Cabanatuan City Water District is a semi-public owned water service agency that encompasses approximately 200 square kilometers and serves a population of approximately 300,000 people. The Water District is required to keep complete and detailed inventory, including location and condition of all assets and facilities.

In 1996, CCWD started implementing geographic information systems (GIS) by creating digital maps of building footprints and facilities. While the engineering department was responsible for updating the maps, a copy of the DWG file went to the Billing department for reference purposes. This however did not meet CCWD’s requirements of an integrated, real-time GIS for all the departments. They needed a solution that would increase the efficiency of the field crews, yet not be cost prohibitive.

CCWD chose Pacific Data Resources (PDR), Inc., an engineering solutions integration group, to investigate how CCWD can meet their requirements. Through inter-department consultations, PDR discovered that a web-based mapping application would provide the water agency a low-cost solution for map and database integration.

In this regard, PDR utilized Autodesk MapGuide in creating Atlantis. The system consisted of four modules that became the foundation for the newest addition to the GIS project. The four modules are: Facilities Mapping, Concessionaire Mapping, Work Order, and Monitoring of Pumps.

CCWD engineers and PDR immediately saw the efficiency and simplicity of MapGuide, and identified it as the right technology to accommodate these modules. The water agency also recognized the power of MapGuide technology to present data in real-time and provide access to staff district-wide at lower cost.

The enterprise database consists of tabular attribute data. GIS layers, depicting the District’s highly complex water distribution system, were created using existing digital DWG maps, paper maps, engineering design documents, as-built plans, and field surveys.

Due to the nature of their work, the Engineering Department did not have access to the SQL billing database for their facilities. With this, the department utilized MS Access for their attribute tables. One of the reasons CCWD chose MapGuide was because it could connect multiple disparate database at the same time.

Atlantis proved to be a center piece in integrating data and application in a water utility which generally has large amounts of data from a variety of categories. The applications, especially web-based application provides great accessibility and can be implemented with user-friendly interfaces.

Because of the additional benefits, field workers like meter readers and disconnectors now have access to maps and concessionaire information. Instead of viewing paper maps, they are now able to view and print location maps with exact directions and concessionaire information. New concessionaires also benefit from the new system as the waiting time for new connections has improved tremendously. Estimates for pipe length running from the tapping point to the consumer’s water meter is done using MapGuide’s measure feature. It eliminates the need for an actual site inspection for new service connections.

With the District’s centralized data warehouse and network users, it shows that accessing GIS data through a LAN system with the web-based GIS solution would be the answer to their problem. Distributing geographic information over the web allows real-time data integration in a cost-effective manner. The interactive maps allow users to query the data to derive more information.

Even if data collection and database creation is a costly and time-consuming process, it is certainly sensible when the data can be appropriately used to improve the organization’s daily operations. At CCWD, the web-based asset management applications provide the non-professional GIS users with easy and fast access to the centralized GIS data to assist them in their day-to-day work.

It also makes it easy for a water utility to work seamlessly across platforms and to manage water systems in an enterprise environment. Using Pacific Data Resources’ experienced development team and MapGuide in creating Atlantis, has provided CCWD new benefits that they previously could not achieve.

PDR’s use of MapGuide gave CCWD a familiar, easy-to-use, graphical interface of four Internet web applications. Even persons with little or no knowledge on GIS have found Atlantis easy to use. MapGuide will be automatically installed if the plug-in is not available. This makes the client environment virtually free from system administration and results in a considerable amount of time savings for the Information Technology Department. The security module limits access and use of specific map models and layers to specific end users. Along with MapGuide’s comparatively low cost of ownership against a desktop GIS application and considering that a large number of end users can access the map server concurrently, the purchase of MapGuide has been a huge success.