GIS Data Migration, Asset Management, and GIS Needs Assessment

Client: Clackamas County Water Environmental Services

Location: Clackamas County, Oregon

About the Project

Clackamas County Water Environmental Services (WES) provides water, sewer, and stormwater services crucial to human health, producing clean water and protecting water quality for Clackamas County citizens. The organization manages hundreds of thousands of utility assets to deliver these services and is committed to making investments to increase the effectiveness of its management strategies. Clackamas County WES recognized that GIS was an essential asset management component and had growing concern that their existing GIS may not be sufficient to meet their business needs.

FLO developed a project that identified strategies that would increase asset management effectiveness through two needs assessments with Clackamas County WES staff. The needs assessments informed our development of the technical foundations required to support Clackamas County WES’s GIS and asset management in addition to the development of GIS-based data models and schemas.

Meet the Client

Clackamas County WES provides water and sewer services to around 415,000 residents across rural and semi-rural Clackamas County in Oregon. The geographic area covered by Clackamas County WES services includes small farming communities, small cities, and the wilderness of the Mt. Hood National Forest. The organization was named a “Utility of the Future Today” by the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, recognizing Clackamas County WES’s commitment to innovation, resiliency and resource recovery.

Key Project Solutions

GIS Needs and Asset Management Systems Assessment

The GIS and asset management systems needs assessment evaluated each of the various systems that are utilized by Clackamas County WES to manage the utility assets; how engineering, operations, finance, and management staff utilize these various systems; and how to further integrate and manage these systems to allow the organization to operate more efficiently. The end goal of the needs assessment was to develop a clear vision for GIS-related data management and to use those requirements to guide recommendations, priorities, and actions for integrated asset management system development.

Data Infrastructure Assessment

Managing hundreds of thousands of assets creates a lot of information about the health of each asset, the physical location of each asset, what each asset is doing individually, how it works with other assets, and more. To help streamline the organization of all this data, a data infrastructure assessment helped Clackamas County WES figure out where GIS data should be stored, the appropriate software and hardware to support this storage, and the governance and responsibility of data hosting and maintenance activities. FLO’s assessment considered current available software and various hosting options commensurate with the needs of the organization, in addition to what could support field access, mobile devices, and use of the data in Web viewers and tools such as ArcGIS Online.

Data Modeling and Migration

WES asset management recommended system integration schema diagram

The necessary work of moving all existing data to a new organization structure was a huge undertaking for the asset managers at Clackamas County WES. To assist with the process, the FLO team assessed and modeled the existing data structures, schemas, and access requirements in order to establish data migration priorities and requirements for the future, developing a customized schema based on the Esri Local Government Information Model and King County Stormwater Model frameworks.

Clackamas County WES uses the Lucity asset management system, which has excellent GIS connection capabilities allowing data to be synchronized between the systems. Existing GIS data was cleaned up and standardized prior to migration to the new schema ready for Clackamas County WES review. In addition to the updated database with extensive metadata for each dataset, comprehensive documentation was delivered describing the changes and decisions made, field mapping and data modifications that were carried out, and the new schema.

Their Thoughts
“Having a functional GIS is critical to asset management. This project allowed us to optimize governance of our GIS and the staffing dedicated to it, creating additional operational efficiencies. FLO’s teamwork was solid and we appreciated their facilitation of this effort.”

- Matt House, Asset Manager, Clackamas County Water Environment Services

Our Thoughts
This project provided an opportunity to standardize data and data schemas across the three asset services, allowing for the use of common domains for easier data entry and cross-training between staff and improving the ability to be able to quickly bring in as-built data into any GIS feature class ready to be synchronized directly to the asset management system. This also provides the client with the tools to be able to move forward and accommodate future data needs with the ability to extend the system as needed following industry best practice.

- Grant Herbert, Director of Technology, FLO Analytics

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Contact Us
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Grant Herbert, GISP

Director of Technology

(206) 556-2024

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