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Attribute AssistantThe attribute assistant has some significant changes for ArcGIS 10.  When you download it, you will not find the installer that you might be used to.  You will just see a simple ArcGIS Add-in.  This should help you deploy this extension to your organization.  We also modified some of the existing functions and added a few new ones.  The table below discus’s the different methods for this extension

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We are happy to announce the release of the Infrastructure Editing Template for ArcGIS 10.This new release takes advantage of some of the great additions to ArcGIS 10.  You will find a new datamodel which encompasses many new layers.  You will also see an updated symbol set, a symbol set designed to be overlaid on imagery, topographic, and parcel basemaps.  The editing map document was updated to show you have to set up feature templates.  You will see how we reordered, highlighted and set some fields to read only, as well as hide a few.  We think you will like the new data model, symbology and the new mxd.  Now on to the tools!

We migrated the Editing and Reporting toolbars and the Attribute Assistant to ArcGIS 10 Add-ins.  Not only did we upgrade them to ArcGIS 10, but included a series of bug fixes, config changes and new functions, which all came from your suggestions, so please keep the feedback coming.  Lets breakdown the Add-In's and discuss the changes.

Desktop Editing Toolbar - Changes and New Tools

The first thing you might notice is the Add Laterals icons are missing, but there is a new one that sort of looks like it.  We compressed the Add Lateral tools into one function that looks at the selected features and compares them to the config file and generates laterals from them.  This allows you to generate many types of laterals at once.  To the right of it, there is a new tool, Connect Closest.  This tool will connect a series of points, say a row of manholes, with a line, such as a sewer main.  If we look to the left you will see a a large red button with a ! in it.  This is simple layer inspector.  It looks at a feature class and lets you step through each feature one at a time.  Real handy for reviewing those redlines or field notes.  If we keep moving left, you will see an icon with a line and 123 in it.  This tool allows you to quickly calibrate a line that is M enabled.  Should help you plot your CCTV data on your sewer.  Next is the Merge Geometric Network Features, an ArcScript that has been around a while, so we thought we add it to the toolbar.  I agree, the icon looks like it is breaking features apart.  We will see if we can change this to something more meaningful.  On the far right, is a new tool included with the Attribute Assistant.  This tool triggers the change event for all selected features.  So you can manually fire out the Attribute Assistant rules.  The last new tool on the toolbar is the Incremental Network Loader.  You can find out about the new tool here. 

Desktop Reporting Toolbar - Changes and New Tools

We mainly enhanced the existing tools.  We had a bunch of request to return the edges of a trace in the selection set, so we added another trace button below each trace that does just this.  There is a new way to run the Isolation trace, in batch.  The Summary Isolation trace will loop through all selected water mains and run an isolation trace for each.  The results are stored into a feature class which you will find in the Capital Planning dataset.  I warn you against running this on all your mains, it takes a while(don't worry, the tool warns you to if you make the mistake on clicking it without a selection set).  A new tool that we are all excited about is the Profile Graph tool.  This tool lets you pick two manholes, runs a find path trace between them, intersects the result with an elevation surface and plots the manholes, mains and elevation onto a graph for you.  We think you will really like this tool.  There is a known issue right now though.  When the chart opens, you have to turn off the manholes in the chart properties, then uncheck automatic from the left axis.  You can then turn the manholes back on.  The last tool on the toolbar, Attribute Transfer Loader, was a request from a user who was transferring data using the attribute transfer tools.  If you ever used these tools, you know you had to set them up each time you opened ArcMap.  You can now set up the mapping in the config and load it to the attribute transfer dialog.  

Desktop Tools - Config File Changes

If you changed the config file for 9.3.1, you will need to move these changes into the new config file.  You will see in the new config, we reworked a lot of the entries in a nested xml structure.  This allowed us to include some new options and load the config file faster.  For example, the Add Laterals Tools.  This was a long series of entries and you were limited to the 3 types we exposed.  Now you will see you can use these tools on any number features.  Here is a screen shot.

Also, you will see that there is an xml array that defines the points along.  We had a lot of request to allow the option to add more than one point along the line.  With this xml array, you can have it add any number of points along the line, I left a sample in the config to show how to do this, notice it is commented out. 

Desktop Tools - Construction Tools

You will also find an installer for a set of construction tools.  These construction tools call some of the functions on the toolbar and expose some new functions.  These new tools should further speed up editing and creating new assets with ArcGIS.  Note: at the moment, the construction tools and the toolbar use the same config, but they each have their own copy.  We are looking into how to share one config between them. 

Let's take a detailed look at them.  

                Screen shot of the new construction tools for points and lines.

For lines, there is one new tool, Create a line with end points.  This tool will end two points at the end of the line you sketch.  The config file controls will points get added to what line.  So you need to modify the config to list the line layer and the ending point layer.  Using the new xml config file, you can specify any number of layers for this to work on.

For points, there are a number of new tools.  Some are samples that come with ArcGIS, some are new tools we added, let's start at the top.  The Points along a line at is a great sample that comes with in the Developer Kit.  A great sample for creating a series of points at an interval.  Next is a custom tool, Add a connection and the lateral.  This tool does the same thing that the Add Lateral tool does on the toolbar, but this one lets you create the point and immediately connect it to the main.  The Create a point and line tool does the same thing Connect Closest tool does, but this does it as you click.  Imagine you are creating manholes.  Each time you drop one, it searches for the closest manhole and adds the main.  The last construction tool is the Add a point and split an intersecting line tool.  This does exactly what it says, split the line that you click on.

We are very happy and proud with this template for ArcGIS 10.  Let us know if you have any issues or any suggestions.   In the next blog, we will talk about some changes in the Attribute Assistant.

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We’ve created a LinkedIn Group for the Esri Mid-Atlantic Water/Wastewater Special Interest Group so we can share more details about our first meeting and answer any questions.  Here is a link to the group - http://linkd.in/bum9lz

Going forward we’ll be using this LinkedIn group to plan future SIG meetings and hope it becomes a useful forum for water, wastewater and stormwater ArcGIS users in the Mid-Atlantic region.

As we’ve previously announced, the SIG’s first meeting is at the ESRI Mid-Atlantic User Group Conference December 1st in Philadelphia, PA. More information about the MUG Conference and the SIG can be found here - http://bit.ly/bZGvCX

We’d also like to announce that we’ve selected our first user presentation for the December 1st SIG meeting.  Joe Spollen will be presenting on “A Day in the Life of a Water Company GIS Analyst”.  During this presentation Joe will share his experience using ArcGIS Desktop and Server applications at a large private water utility to maintain water distribution system data, create and share maps, support capital planning and other common daily tasks for water utility GIS users.

We’ll be sharing more of the agenda as we confirm other user presentations.

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We’ve had a lot of requests from the wastewater ArcGIS community for a simple tool to create sewer profiles in ArcMap.  So we thought we’d give you a sneak peak of the sewer profile tool we’re working on. 

 

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Newly updated water and wastewater data models are available for download here - http://resources.arcgis.com/content/water-wastewater-and-stormwater-data-models

These data model updates include a number of changes that reflect our shared knowledge of how water, wastewater and stormwater utilities are currently modeling their utility networks for  in GIS.   So these updates include input from the user community as well as the experience of Esri professional services creating data models for water utilities using the downloadable data models as a starting point, and our knowledge of how water utilities are expanding their use of GIS to go beyond asset management.

The Benefits of the Data Model

So whether you are implementing GIS for the first time or updating your schema to support another business function at your utility with GIS, what are the benefits of starting with the downloadable data models?

Because using the downloadable data models help you (or your consultant) reduce the cost, time and complexity of implementing GIS or of updating your schema.

The data models reduce implementation cost because you aren’t building a data model from scratch, instead you start with a data model that reflects the way most water utilities are storing their data in GIS.  Before the downloadable data model, you had to pay a consultant to build you a data model from the ground up.  So being able to download the data model as a starting place saves you somewhere between $20,000 and $100,000 depending on the size of your utility, the complexity of your utility networks and your GIS needs.  

The data models reduce the time it takes to implement a GIS because you can focus on determining the gaps between the data models and what your GIS needs are.  We’ve even seen some small utilities that have downloaded the data model, changed the spatial reference and started to populate it without doing any customization of the schema (not that we recommend this, but it has been done).

The data models reduce the complexity of implementing a GIS because it gives you something to work against.  You can immediately use the downloadable data model for a pilot to understand how to bring your existing data into GIS.

These same principles hold true whether you are implementing GIS, doing a comprehensive modernization of your schema or just making minor modifications like adding a new feature class or new attributes.

The Relationship Between the Downloadable Data Model and the Template Schemas

Since we’re on the topic of data models, we also wanted to clear up some confusion about the downloadable data model and the schema that is used for the Water Utility Templates.

If you examine the downloadable data model and the schema used for the Water Utility Templates you’ll notice that they are not the same. Simply put the schema the templates are configured for and the sample geodatabases included with them aren’t the same as the downloadable data models.

So, why is the schema for the templates different than the downloadable data models?

It’s because when we created the templates, we followed the exact same process that you should follow when implementing, expanding the role of or deploying a GIS application at a utility.  We downloaded the data models and then created a schema that was customized to meet our needs.  Our needs in this case were to create a set of applications and maps with ArcGIS for data maintenance, planning, mobile GIS, operational awareness and customer interaction.

After downloading the data model, we identified the data we needed to support our maps and applications and then customized the data model until we had the necessary schema.  Once we had designed and created the data model for our templates we then transformed and loaded the sample data from Fort Pierce, Florida into our new template schema. For each of our templates we also did a series of pilots to ensure that maps, applications and our schema met our needs.  

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Most have heard of the Pacific garbage patch. The new news is there is also one in the Atlantic. Removing plastics from catch basins and stormwater management facilities is one way to reduce the increase of these major collection points of non-point pollution.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/atlantic-plastic/

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Purpose: The purpose of this note is to explain a significant dynamic wave routing difference between EPA SWMM 5.0.013/5.0.018 and EPA SWMM 5.0.011 and before. A few people have detected a difference. The previous solution(s) would use only the midpoint area (Amid) and hydraulic radius (Rmid) in the dynamic wave solution. The new solution will use a slider or linear combination of the midpoint area (Amid) and hydraulic radius (Rmid) and the upstream cross sectional area (A1) and hydraulic radius (R1). The slider is based on the Froude number in the link. The change involves the A and R link spacing in the two dominant terms of the St. Venant Equation:  The new method is a linear combination or slider that weights the value of A and R in the St. Venant Equation based on the value of rho (), or  where, Rho () is a function of the Froude number. The effect of this addition is that as the Froude number increases from 0.5 to 1.0 and beyond the area and hydraulic radius used as the pivot point in the St. Venant equation moves from the midpoint of the link to the upstream end of the link. When the Froude number is above 1.0 the St. Venant and Normal Flow equation both use the same cross sectional area and hydraulic radius which makes for a more stable model. Just for reference, the equation for Qnorm or the Manning’s Equation flow is  The equations for the calculation of Rho () as a function of the Froude Number (Fr) are:  If ALL of the follow conditions are true Rho ()is calculated:

• the pipe is not full,
• h1 >= h2, and
• qLast > 0.

where, h1 is the head at the upstream end of the link, h2 is the head at the downstream end of the link and qLast is the last flow value in the link. If any of these conditions are true then rho = 1.0 and the value of A and R are the values Amid and Rmid, respectively. The next graph shows the relationship between Rho and the Froude Number. The value of Awtd and Rwtd move from the midpoint of the link to the upstream end of the link as the Froude number increases from 0.5 to 1.0.  Conclusion: This change should make the solution more stable because there is no longer an oscillation between the St. Venant Equation A and R and the Normal Flow Equation A and R.

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This describes how the Option “Define Supercritical Flow By” performs inside the SWMM 5 engine. The options are called Slope, Froude and Bothin the GUI and in the engine of SWMM 5. A few other variable definitions you need to know to understand this explanation are: (1) Y1 for the upstream link depth, (2) Y2 for the downstream link depth, (3) Q for the flow in the link, (4)Qfull for the full Manning’s equation flow or normal flow for the link based on the bed slope, (5) Froude1 and Froude2 for the Froude Number respectively of the upstream and downstream ends of the link, (6) n for Manning’s roughness, (7) Yfull for the maximum depth of the link and (8) Qnormal for the Normal Flow equation flow based on the upstream area of the link (A1) and the upstream hydraulic radius (R1).


In the SWMM 5 engine these options are used after the dynamic wave equation flow is estimated using the St. Venant equation. The option that you choose is only active for those links that have a flow greater than 0, links with negative flow use the dynamic wave equation flow exclusively. It the flow is positive and the link is an open channel and full then the minimum of the dynamic wave flow or Qfull is used as the new flow in the link. If the flow is positive and the depth at the upstream end of the link or Y1 is less than Yfull then the engine will compare Qnormal to Q using the routines in Check Normal Flow.


If the link gets to the Check Normal Flow routines then it uses the following logic:

• If the Slope or Both option is used or either the upstream node or the downstream node of the link is an outfall AND Y1 is less than Y2 then the minimum of Q from the dynamic wave equation or Q from the Normal Flow equation is used as the current iteration flow in link, or
• If the Froude or Both option AND either the upstream Froude Number or the downstream Froude number is greater than 1 then the minimum of Q from the dynamic wave equation or Q from the Normal Flow equation is used as the current iteration flow in link. This condition is never used if either of the connecting nodes of the link are outfalls.

How does this work in the actual flow that SWMM 5 estimates for a link? Consider this example in which the link flow in blue is plotted with the Qnormal flow in red and the Q dynamic wave equation flow in purple:

Qnormal is 



Qnormal is only calculated when the link is not full so in the plot a Qnormal of 0 means that the pipe was full. At other times the flow in the link was equal to Qnormal as the minimum of the dynamic equation flow or the Qnormal flow is used at each iteration in the solution process. The flow is normally bounded by the Qnormal flow in SWMM 5.0.013. Your choice of the options Slope, Froude andBoth really only impact the conditions under which this comparison is true. If you use Froude or Both then Supercritical flow at either end of the link will trigger this comparison will be the dynamic wave equation flow and the Froude number at each end of the link.

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We’re excited to announce that an ESRI Mid-Atlantic Water/Wastewater Special Interest Group is forming and the first meeting is December 1st at the Esri Mid-Atlantic User Group Conference - http://www.esri.com/events/mug/index.html.

The 2010 Esri Mug Conference is November 29th to December 1st in Philadelphia and the Water/Wastewater Special Interest Group Meeting is taking place from 1:30 to 5:00 PM on the last day of the conference. Mug Conference registration is required to attend the Water/Wastewater Special Interest Group Meeting and you can register here: http://www.esri.com/events/mug/registration/index.html

The Mug Conference is the capstone Esri event for the Mid-Atlantic Region and holding the Water/Wastewater Special Interest Group at the Mug conference gives water and wastewater users the opportunity to learn, interact and forge relationships with other utilities and GIS users across the region.

The Mid-Atlantic Water/Wastewater Special Interest Group is for the water, wastewater and stormwater ArcGIS user community in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Washington D.C., West Virginia, New York City, Long Island and surrounding areas.

We are currently working on the agenda for the inaugural Water/Wastewater Special Interest Group. We anticipate this first meeting will include presentations from Esri on the ArcGIS 10 updates of the Water Utility Resource Center Templates, software product briefings, user presentations, discussions and organization for the next Special Interest Group meeting that will be held in approximately 6 months.

Going forward we anticipate the Mid-Atlantic Water/Wastewater SIG will be meeting twice a year. One meeting will be at the Mug Conference in December and another meeting will be in the spring at a user site.

We’d also like to encourage our water utilities to exhibit your maps in the Mug Conference Map Gallery - http://www.esri.com/events/mug/participate/map-gallery.html

Keep watching this blog or follow us on Twitter for more announcements about this Special Interest Group meeting.

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WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is launching a web-based discussion forum to gather public input on how the agency can improve protection of drinking water. The information will be used in implementing EPA’s new drinking water strategy announced by Administrator Lisa P. Jackson in March.

http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/b0f106733c0fd9c2852577820062e...

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Although most of the attention on Congress over the past two years has been focused on major legislation like health care and financial reform, a number of bills that could impact the water industry have been struggling through the legislative process.

http://www.waterworld.com/index/display/article-display/6298764104/artic...

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The trend in the water and sewer industry is for utilities to capture and maintain in GIS more detailed information about their utility networks at a higher level of precision. 

Yet most water utilities are still trying to display all of this increasingly detailed data using the same paper map products they’ve historically used, particularly for use in the field.

Simply put – it ain’t easy to get all of the data in your geodatabase onto paper field maps using the same scale and map grid that your utility has always used. 

Common Causes:

You Have More Stuff in GIS

Utilities are capturing more feature classes in their GIS and you are adding more attributes to existing feature classes.  Hydrant valves and curb stops are good examples at water utilities and clean outs are good examples at sewer utilities of feature classes that are frequently used today but were not often used a few years ago.  We’ve seen the amount of attribute data stored in GIS increase for some feature classes, such as for water meters and premises locations.  More attributes often mean more labels to put on maps.

Your Stuff in GIS is More Precise

Utilities are integrating their GIS with other business systems and do reporting across the enterprise using some data from GIS. This drives the need for data to be more descriptively accurate and more precise.  For example reporting is now done at some utilities using spatial analysis, such as determining the number of assets in a district for fire protection billing purposes. 

There is also a natural technology evolution taking place which is increasing the level of precision of data that is being collected and put into GIS.  Part of that evolution is GPS, the water industry is shifting from sub-meter GPS to sub-foot GPS for asset collection.  Also water utilities are using software interoperability between GIS and CAD to better round trip survey grade as-builts or engineering design data back into GIS to support asset operation and maintenance.

Utility Assets are Tightly Clustered

Valves are often tightly clustered.  4 way crosses or 3 way tees in the street are great examples of the need for spatial precision.  You may have many clusters of 4 valves that are all within a 5 foot radius in street intersections.  You have the same tight clustering of assets for diversion chambers with outfalls for combined sewer systems.  That’s just the reality of how most water utility systems are physically constructed.

Paper Map Books are Part of the Culture of Water Utilities

Paper maps, and in particular paper map books for the field, are ingrained into the organizational fabric of water utilities.  What I mean by this is that many water utilities have been using the same map grid and therefore the same map scale for their map books for years (seems like well over 20 years at many utilities).  So utility employees grew accustomed to seeing data represented at a consistent scale (for example 1”:200’ or 1”:400’) with consistent layers, symbols and labels.

Key concept alert – maps are a representation of spatial information at a defined scale.  To create those maps books, someone (or groups of people) took the time to represent the utility system in a way that best fits the scale of the field map – so they did a lot of… gasp… cartography.   

Inherent in the cartography being done was generalization of the data, positions of features like valves and hydrants were exaggerated so that asset symbols and labels didn’t overpost on each other and the map was readable.  To be fair, some utilities created map books that depicted assets as spatially precise as their available base mapping at the time allowed, while other utilities created more of a cartoonish map product.  And if it all didn’t neatly fit at the scale of the map book than inset maps or blow ups were used. 

Map book users became accustomed to the exaggerated placement of assets to aid in readability.  Map book users also became used to infrequent updates of the maps because the cartography was laborious.

The Dilemma

So let’s reframe this issue:

Increasingly the asset management and business needs of the utility require data, which is more precise and more descriptive than the past.  So now your GIS data may be too precise and too content rich to effortlessly be represented using the scale of the map products your utility has historically used.  

Of course, the users of field maps at your utility fully expect that the investment made in more precise and descriptive data in GIS will enable them to have better information in the field that is more up to date.

So when you try and use your precise GIS data to make field map books for the first time everything is a jumbled mess.  Valve symbols and labels overpost on each other, hydrant symbols obscure hydrant valves and laterals, you can’t easily fit labels on small sections of pipe.

How Can you Solve This?

There is no silver bullet answer to overcoming this issue.  It’s requires a thoughtful solution that takes into account the needs of field users, the technology in use and the availability of labor to make field maps at your utility. A well thought out approach enables you to create a workflow that further leverages your utility’s investment in GIS by putting more precise, descriptive and up to date information into the field.

Below are some of the approaches we’ve seen utilities take:

Exaggerate Asset Locations

This is really building your entire spatial repository in GIS for plotting at your map book scale and this usually is a decision that gets made prior to data conversion.   So in essence you are building and maintaining your GIS for display at a specified scale, like 1”:200’.  In doing so with no additional work you can create hard copy field maps because your data is created at the scale you want to represent it in the field.When this happens rules are specified for the distance that valves are display apart from each other (every 20 feet) and hydrant laterals are always the same distance from mains.

This was an older approach to GIS implementation and is not contemporary.  It’s using GIS like an electronic pencil or CAD.  Taking this approach makes reporting and integration with other enterprise systems at a utility tricky because the GIS does not contain a true representation of the utility’s assets and the relationship between them.  You also can’t reliably do analysis, such as tracing a geometric network to identify customers affected by service interruptions or reliably use your GIS to support markouts with this approach.

Cartographic Representations

Just as the name implies, a cartographic representation is a representation of your GIS data at a specified map scale.  So you preserve the precision placement of feature classes and have the ability to represent them as necessary for specified map scales.

Basically you are storing in your geodatabase symbols and rules about how feature classes are displayed at specified map scales.  If either the symbol you are using or the geometry of a feature causes it to conflict with something else in your map you can than move that feature’s representation to a better location.  So the cartographic representation also stores the features that you override the geometry of for a map scale while preserving the precise geometry in the feature class. With cartographic representations your features draw as you need them to at a specified scale while your retain all of the precision in the underlying feature class  so you can make larger scale maps, do analysis and reporting with confidence.

There are a number of tools in ArcMap to help you create and maintain cartographic representations, and they are a great solution for overcoming the issues we are bringing up in this blog, but to be fair building and maintain them takes work.

A few other things to keep in mind about cartographic representations – you can have many for each feature class.  Also cartographic representations do not work with ArcGIS mobile.

You can get more information on cartographic representations here - http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//008t00000002000000.htm  

Map Publication Geodatabases

It is possible to create another geodatabase that is used for paper map production.  A GIS deployment pattern that is emerging at some large water utilities is the separation of the production environment. 

For example distributed data editors could have an editing node with a geodatabase that replicates to a centralized publication environment node for web applications.  In this type of separated production environment there could also be a map production node.  This is entirely possible with the grain of ArcGIS.

Changing field map scales

Perhaps it’s most appropriate to change the scale of your field maps.  If your utility’s business requirements still rely heavily on paper maps and also require bringing more precise and detailed information into the field than you might want to consider changing the scale of your field maps.

This may be too much of a paradigm shift for some organizations and will certainly cost more in map printing because you will have many more map sheets.  But if your data is more  precise, why not attempt to change the scale of your maps to something that better represents the accuracy of your data like 1”:50'?

Inset Maps

Inset maps or blow ups can be used for areas where you have assets that are too clustered to be readable at your map sheet scale.  An annotation layer is a good place to store blow ups as a graphic that can be persisted.  Keep in mind creating blows up and inset maps are time consuming and insets are tricky to manage and automate printing on a single map sheet.

Mobile GIS

Without a doubt, deploying mobile GIS is the easiest way to solve this issue.  You can zoom your map all the way down to 1:1 if necessary to see your asset locations with precision.  You can also take advantage of the ability to create well-constructed multi-scale maps for use in the field.

Certainly there are other technology considerations when deploying mobile GIS and we also don’t believe that mobile GIS will completely make paper field maps irrelevant at a water utility.  But we’d be remiss to not point out the obvious, mobile GIS gets you around the biggest issues with data precision and scale of paper maps.

Want to share how you are dealing with this at your water utility or have some feedback on this blog?  Please feel free to post a comment.

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