With the 2019 Esri Water GIS Conference now behind us, we wanted to take closer look at how web GIS and Geocortex technology has not only helped improve the daily practices of water professionals and how they carry out their various operations, but also the communities they serve as a whole.
Source Water Protection
Whether it’s managing storm drains, mitigating flood damage, or avoiding the contamination of potable water in our societies, water is a critical resource that must be protected at all costs. Water professionals are constantly being tasked with finding new and innovative ways to develop source water protection plans that both identify and prevent risks from occurring, while also ensuring that they comply with government regulations.
In the webinar below, Technical Marketing Specialist Patrick Fingler explains how Geocortex technology can be deployed to build applications to support further safeguarding our source water supply.
The webinar above also features some real-world examples courtesy of the Region of Waterloo and York Region. Both regions were tasked with utilizing web GIS to determine activities considered to be a risk and develop locally-driven, science-based protection plans to keep municipal drinking water systems safe.
In the case of the Region of Waterloo, they were able to produce a user-friendly and publicly accessible solution that allowed users to determine how the Source Protection Plan would impact activities related to their property. This solution also gave its citizens the ability to apply for development and building permits accordingly, all while remaining compliant with the Clean Water Act.
Read the full Region of Waterloo customer story
Web GIS and Asset Management
As mentioned above, adhering to legislative requirements can be a daunting task, especially when combined with implementing a technological solution that can meet those guidelines and integrate seamlessly with other types of asset management software currently being relied upon.
Below, watch Patrick reveal several different ways web GIS and asset management solutions (such as Cityworks®, elementsXS, Lucity®, and Accela®) can quickly integrate with one another and tackle common (and uncommon) challenges head on, including a brief introduction to the elementsXS solution provided by Novotx.
Also featured in the video is another real-world example of how this integration was utilized by the City of Troy, Michigan. The City found themselves needing to leverage GIS to improve the way they track their workers’ time and equipment. Additionally, the City also needed to ensure they remain compliant with Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) Permitting requirements.
Below, you’ll discover how both Geocortex Essentials’ workflow capability and the Cityworks® Extension for Geocortex Essentials enabled them to better manage their assets and focus their resources more intelligently.
Read the full City of Troy customer story.
Flooding & Water Loss
When it comes to managing water events, there can be extremes inflicted on both ends: having too much water from flooding and excessive precipitation, and not having enough due to leaks and equipment failures. The growing challenge lies in not only monitoring these events when – and before – they occur, but ensuring the public is aware of what’s happening around them.
In this final video, Patrick explores some of the work currently being done by water professionals on how they’re addressing these extremes, and how GIS is being used to manage events like flooding management, leak detection, hydrants maintenance, and water shut-off tracing.
Included in this webinar is a demonstration of a dynamic flood map that the City of Fort Collins, Colorado, produced to display live rain gauge and stream flow data. By using using secure Geocortex viewers, the City is now able to keep its citizens aware of how areas are impacted whenever imminent flooding occurs.
Not only did these maps help spread public awareness, but they also allowed the City of Fort Collins to become one of only seven communities in the United States to earn a CRS Class 2 rating, leading to a significant discount on flood insurance.
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