{"id":76131,"date":"2017-03-16T08:46:24","date_gmt":"2017-03-16T08:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/uncategorized\/the-evolving-local-government-information-model-and-its-impact-on-water-utilities\/"},"modified":"2018-03-26T21:12:29","modified_gmt":"2018-03-26T21:12:29","slug":"the-evolving-local-government-information-model-and-its-impact-on-water-utilities","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/local-government\/the-evolving-local-government-information-model-and-its-impact-on-water-utilities","title":{"rendered":"The Evolving Local Government Information Model and its Impact on Water Utilities"},"author":4661,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[22841,23051],"tags":[33181,23081,23101],"industry":[],"product":[],"class_list":["post-76131","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-government","category-water","tag-local-government-information-model","tag-utilities","tag-water-utilities"],"acf":{"short_description":"In March 2017, we made changes to the Local Government Information Model and as a result we\u2019ve received several questions from the wate...","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

In March 2017, we made changes to the Local Government Information Model and as a result we\u2019ve received several questions from the water, wastewater and stormwater ArcGIS user community.\u00a0 We thought it would be useful to answer some of your questions in a blog.<\/p>\n

What Changed?<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the March 2017 ArcGIS Solutions release<\/a>, the water, wastewater, and stormwater feature datasets (along with the associated feature classes, domains, tables, and relationships) were removed from the Local Government Information Model.\u00a0 The feature datasets to support water, wastewater, and stormwater were moved into a series of geodatabases that are included with individual ArcGIS for Water Utilities configurations.<\/p>\n

For example, LocalGovernment.gdb was removed from the Water Utility Network Editing and Analysis<\/a> configuration and was replaced with WaterUtilities.gdb and RefrenceData.gdb.\u00a0 WaterUtilities.gdb is structured with the schema to implement the configuration as-is and contains sample water, wastewater, and stormwater data.\u00a0 ReferenceData.gdb contains sample base mapping data.<\/p>\n

We also removed LocalGovernment.gdb from the Capital Improvement Planning<\/a> configuration and replaced it with WaterUtilities.gdb and CapitalImprovementPlanning.gdb.\u00a0 CapitalImprovementPlanning.gdb contains the schema to implement the configuration as-is with the Capital Planning Add-In.<\/p>\n

A data dictionary for WaterUtilities.gdb has been published and is available here: http:\/\/solutions.arcgis.com\/utilities\/water\/help\/network-editing\/DataDictionary\/DataDictionary.Htm<\/a><\/p>\n

If you compare the feature datasets in WaterUtilities.gdb now to the previous version of LocalGovernment.gdb you\u2019ll notice that the feature datasets for water, wastewater, and stormwater are the same in both.\u00a0 Also, it is important to note there was a vertical coordinate system added to WaterUtilities.gdb.<\/p>\n

Why Did We Make This Change?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before we cover the reasons for this change it is helpful to understand what the Local Government Information Model (commonly called the LGIM) is, the current state of ArcGIS deployments at water utilities and new capabilities for managing utility networks coming soon to ArcGIS.<\/p>\n

The Local Government Information Model was designed to organize geographic information to help deploy the ArcGIS for Local Government and ArcGIS for Water Utilities configurations. Since many local governments operate water, wastewater, and stormwater systems, these utility networks were included in the LGIM when it was originally developed seven years ago.<\/p>\n

The LGIM was never designed to be implemented \u201cas-is\u201d for local governments or water utilities. GIS professionals configure the LGIM schema to fit their unique organizational needs.\u00a0 The LGIM is a living data model that changes as the ArcGIS platform evolves and new configurations are added to ArcGIS for Local Government and ArcGIS for Water Utilities.<\/p>\n

The LGIM has historically been supplied as a geodatabase schema.\u00a0 At the time of the LGIM\u2019s inception, a geodatabase was the most popular way to store data in ArcGIS for local governments and water utilities.\u00a0 Delivering the LGIM as a geodatabase also enabled Esri to create ArcGIS configurations that were easy to deploy for local governments and utilities.<\/p>\n

With today\u2019s popularity of hybrid Web GIS<\/a> style implementations local governments and water utilities are frequently using both geodatabases and hosted feature services.\u00a0 Some of the ArcGIS Solutions that Esri is releasing now use hosted feature services only and we are publishing service catalogs that can be cloned to create new hosted feature services. We also recently released the ArcGIS Solutions Deployment Tool<\/a> to automate deployment of configurations that use hosted feature services.<\/p>\n

Increasingly we hear from water utilities that they don\u2019t use most of the schema included in the LGIM and are just using the parts of the schema for water, wastewater, and stormwater networks.\u00a0 This seems to reflect the focused implementation of GIS to support the specialized operation of a water utility as opposed to the comprehensive nature of a centralized local government implementation that the LGIM supports.\u00a0 Since we ship sample data with all our ArcGIS Solutions removing the sample data for the entire LGIM and just supplying sample data for water networks significantly reduces download sizes for water utilities.<\/p>\n

When thinking about water, wastewater, and stormwater GIS it\u2019s also important to consider the Utility Network, which is part of the new utility network management framework coming soon to ArcGIS.\u00a0 The water, wastewater, and stormwater configurations Esri will supply for the Utility Network necessitate providing network dataset schema outside of the LGIM. \u00a0Removing water utility dataset from the LGIM now lays the foundation for continued development of ArcGIS Solutions that utilize the Utility Network.\u00a0 You can learn more about the Utility Network by reading the Road Ahead for Network Management White Paper<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So, there were multiple reasons to remove the water, wastewater, and stormwater feature datasets from the LGIM:<\/p>\n