{"id":535672,"date":"2024-07-12T20:09:35","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T20:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uat.esri.com\/en-us\/industries\/blog\/?post_type=blog&p=535672"},"modified":"2024-07-24T18:58:41","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T18:58:41","slug":"city-of-brandon-enhances-water-management-with-innovative-gis-based-app","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/industries\/blog\/articles\/city-of-brandon-enhances-water-management-with-innovative-gis-based-app","title":{"rendered":"City of Brandon Enhances Water Management with Innovative GIS-Based App"},"content":{"rendered":"

Situated in picturesque southwestern Manitoba, the city of Brandon stands as the region\u2019s most vibrant and historically rich community. As the province’s second-largest city, Brandon offers a distinctive fusion of urban conveniences and the welcoming ambiance of small-town community, making it a magnet for both residents and visitors. The city has been growing as its natural beauty, warm community, and rich culture continue to attract people.<\/p>\n\n

The City of Brandon has been dedicated to providing sufficient safe and clean water to residents since 1893. The city currently has a population of around 55,000 and maintains a service area of about 80 square kilometers. The city also maintains water and wastewater treatment facilities, making continuous upgrades to improve system quality and reliability. The city has used geographic information system (GIS) technology for about 30 years to keep track of city-owned infrastructure and other assets, including the water distribution system. The City of Brandon has implemented ArcGIS Utility Network to manage the water network. GIS data is fed into web mapping applications and an asset management system.<\/p>\n\n

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This image of a reservoir and booster station shows pumps, check valves, and connections to the reservoir represented in ArcGIS using the Esri Utility Network data model.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n

The Challenge<\/h2>\n\n

The City of Brandon needed to improve its communications for both planned and unplanned water outages and better enable the public to act accordingly. Historically, residents had only been notified and kept up-to-date on issues via television, radio, social media, and the city\u2019s website. It was extremely difficult for the city to communicate directly with the residents affected by specific outages.<\/p>\n\n

The city needed a water network tracing and outage control solution to streamline water outage operations. The solution needed to be lightweight and flexible and built on the Esri Utility Network data model. The solution had to allow staff to quickly perform network tracing operations\u2014both in the office and in the field\u2014to identify the location of planned and unplanned water outages and reduce response time. The solution also needed to support the notification process to inform affected customers about upcoming planned water outages.<\/p>\n\n

Additionally, the city wanted the solution to support multiple versions: a lightweight, simple-to-use mobile version for use in the field, and a more comprehensive back-end version for the office. As a small organization with limited resources, the solution also needed to be easily managed by a small team.<\/p>\n\n

The Partner<\/h2>\n\n

VertiGIS<\/a> is an Esri partner that provides off-the-shelf products as well as services ranging from project management to development to ArcGIS implementation. VertiGIS empowers utility customers of all sizes to do their work more effectively and efficiently, including the City of Brandon, which recently implemented the company’s water network tracing and outage control solution.<\/p>\n\n

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A trace using ArcGIS Utility Network shows the assets and customers affected by a shutdown.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n

The Solution<\/h2>\n\n

The water network tracing and outage control solution delivered to the City of Brandon included all the functionality staff desired:<\/p>\n\n