Harwich - Water Atlas Mapping & ArcView

Water Atlas Mapping & GIS Platform Development
Harwich, Massachusetts

Overview

Water Atlas Example

Environmental Partners developed a comprehensive GIS platform for the Town of Harwich to manage the Town’s water distribution system. This included the conversion of existing water system maps into more accurate GIS based files. The mapping incorporating aerial flyover, Global Positioning (GPS) data, as well as information such as those developed by the Cape Cod Commission (CCC) and the Commonwealth (MassGIS).

Approach

In order to develop accurate water maps the Town’s existing system water maps were re-drawn referenced to new aerial flyover data from NSTAR as well as GPS data on the location of the water gates and hydrants.
As part of the base map development, Environmental Partners added data about the water distribution system features. This data included information on the water mains obtained from a hydraulic model such as the material, date of installation, condition and size. The hydrant database was developed by the Town Water Department staff and consisted of all the data form the existing hydrant tie cards.

After the base mapping was completed, Environmental Partners worked with the Water Department to develop both a web-based interface to access the GIS data, as well as a field application to run on ruggedized laptops in the Department’s vehicles.

The field application includes the following capabilities:

• The ability for the user to GPS locate themselves on the mapping;
• Access tie card information for a house service
• The ability to isolate what gate valves need to be shut in the case of a water main break
• The web-based application allows the department:
• Easy access to billing and assessors system information in one central location.
• Development of an asset management database of the entire department’s infrastructure.

This project was implemented over several years; each year slowly building additional functionality into the system to help the Town get their desired final product while considering existing budget constraints.