Water‐Distribution GIS from Fragmented and Incomplete Information

Abstract

An approach to facilitate the development and verification of a geographic information system for managing a water‐distribution network data base is proposed. The approach, which was developed for use in reliability analysis of the water‐distribution network of the city of Winnipeg, Canada, uses a digitized street map in combination with a computerized data base derived from records of pipe leaks that ocurred in the period 1975–89. The leak data base contains extensive pertinent information on the characteristics of the pipe in the ground. The usefulness of the leak data base is limited, however, because it only contains pipe characteristics for links that have experienced a pipe leak in the period of record. In addition, the leak data base is sometimes in error, as the procedures currently used to update the data in the leak data base are quite cumbersome. The digitized street network is then employed to modify, verify and extend the network characteristics derived from the leak data base. The method was found to be an efficient approach to developing a data base for this type of geographic information system from incomplete and cumbersome data files.