Capturing a City Electrical Network in GIS

The City of Sumas is a small city of 1,600 residents in Whatcom County, Washington, that plays a vital role as a port of entry between the U.S. and Canada. 

The City had many paper, CAD, and old GIS files representing their electrical network but no way to readily access these in the field. They wanted a cost-effective solution to getting their data into GIS and available to their staff and for them to take over the management and editing of the data afterwards. Although the City had no in-house GIS staff and limited resources, they wanted something to own and manage at the end of the project. 

FLO Analytics and the City reviewed the Esri Electrical Distribution Solution as an alternative to a custom schema, as this could be deployed quickly into ArcGIS Online and provided preconfigured data structures and maps. After determining that this would meet their needs with slight modifications, FLO deployed the solution into the City’s environment and began modifying it. At the same time, the City and FLO began compiling the data. 

Working with high-resolution imagery from Whatcom County, FLO was able to readily identify poles, transformers, and other surface assets. Combined with the CAD files and scanned maps, this allowed for the alignment of the data diagrams with their real-world locations, enabling FLO to quickly and efficiently begin capturing them into GIS. 

Because FLO was working directly in the City’s ArcGIS Online environment, the City could see the data capture progress directly, and readily assist with real-world knowledge of the features that were more difficult to identify or needed clarification. Map Notes were used to identify areas that required assistance, or field verification, making it easier to focus on these areas. Following the initial data digitization, FLO conducted training to teach staff how they could edit and update the data, whether in the office or the field. As a result, staff are now able to keep the system up to date and have access to it wherever they are in the city, saving valuable time and improving confidence in the data.