From Imaging to Engineering: Lowering Costs and Increasing Decision Power with Digital Imagery and Geographic Information Systems

Author: James E. Scott, III
Organization: 3Di, LLC

7447 Bee Cave Road, Suite 206
Austin, TX 78746
USA

Phone: 512-329-5577
Fax: 512-329-5588
jscott@3dillc.com

Presented by Andy Bury

Recent developments in geotechnology represent opportunities for pipeline development projects to dramatically lower costs during the routing phase. Two key components to successful cost reduction are increasing the decision power of pipeline engineers and managers and changing the way the routing process is done.

Satellite imagery and geospatial information systems represent major opportunities for cost reduction. Combining these technologies into a new approach to routing is termed the Geotechnology Route Planning Process (GRPP). This process is used to simulate the environment through which a pipeline is to be constructed. The simulation provides managers, engineers, and designers with the ability to build pipelines in the best possible location as efficiently as possible by minimising unknowns, saving time, and projecting costs with a higher level of accuracy

The GRPP builds a comprehensive knowledge base to manage and distribute information to project team members. Much of this information is derived from satellite imagery, including information on terrain, land use and land cover, infrastructure, surface geology, environmentally and culturally sensitive areas, and populated places. This information is combined with other pertinent information into a geospatial information system (GIS). The GIS is used to store, manage, analyze, access, and display information relating to the project. It is also used to communicate status of the project at any point in time.

The following steps define the GRPP:
1. Define project goals and objectives
2. Acquire and develop data
3. Qualitatively evaluate and document project values
4. Define the corridors
5. Test the corridors
6. Quantify and compare routes

The geotechnology approach, by its very design, addresses factors that promote cost reduction. Productivity and efficiency are both increased by providing ready access to project information to all team members from the very beginning of the project. Decision power is increased by early stage access to the knowledge base, by providing the ability to anticipate change and by quantifying the effect of that change in near-real time. Companies that have chosen this approach have reported shortened approval times when regulatory agencies are presented with documentation illustrating a process of informed decision-making.