Abstract

Employing GIS as a Field Validation Tool in AMI Installations
Track: Water, Wastewater, and Stormwater
Authors: Tony Taglia, Jason Bethke

While the benefits of Automated Meter Infrastructure (AMI) are becoming increasingly attainable for water utilities, it is vitally important that the foundation for any AMI project be solid and not replicate the errors of the prior system. To fully exploit the power of an AMI installation, a means of electronically validating the population of the system going forward must be developed. In the case of Global Utilities, the installation of each AMI endpoint was documented with GPS coordinates and geo-referenced photography. This dataset was uploaded to GIS and cross referenced with city parcel records and Global's customer information system. The result was, for the first time, a full census of all meters and accounts - identifying many meters that were not in CIS. Going forward, installation data from the field, combined with parcel and CIS data, can provide an "electronically verified" installation, permanently eliminating the potential for lost meters.