Abstract

Adventures in Model Building: ArcGIS Streamlines Stormwater Billing
Track: Water, Wastewater, and Stormwater
Authors: Daniel Gwartney, Carrie McCrea

Initially, the annual process for managing the Southeast Metro Stormwater Authority's stormwater fees was cumbersome and expensive. The step-by-step "guidance manual" for fee-calculation was over 400 pages, and required multiple programs. It was difficult to link or compare data.

The effort has been substantially automated via sophisticated ESRI geoprocessing models and streamlined manual processes. As a result, the billing system is more efficient, and requires one tool: ArcGIS. The instruction manual is now 1/10th the size, and references easy-to-use tool interfaces for the models.

The billing data is now managed within a file geodatabase that provides SEMSWA with instant visual access to customer, property, and fee information - as well as an easily updatable calculation environment for analyzing revenue details and parcel-based metrics.

Our presentation will discuss the transformation, details of the GIS-based approach, and how other stormwater utilities may be able to simplify with GIS in the same manner.