Abstract

Storm Drainage Asset Management - Locating Missing Culverts
Track: Water, Wastewater, and Stormwater
Authors: Greg Heintz

In 2002, Pierce County, Washington, finished inventorying its storm drainage network via GPS data collection. The storm drainage database now has over 190,000 features. Over 32,000 features were culverts that convey water beneath roadways, driveway approaches, etc. When doing these inventory projects, it is inevitable that some features will be inadvertently missed because of physical terrain, overgrowth, and private property access issues. Features were missed by being inaccessible or completely buried. In order to aid in locating missing culverts, ArcGIS was used to analyze multiple data themes using intersect functions and select by location queries. One, of many data queries performed, was intersecting the streams/rivers with the road centerlines to create a point file where water travelled below the road's surface. The created intersection points could then be compared with the current storm drainage culverts to ascertain missing culverts. Using ArcGIS, over 2,000 locations were found where culverts were missing.