Doron Barankin
Driving / Walking routes for daily water-meter breakage repairs
abstract:
Breakages in water-meters is a daily problem which causes a large financial loss
to the municipality as it does not receive money for the water supplied
during the breakage period. The municipality employs private contractors to carry
out repairs. However, sometimes their priorities concerning repairs are different
than those of the municipality.
In order to control the order in which repairs are carried out and to do the job
more efficiently, an interactive GIS system was developed. This system
determines each contractor's driving/walking route, points out possible parking
areas and decides a rigid order of repairs.
The system is based on the following data layers :
i) City streets.
ii) Traffic directions (for driving routes).
iii) The faulty meters. (created daily).
Since the system was put in use, the repair time has been reduced by 70%
Introduction
Breakages in water-meters is a daily problem which causes a large financial loss
to the municipality as it does not receive money for the water supplied
during the breakage period. The municipality employs private contractors to carry
out repairs. However, sometimes their priorities concerning repairs are different
than those of the municipality.
They receive a standard rate for each water meter. Therefore, they prefer working on
a cluster of damaged meters rather then dealing with isolated meters
which often cause greater loss to the municipality.
The G.I.S. system
In order to control the order in which repairs are carried out and to do
the job more efficiently, an interactive GIS system was developed.
This system determines each contractor's driving/walking route,
points out possible parking
areas and decides a rigid order of repairs.
The system is based on the following data layers :
i) City streets.
ii) Traffic directions (for driving routes).
iii) The faulty meters. (created daily).
The daily work schedule consists of the following stages:
a) Gathering data on the faulty water meters
In most cases, the municipality initiates the report on a faulty meter, following a
comparison of current and past water consumption that shows a drastic
reduction in water consumption (or even negative consumption). Residents usually
report on faulty meters only when the consumption measurement appears
unrealistically high.
b) Creating a daily layer of the faulty water meters.
The new layer is created based on the city addresses layer.
c) Dividing the water meters into clusters.
Each cluster consists of meters of equal repair priority, within geographical
proximity.
d) Determining the repair priority for each cluster.
The determining factor is cost. A cluster of faulty meters that creates the greatest
loss from uncollected water dues will receive highest repair priority. Parking
possibilities for the repair team are also indicated for each cluster (one or more
possibility per cluster).
e) Creating an optimal (shortest distance) route between the stop points.
The route is based on existing data layers of streets and traffic direction (one-
way). Traffic density at different hours of the day is not currently included.
f) Creating an optimal walking route for the contractor within each cluster.
g) The routes are distributed to the contractor at the beginning of each day.
Each contractor receives a drive route between the cluster and a walking route
within each cluster, which he is required to follow.
The success of this system has resulted in a new agreement between the
Municipality and the contractors:
The Municipality is committed to providing the contractors with a daily driving
route of up to 5 km.; the contractors deduct 20% from the repair price of each
water meter in such a route.
Since the system was put in use, the repair time has been reduced by 70%
Doron Barankin
GIS Application Manager
Tel-Aviv-Yaffo Municipality
1 Rabin Sq.
Tel-Aviv-Yaffo, Israel
Telephone: (972)-3-5217140
Fax: (972)-3-5217503
E-MAIL:gilo@tel-aviv.gov.il