ENG/AM/FM

Background

From the outset of the Municipal amalgamation the Transition Board recommended that an Automated Mapping and Facilities Management (AM/FM) initiative be considered to combine the thousands of water and wastewater records now all a part of the Municipality.

As the Municipality consolidated its position as a unified and comprehensive corporation providing essential services of water and wastewater to the residents of Chatham-Kent, the growing pressure to economically deliver improved services was realized.

AM/FM provides the opportunity to offer specific benefits that accrue from having detailed and consistent water and wastewater records, while providing quick access to them everywhere throughout the service area. These benefits reduce the risk involved in maintaining multiple records in various formats. Through the gathering, interpretation and ultimate conversion of over 100,000 source documents, the AM/FM data warehouse was populated.

In 2007, a software platform conversion of AM/FM Infrastructure information was completed to integrate the data into a geo-spatial environment and aligning it with the Municipality's GIS system. As a result, ENG/AM/FM can benefit in utilizing the new platform not only to store, update, maintain and analyze infrastructure data, but also to be able to share geo-spatial date with other departments.

To provide a snapshot of the types and amounts of data that are now housed in the digital database, below are a few interesting statistics about the facilities in Chatham-Kent.

Chatham-Kent AM/FM Data Statistics

Originally 250,000 features were converted and over 5 million attributes populated. Please note, the statistics below are continually being updated, due to expansion.

It is important to note that these statistics are readily available through database queries and can be generated in minutes. (An example may be answering a question like: “How many fire hydrants exist in the Blenheim area?”)

This software acts as a viewer-type program, which enables the water and wastewater data from the AM/FM database to be viewed easily and efficiently. The software was rolled out to several Municipal mobile units (laptops), in order to provide quick access to the records everywhere throughout the service area.

This new and exciting project currently under way will leverage the use of water infrastructure data into a Bentley WaterGems Model. The Model allows the Municipality to better face the challenges of water system design and analysis. The model, when completed will consist of seven(7) large independent water distribution systems. The challenges and opportunities that lie ahead are the completion of the calibration of the models of these seven complex water networks. However, once achieved many opportunities will be gained through the possibilities of analyzing water network interconnections and redundancies for water system enhancements.