February 2018CIOAPPLICATIONS.COM8In my Opinioneeping track of assets and infrastructure can be a daunting task. The sheer number of assets that need to be located, maintained and tracked is one thing, but keeping the details related to each asset from year to year at your fingertips has been a longtime struggle for asset managers. While pen and ink drawings on mylar were the best system in the past, today using a highly accurate global positioning system (GPS) system to locate assets and a web-based geographic information system (GIS) program to help maintain them is no comparison. Here's how it worksIn an average municipal setting, there are thousands of infrastructure assets that need to be monitored and managed for the duration of their life cycle. This includes anything from vehicle fleets to manhole covers. Traditionally, to gain information about assets spread throughout the community parameters, conventional boots-on-the ground survey methods were used to collect asset information in the field. Hand written field books were used to describe features with station and offsets to a set surveyed baseline. As the maps were hand-drawn from this information, corresponding tables were typed out showing coordinate locations (x,y,z), materials of those assets, and sizes of pipes. These maps and tables were stored in a manageable fashion, either rolled up in tubes or in space-eating flat files. Detailed asset maps had corresponding key maps showing the spatial location of each feature and could entail upwards of 200 detailed sheets. This is a clumsy system when compared with a fully electronic version.Take property maps for instance. Towns have a survey map of every single property within their limits. This information might be stored in a file cabinet, computer, or both. Gathering all of this data into the same room at the same time in order to schedule a repair or access information could take a long time. However, once these paper maps have been transferred digitally for use in a GIS software platform, each property comes to life! Clicking on individual properties gives you access to information about the land parcel that is virtually limitless because GIS programs are customizable to include any amount of information you need to maintain that asset. KOptimizing Asset Management Using GISSUZANNE M. ZITZMAN, GISP, MANAGER, ASSET MANAGEMENT SERVICES, MASER CONSULTING P.A.Suzanne M. Zitzman
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