A Municipal Utility Boosts Accuracy Of Asset Data

After meeting with the town's stakeholders, the town of Cave Creek, Arizona, identified that the municipality had unreliable geospatial data that needed to be aggregated, updated, and made authoritative. Engineering as-builts, field technician markups, and various schematic geographic information system (GIS) drawings littered its databases and desks. On top of legacy data issues, the town realized the need for a new rapid data collection system and a better digital footprint. Shawn Kreuzwiesner, Utilities director for the town of Cave Creek, expressed that "we're working with a system that is over 50 years old, not built to a municipal standard, and poorly documented." Cave Creek enlisted Engineering Mapping Solutions (EMS) and Bad Elf to help update its badly outdated GIS.

"We strive to bring accuracy and affordability to GIS professionals who require maximum compatibility and ease of use with Esri^® solutions," said Larry Fox, vice president of Marketing and Business Development at Bad Elf. "Partnering with EMS and our customers allows us to provide creative implementations that are budget conscious and get the job done."

EMS proposed using its proprietary Biking Rapid Asset Collection (BikeRAC) solution to canvas the entire Cave Creek service area, collecting centimeter-accurate spatial data for all its assets. These included fire hydrants, sewer utilities, water valves, meters, and other visible features that would complete the overhauling and updating of its geospatial system. Kreuzwiesner now has an authoritative spatial location of the town's assets that he can use to verify records and the critical attributes of these collected features. Finally, the town of Cave Creek updated and re-engineered its geodatabases and significantly reduced its operating costs.