Incorporating GIS-Based Structural Evaluation Tools into Pipeline Asset Management

This paper presents the recent enhancements to Tarrant Regional Water District’s (TRWD’s) geographic information system (GIS)-based structural evaluation tool, how this tool is used to improve asset management capabilities, and lessons learned from development of TRWD’s GIS for use in pipeline asset management. TRWD now utilizes a GIS and a GIS-based tool capable of performing structural evaluation of non-distressed pipes, failure margin analysis and repair prioritization of each distressed pipe, and pipeline diagnostics as a part of their asset management program. TRWD recently updated their GIS and enhanced their existing tool to be able to identify pipes that have high rates of distress progression, add flexibility for projection of distress into the future, and plot analysis results for easy visualization. TRWD periodically performs electromagnetic inspection of their pipelines, and the GIS-based tool provides the ability to update the risk of failure of distressed pipes based on the latest electromagnetic inspection results and identify the pipes at highest risk of failure for remediation. A GIS and customized GIS-based structural evaluation tools provide TRWD with the ability to effectively aggregate pipeline data and perform the analyses needed to evaluate the structural safety of each section of the pipeline system and failure margin and repair priority of individual distressed pipes.

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