Latest Contributions by TomDeWitte

Addressing Utility Damage and Maps By Tom DeWitte and Tom Coolidge Every day, thousands of subsurface utility engineering (SUE) and 811 locating technicians work to find, identify, mark, and document the locations of underground utilities, yet underground utilities are still being hit. The Common Ground Alliance (CGA) estimates that damage to underground utilities costs the U.S. economy at least $30 billion annually. In its 2026 open letter, the National Utility Locating Contractors Association (NULCA) explains that today’s 811 ecosystem is under strain due to multiple underlying issues. One of those identified issues is mapping. A portion of the letter states the following: The CGA 2024 Damage Information Reporting Tool (DIRT) DIRT Report documents that marking accuracy failures and facility identification issues remain among the most persistent root causes of damages in this industry. Locating professionals have repeatedly and consistently described marks placed exactly where records indicated, only for excavation to reveal infrastructure in a completely different location. Not a few feet off. On the wrong side of the road. Crossing at the wrong block. Or not shown in the records at all. The CGA DIRT data reinforces the point: in 2024, there were 196,977 unique reported damages, and locating and mapping practices remained a major root-cause category (25%), alongside excavation practices (24%). In other words, even when people call 811 and excavators follow procedures, if the maps and data used by locators to determine where to start locating are inaccurate or missing, damage will occur. The frustrating part is that the root cause, “locating and mapping practices,” is not declining year over year. It is increasing as a percentage of all damages. These preventable damages, caused by utility-controlled procedures and practices, have consequences. When a locate mark is off by a few feet, when a map is out of date, or when a non-locatable asset is left undocumented, risk accumulates quietly until it becomes a strike, an outage, or worse. A new approach is needed. A New Approach: GNSS Utility Locating Hardware and ArcGIS There are many reasons why the maps used by locators and subsurface utility professionals are spatially inaccurate, why some utility pipes and wires are unmapped, and why existing assets are unlocatable. There is also a common solution to these historical problems: enhance the locating-and-marking task so it also becomes a mapping task. Instead of treating locating as a “temporary paint” activity and high-accuracy mapping as a separate field activity, smartly combine the two into a single field activity. Integrate high-accuracy GNSS and GIS data collection with utility locating hardware. To bring this new approach to the underground locating industry, Esri has partnered with three leading utility locate hardware manufacturers: Radiodetection, Subsite, and Vivax-Metrotech. GNSS Enhanced Utility Locating Hardware The first part of this integration is already complete and available to the subsurface industry. Radiodetection, Subsite, and Vivax-Metrotech all provide utility-locating hardware with a built-in GNSS receiver. These GNSS receivers are RTK-capable, meaning they can capture location with centimeter-level horizontal accuracy. Fixing the Data Plumbing The second part is to connect these handheld devices with a smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth. All three hardware manufacturers provide Bluetooth-enabled utility locating devices. The third part is to integrate ArcGIS into this solution. This third part is in joint development and is expected to be available this year. When the data plumbing is fixed, locators will be able to leverage previously collected data to improve accuracy and productivity. Office staff in the mapping department will then be able to receive spatially accurate information about buried assets as a byproduct of the locate activity. This field-generated data can be used to identify missing assets and correct mislocated assets. What Changes when Locating and ArcGIS are integrated? When locating and ArcGIS are integrated, the marking and mapping become a singular activity. While the locator is identifying the location and marking the buried utility, the integrated hardware/software is capturing and transmitting location information to ArcGIS. For subsurface utility mapping activities at the beginning of a project, the current two-person team for marking and mapping can be replaced by a single field technician with a single device. That is an immediate doubling of field-worker productivity and a reduction in field-hardware costs. For office mappers, this integration will finally provide a consistent source of map revisions long desired, but current methods are difficult to maintain. Now, office mappers will have the information needed to identify where and how the mapping of an existing utility asset needs to be spatially adjusted. Over time, the map data will continue to improve and eventually eliminate statements such as, “The map had the utility on the wrong side of the street.” For locators, this will provide better maps of utilities, allowing them to find and mark buried utilities more accurately. Lastly, integrating GNSS-enhanced locating hardware with ArcGIS will provide a new ability to locate “unlocatables”. When a tracer wire cannot be traced traditionally, crews can use a previously GNSS-located line mapped in ArcGIS Field Maps together with their GNSS-enhanced locating device to walk the line back and accurately mark the utility. Reducing Damages to Utilities The purpose of this integration is to directly and positively address a root cause of damage to buried utilities: damage caused by buried utility pipes and wires that were originally mapped inaccurately or are currently missing from published maps. Fixing the data plumbing between the GNSS-enhanced utility locating device and ArcGIS enables a new stream of field data that provides utility mapping departments with feedback on where legacy mapped utilities require review and revision. This integrated capability will provide subsurface utility mappers and locators with better mapping data. Better map data will help field professionals more accurately mark the location of buried pipes and wires. Integrating GNSS-enhanced locating hardware with ArcGIS through Field Maps is a practical step utilities can take to tighten the feedback loop between what’s found in the field and what’s trusted in the map. When marking and mapping become a single, connected workflow, damage caused by mis-mapped utilities will finally decrease. PLEASE NOTE: The postings on this site are our own and don't necessarily represent Esri's position, strategies, or opinions. ... View more

Utility and Pipeline Data Model 2026 is Released By Tom DeWitte and Tom Coolidge Esri's Utility and Pipeline Data Model (UPDM) 2026 is available now. This release continues Esri's practice of maintaining a template data model ready "out-of-the-box" to manage gas and hazardous liquid pipe system data within an Esri geodatabase. This release includes enhancements to keep up with industry practice changes and to address feedback from implementations received since the previous release. Updates to Industry Barcode Standard Every year, the Plastic Pipe Institute (PPI) adds newly registered manufacturers to the list of manufacturers in the ASTM F2897 barcode standard. F2897 is the Tracking and Traceability encoding system defining the format of the barcode that manufacturers place on their pipe, fittings, valves, and other assets. For 2026, PPI added the following manufacturers to the standard:                 -Hubbell-Lyall                 -Flying W Plastics                 -Tex-Trude Pipe                 -Sovereign Pipe Technologies LLC                 -Cosmoind USA, Inc                 -Norton McMurray Manufacturing Co                 -Alexander Tubular                 -Gasoductos Y Estaciones Del Norte (GENSA)                 -Do It American MFG Company LLC                 -TECO S.R.L.                 These additions have been baked into UPDM 2026 to continue its support of this important industry standard. Compliance with the DIRT At the IMGIS 2025 UPDM User Group meeting, the community asked that UPDM be compliant with the reporting needs for the Common Ground Alliance (CGA) Damage Information Reporting Tool (DIRT). DIRT is the underground utility reporting tool for tracking damage to buried infrastructure. To simplify the ability for a natural gas or hazardous liquid organization to submit their instances of damage, we rewrote the excavation damage featureclass in UPDM (P_ExcavationDamage). This extensive rewrite of the excavation damage featureclass will eliminate the need for GIS Professionals to translate their excavation damage field reports for submittal to DIRT. The DIRT required fields will be easy for any administrator, GIS professional, or end user to understand. All DIRT data fields will have an alias that begins with a prefix of DIRT. Cathodic Protection Data Management Customers also asked that we enhance UPDM to apply a geospatial approach to cathodic protection (CP) data management. The goal of these enhancements to UPDM is to simplify the often complex, redundant data management practices used by many organizations today. With this release of UPDM 2026, UPDM consolidates compliance date management and inspections with the mapping process. For example, the mapping process placement of a new CP Test Station will automatically calculate the compliance dates for when the next test station readings are due. This significant enhancement and automation are achieved through attribute rules applied to the PipelineDevice featureclass. Similarly, when a user submits an inspection for a test station (P_CPTestPointReading) or rectifier (P_CPRectifierInspections) to ArcGIS, attribute rules automatically update the inspected asset's Last Inspection Date. Updating the Last Inspection Date on the PipelineDevice asset will trigger the previously mentioned attribute rules to automatically update the next inspection date and next compliance date data fields. This enhancement provides a fully automated compliance date management capability. Knowing that compliance inspection cycles vary around the globe, the ability to define the inspection intervals is implemented simply. With UPDM 2026, syncing to a region's regulatory compliance inspection intervals is as easy as populating the newly added data fields: inspectioninterval, and complianceinterval. Adding a default value setting to these fields will automate compliance intervals without having to modify the underlying attribute rules. Improving Performance Esri routinely internally tests UPDM to improve performance. This is a significant benefit for UPDM users! For this release of UPDM', the Esri development team identified a reconfiguration of the asset's life-cycle status to improve Utility Network trace performance. The pre-existing data field, lifecyclestatus, is renamed to assetlifecyclestatus to better reflect its purpose.  Added is a new attribute rule-managed data field named assetstate. This new data field is automatically populated and updated as users modify the assetlifecyclestatus data field. Gas and Pipeline Referencing Utility Network Foundation For many gas utility and hazardous liquid pipeline enterprises, deploying ArcGIS is more than simply loading the UPDM 2026 data model into an enterprise geodatabase. That's because ArcGIS leverages the concepts of a service-oriented web GIS. It requires additional steps, such as creating an ArcGIS Pro map configured for publishing the data model, publishing the Pro map to create the required map and feature services, and, perhaps, configuring a location referencing system. To simplify these additional steps in UPDM 2026, Esri has embedded it into the Gas and Pipeline Referencing Utility Network Foundation. This solution provides UPDM 2026, sample data, and an ArcGIS Pro project configured with performance-optimized maps. You can access this solution from the Esri ArcGIS for Gas solution site. A full data dictionary of UPDM 2026 is available online. Release notes, documenting the lineage of changes to UPDM over its releases, are also available online. Esri's Template Data Model for the Industry Esri first released UPDM in 2015 as part of a new vision for a geospatial system of record for pipe systems that is much more than a departmental solution. It can be a foundational enterprise system that provides a unified office and mobile workforce with a near-real-time single source of truth. This belief that there should be a single source of truth from which the entire organization can view, query, create, and maintain its entire pipe network has driven not only the development of this industry data model but also our network management and linear referencing capabilities. This freely available data model takes full advantage of geodatabase capabilities. The data model is created and tested with ArcGIS products to ensure that it works. This significantly reduces the complexity, time, and cost to implement a spatially enabled hazardous liquid or gas pipe system data repository. Looking ahead to the Future A wise man once said, "Change is the only constant." This is a great quote to keep in mind as we think about UPDM as we advance. The Esri development team will continue to enhance ArcGIS. Industry will continue to evolve its practices. To continue adjusting to industry practices and incorporating new ArcGIS capabilities, UPDM will continue to evolve. This evolution will help ensure that gas utilities and hazardous liquid pipeline operators have an industry-specific GIS data model that meets their needs. PLEASE NOTE: The postings on this site are our own and don't necessarily represent Esri's position, strategies, or opinions. ... View more

By Tom DeWitte and Tom Coolidge Every now and then, a generational advancement in application software used in the natural gas industry arrives that makes us stop and say, “Whoa, that is a big deal – a true game changer.” DNV is expected to release a new generation of hydraulic modeling software in Q3 of 2026 that is exactly that. DNV's upcoming release represents a significant advance over the previous generation and has been rebranded Synergi Hydraulics.  Synergi Hydraulics is the newest generation of the industry’s leading hydraulic modeling software, Synergi Gas. Hydraulic modeling has long been a critical tool for natural gas systems to ensure that their pipe networks are safe, reliable, operate efficiently, and support growth. These computational models of compressible fluid flow through a pressurized pipe network are complex. These complex models also have a long history of leveraging a digital representation to simplify the creation of these computational models. Creating a Digital Representation Hydraulic modeling software, such as DNV’s Synergi Gas and its upcoming Synergi Hydraulics, has long relied on the natural gas organization’s GIS system to provide the geometries and asset descriptions (e.g., material, diameter) for building the digital representation of the pipe network. The creation of this digital representation begins with a request from the hydraulic engineer to the GIS department to extract the pipes and key inline devices, such as valves and regulators. A GIS professional then extracts these assets into an exchange file format, such as shapefiles. The extracted data includes the geometry of the pipes and devices, as well as the core descriptors of those assets. Once the exchange file is created, it is handed over to the hydraulic engineers. The hydraulic engineers upload this data into the hydraulic modeling software to begin creating the digital representation of the hydraulic model. This extraction and upload process is easy to explain. But it is not easy to execute. Why is that? A Time-Consuming Process The process described in the previous section is time-consuming and expensive. Understanding why this process is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and therefore expensive, explains why it is difficult to execute. It also explains why the enhancements embedded in Synergi Hydraulics are so significant. For over 20 years, most natural gas companies have used the following, more detailed explanation of the process to build a hydraulic model. This more detailed explanation of the hydraulic model-building process reveals the substantial amount of work the hydraulic engineer must perform after receiving the exchange file. An additional several weeks to several months of effort is required after the hydraulic engineers receive the exchange file to prepare it for uploading to the hydraulic modeling software. What is the engineer doing during the weeks and months of building the hydraulic model? Very Expensive Redundancy After the hydraulic engineer receives the exchange files, they must establish connectivity, resolve any geometry and data quality issues in the provided GIS data, and then define flow direction through the pipe network. These are redundant activities that have already been performed by the GIS mapping team! Most GIS mapping systems implemented over the last 25 years have included the development of connectivity models for the pipe network.  These connectivity models also provide some degree of flow-direction modeling. This knowledge of connectivity and flow has historically not been provided to the hydraulic modeling software. It is lost in the exchange file data transfer method. Eliminating these expensive redundancies requires a new process. Eliminating Duplication of Effort This new process will require implementing Esri’s ArcGIS with Utility Network capabilities. In this new ArcGIS Utility Network-to-Synergi Hydraulic process, the file-exchange method for sharing the digital representation of the pipe network is replaced with a web-service upload. This eliminates redundant data handling by both the GIS and hydraulic engineering teams. The hydraulic engineer can now access the natural gas pipeline network directly via the web service. The next “big deal” is the ability of the hydraulic modeling software to consume connectivity and flow-direction information already managed within the ArcGIS Utility Network. The need for the hydraulic engineer to recreate connectivity and flow is eliminated! A New Efficient Process In the new ArcGIS Utility Network-to-Synergi Hydraulic process, half of the legacy process steps are eliminated. The eliminated steps are also the most time-consuming steps of building the hydraulic model. The third “big deal” of the new process is the enhanced data-quality enforcement built into the Utility Network. This is expected to eliminate issues with geometry data quality. It is also expected to reduce the time hydraulic engineers spend completing missing asset descriptors, such as material and diameter. It’s a Very Big Deal This new process is the result of years of effort by DNV. It is also the result of years of collaboration between DNV and Esri. We expect this collaboration and effort to yield a simpler process that can now be completed in days to weeks. A simpler process that replaces the weeks- to months-long effort natural gas organizations experience today. That is a very big deal. PLEASE NOTE: The postings on this site are our own and don't necessarily represent Esri's position, strategies, or opinions ... View more

By Tom DeWitte and Tom Coolidge The natural gas and hazardous liquids industries have always been dependent on knowing where they buried their assets. Like treasure hunters from the movies, industry staff are constantly looking for long-hidden things. Today's equivalent of a treasure map is an enterprise GIS, documenting the location of these buried assets. In the world of cathodic protection, mapping these hidden assets is so important that it is federal law in the United States (CFR 192.491, CFR 195.589). Knowing that you must do something, such as map cathodic protection assets, is not the same as knowing how to do it. The purpose of this blog is to provide best practices for mapping and geospatially managing those assets. These practices ensure CP field technicians always have a reliable map to locate, understand, and inspect buried CP assets. What Needs to be Mapped To define best practices for mapping and managing cathodic protection data, we need to understand the relevant regulatory mapping requirements. According to the U.S. federal regulation Title 49, part 192.491 section (a): "Each operator shall maintain records or maps to show the location of cathodically protected piping, cathodic protection facilities, galvanic anodes, and neighboring structures bonded to the cathodic protection system." Now that we know the mapping requirements, let's look at how to map these assets. How to Map the CP Assets How you map CP assets defines what you can do with this critical data. If all you want is a pretty map, you just need to place a bunch of points. With a little more planning and editing, you can connect these points to the metallic pipes and assets they protect. This enables the creation of CP Zones. Apply a little more configuration, and the placement of the CP assets can also populate the compliance inspection dates and store the inspection data. Now we have a full understanding of a cathodic protection management best practice that eliminates redundant data entry and provides a single source of truth for the organization's users. ' A Template for Cathodic Protection Data Management Knowing how to organize this information to address the CP needs for mapping, compliance, and inspections without redundant data entry is not common knowledge. What is required is a source of knowledge that shows how to organize your CP data. That source is the Utility and Pipeline Data Model (UPDM). Esri provides this natural gas and hazardous liquids industry data model as a free download from the Esri solution site. UPDM provides a template for organizing information on natural gas and hazardous liquids pipe systems. Included in this industry data model is the blueprint for managing cathodic protection data. This data model is an Esri-structured geodatabase. UPDM is written to be installed, and administered with Esri's standard data management tools. UPDM, a best practice geodatabase structure, shows you how to represent and map CP components. CP Test Station CP Rectifier This UPDM organization of pipe system and CP system data will also provide the template for leveraging the mapped components to build and maintain CP zones. Esri intends that this next step in CP data management is implemented with ArcGIS Enterprise's ArcGIS Utility Network capabilities. UPDM is also the template for managing compliance dates and inspections. The spring 2026 update to UPDM will include attribute rules to automatically create and maintain compliance dates, as well as a few enhancements for managing CP inspections. Now that you know where to get your industry-specific template for managing CP, let's dig into the specifics to model the cathodic protection system.   Cathodic Protection Components in UPDM The discrete components of a cathodic protection system modeled in UPDM have evolved over the years into a mature, comprehensive data management template. The first group of assets to look at is the devices. CP devices are components such as anodes, rectifiers, test points, decouplers, and grounding points. CP devices are modeled as point features and stored in the PipelineDevice featureclass. These PipelineDevice features are not inline features of the pipe system. Instead, they physically sit adjacent to the pipe system. These devices are connected to the pipe system assets by wires and cables. You can identify the location where the test lead wires connect to the pipe system using the PipelineJunction feature class, with an AssetGroup value of Wire Junction.   You can specify the location of insulators using the PipelineJunction feature class, with an AssetGroup value of Insulation Junction. The wires and cables used to connect the CP devices to the pipe system that they are cathodically protecting are modeled as linear features. These wires and cables are classified as Test Lead Wires, CP Cables, Linear Anodes, and AC Mitigation Wires. In UPDM, they are stored in the PipelineLine featureclass. The data modeling described so far is what you need to provide maps of where the assets are located and what type of asset they are. Now, let's look at what is necessary to leverage those mapped CP assets to build a CP Zone.                Modeling Insulating Components A CP Zone is an electrical circuit that traverses conductive assets until it encounters an asset that does not conduct electricity. For the software to determine whether a specific asset conducts electricity, it needs to know whether the asset is conductive or insulated. Within UPDM, the management of this property of a CP Asset is stored within a data field named: CPTraceability. This attribute has two potential values: Traceable and Not Traceable. Pipe system component is insulated         = Not traceable Pipe system component is conductive      = Traceable The following UPDM featureclasses, which participate in the utility network, have the CPTraceability attribute: PIpelineLine PipelineDevice PipelineJunction A Coded Value Domain named CP_Traceability is applied to this data field to ensure data quality and eliminate typos. This coded domain has the following values:             Code Description 1 Traceable 2 Not Traceable Coded Value Domains for CP_Traceability The use of this CPTraceability data field extends to all pipe system assets, fittings, valves, pipe segments, etc. Simply identifying a plastic valve as "Not Traceable" is sufficient to designate it as insulated. Recognizing that terms such as "traceable" and "not traceable" are not the words that a CP department will associate with being conductive or insulated, we added another data field to these assets in UPDM called BondedInsulated. The BondedInsulated data field uses the terms "bonded" and "insulated". Like CPTraceability, this data field is added to the PipelineLine, PipelineDevice, and PipelineJunction featureclasses. The BondedInsulated data field has been assigned the coded value domain: Bonded_Insulated. This coded value domain has the following values:               Code Description 1 Bonded 2 Insulated Coded Value Domain for Bonded_Insulated To avoid complication and inconsistency between these two data fields, UPDM includes an attribute rule that manages the CPTraceability data field. When an editor specifies that an asset is insulated (BondedInsulated = Insulated), the attribute rule automatically sets the CPTraceability value to “Not Traceable”. Additionally, if the asset is plastic, the CPTraceability data field is automatically set to "Not Traceable". With this understanding of how to model whether an asset is insulated or conductive (not traceable or traceable), we need to look at a standard CP method called bonding. Management of Bonding Lines Bonding lines are the wires used to extend the electrical connection of the cathodic protection system. They are used to span pipeline assets that are insulated or natively non-conductive. Example of Bonding Wire Spanning Plastic Pipe Segment In some legacy GIS systems, managing bonding lines was tedious. Data editors were required to draw the bonding line and ensure it was connected to the metallic pipe system components at each end of the line. In the UPDM configuration, the need for geometry feature creation has been eliminated by allowing an attribute on the non-conductive pipe system asset which is being spanned to indicate that the asset has been bonded. Instead of drawing the spanning bonding line, a user simply needs to change the BondedInsulated attribute to "Bonded". This means that within the Utility Network, the spanned feature can be considered traceable. Automating Cathodic Protection Data Management The previously described attribute CPTraceability is the primary data field that UPDM and the utility network use to build a cathodic protection zone from the mapped assets. To maximize data quality and editor efficiency, a set of attribute rules automatically populates the CPTraceability data field. Attribute Purpose PipelineLine PipelineDevice/ PipelineJunction Determine material type AssetType Material Determine whether bonded or insulated. BondedInsulated BondedInsulated Determine CP traceability CPTraceability CPTraceability   To explain the logic embedded within the CPTraceability attribute rules, here are three scenarios: Scenario 1: Metallic Pipe Segment Asset Type                         = Coated Steel Bonded Insulated            = null Scenario 2: Insulated Gas Valve Material                              = Steel Bonded Insulated            = Insulated Scenario 3: Plastic Pipe Spanned by Bonding Line Asset Type                         = Plastic PE Bonded Insulated            = Bonded In each of these scenarios, the CPTraceability attribute is automatically populated by the UPDM-provided attribute rules. Scenario 1: Metallic Pipe Segment Asset Type                         = Coated Steel Bonded Insulated            = null CP Traceability                 = Traceable Scenario 2: Insulated Gas Valve Material                              = Steel Bonded Insulated            = Insulated CP Traceability                 = Not Traceable Scenario 3: Plastic Pipe Spanned by Bonding Line Asset Type                         = Plastic PE Bonded Insulated            = Bonded CP Traceability                 = Traceable To have the CP Traceability attribute correctly set, all the editor must do is ensure that the Material/AssetType and the BondedInsulated attributes are correctly set. Building the CP Zone With the CP assets now mapped and organized within the Utility and Pipeline Data Model (UPDM), and the CPTraceability data field now populated, we can build the CP Zones. The software's logic for determining the extent of a CP zone is very simple. Start from a designated CP Test Point Station(s), then trace across the connected CP and pipe system assets, checking each asset for its CPTraceability value. If the ' 'asset's CPTraceability value is "Traceable", then continue the connected trace. When the connected trace finds an asset with a CPTraceability value set to "Not Traceable" the trace stops.  When the trace stops, the software will then gather the selected primary pipe segments to create the geometry for the CP Zone. This is stored in the Pipeline Subnet Line featureclass. Additionally, all assets selected by the trace will have the name of the CP zone written on the asset's record. Managing Inspections Supporting Cathodic Protection inspections is also defined within UPDM. Tables related to the PipelineDevice featureclass are intended to store the inspections captured in the field by CP technicians using an ArcGIS mobile application. These related tables to the CP Test Station and CP Rectifier features store all the inspections. This provides a single, intuitive source of truth for CP technicians. Managing Compliance Dates Managing compliance dates is the last component of full cathodic protection management. It requires mapping the assets and managing inspections in ArcGIS. Attribute rules embedded in UPDM provide the automation and logic to manage the Last Inspection Date, Next Inspection Date, and Compliance Date for each cyclically inspected CP asset. These date fields will be part of the PipelineDevice featureclass schema in UPDM when added as part of the Spring 2026 update.  Now, when a mapper adds a new CP Test Station, the compliance dates are automatically tabulated, and the inspection date fields are automatically populated. When the field technician performs a CP inspection, submitting the field inspection to ArcGIS automatically triggers attribute rules to update the asset's Last Inspection Date, Next Inspection Date, and Compliance Date. Simplifying Cathodic Protection Management If you are already using ArcGIS to meet your federal requirements for mapping CP assets, you can leverage your geospatial foundation to automate the creation of your CP zones by incorporating utility network capabilities and UPDM.  This same foundation of CP data can be used to integrate the federally required CP inspections into your ArcGIS, simplifying field users' experience documenting the inspections. Building upon the mapping of assets and the capture of inspections, you can eliminate duplicate data entry of adding new assets to both the GIS and the compliance management system. By storing the inspection dates in ArcGIS, you will automate the maintenance of the compliance dates. All of this provides the CP field technicians with a treasured map of information. A map that not only provides the location of the buried CP assets but also visualizes the CP zone and provides a single view into the inspection history.  That is a treasure map of value to the entire organization. PLEASE NOTE: The postings on this site are our own and don't necessarily represent Esri's position, strategies, or opinions   ... View more

Understanding Cathodic Protection for GIS & IT Professionals By Tom Coolidge and Tom DeWitte  In the United States there are 3.2 million miles of natural gas pipe and another 228,553 miles of hazardous liquid pipe in production as of December 31, 2024, according to the U.S. DOT PHMSA Annual reports. One million three hundred thirty-nine thousand six hundred and two miles of these pipe networks are cathodically protected steel. That works out to nearly 42% of America’s natural gas and hazardous liquid pipe systems are cathodically protected. In addition to Cathodically protecting a large portion of our country’s infrastructure for transporting these commodities, it is also federally required. The regulatory requirement to cathodically protect metallic pipe has been in place for America’s pipe networks since 1971. Within the many federal regulations, are rules that require Cathodic Protection (CP) systems and their components to be mapped (CFR 192.491, CFR 195.589). Additionally, there are rules that require CP systems to be annually inspected (CFR 192.465, CFR 195.573). Yet, most GIS and IT professionals who work at the organizations that maintain these pipe networks struggle to understand what CP is, and how it works. The Voodoo They Do If you have ever spent time talking to a CP professional, and asked them to explain what CP is, they will likely describe it as part science and part mystic art. They will talk about electromagnetic fields, current flowing through the soil, and electrons being sacrificed. You may leave that conversation more confused than when you started. So, let’s start with the basics. CP: The Basics Most people understand that if you put iron or steel in contact with moisture and oxygen, the metal will begin to rust or corrode. What most people do not understand is that this basic electro-chemical process can be slowed. The science behind slowing the corrosion of a metallic pipe is called Cathodic Protection. Protecting the Pipe from Corrosion There are several methods for protecting buried metallic pipes. One method is to apply a coating to the pipe, forming a barrier between the metal and the corrosion-causing mixture of water and air. Pipe coatings are very common for natural gas and hazardous liquid carrying pipelines.  But they are not perfect, as a single scratch through the coating layer diminishes the protection.  Another method is to manipulate the same electro-chemical process that causes corrosion. By manipulating the electro-chemical process pipes can be protected from corrosion. Two common forms of CP are galvanic protection and impressed-current protection. Galvanically Protected Pipe We Need a Sacrifice A galvanically-protected CP system is also called a passive-cathodic protection system.  It is passive in that no external electrical energy is required.  Galvanic protection works by connecting a more electrochemically active metal to the system than the pipe system which is being protected.  This electrochemically active metal is simply a hunk of metal buried in the ground near the pipe system. This component is called an anode. Common anode materials include zinc, aluminum, and magnesium. In a galvanic protection system, the anode gives up electrons to the pipe system.  This sacrifice of electrons results in the anode corroding rather than the pipe system. Impressed Current Cathodic Protection Charge It Impressed-current CP systems are typically used to protect large pipe systems such as transmission pipelines.  The rectifier inserts direct current (DC) voltage into the CP system.  A rectifier is a device, where AC electricity typically provided by the local electric utility system, is transformed into direct current. A cable connects the rectifier negative terminal to the pipe system. A rectifier cable connects the rectifier’s positive terminal to the anodes within the anode bed. The Electric Circuit The foundational concept to keep in mind when trying to understand CP is that the components are connected to form an electric circuit.  If the circuit is broken, then the metallic pipe system components will lose their protection, and the rate of corrosion will accelerate. If not corrected, the pipe system components will weaken and eventually fail. Soil Is a Conductor With CP, it is important to remember that the soil between the anode and the metallic pipe acts as a conductor.  The soil as a conductor of electricity completes the electric circuit, connecting the anode to the metallic pipe. The amount of moisture in the soil influences its conductivity.  More moisture in the soil, increases the soil’s ability to conduct electricity. Material Type Matters The materials used for pipe system components are critical to a CP system.  Some materials such as polyethylene (Plastic PE) are non-conducting and act as insulators. These insulating materials break the electric circuit. Cathodic Protection System with Insulating Plastic Pipe In addition to plastic pipes and plastic components that act as insulators and break the electric circuit, metallic components can be manufactured so that they too can serve as insulating devices or junctions. Cathodic Protection Systems Separated by an Insulating Valve Managing Cathodic Protection Data with UPDM Management of the CP components in a Geodatabase is not difficult.  The anodes, rectifiers, test points, decouplers, and grounding points are modeled as point features.  The test lead wires, bonding lines, linear anodes, AC mitigation wires, and rectifier cables are modeled as line features. Esri’s Utility and Pipeline Data Model (UPDM) provides a template data model for managing these CP components. Where data management of the CP systems has historically become challenging is the definition and maintenance of the CP zone. Some organizations will also refer to this as the cathodic protection circuit.  The CP zone is comprised of the pipeline, pipe devices, pipe junctions, CP devices, and CP lines, which together form an electric circuit. Cathodic Protection System Here too UPDM provides a template configuration to simplify.  Built into UPDM is a Utility Network configuration for modeling CP zones as subnetworks.  This allows the circuit’s extent to be automatically generated and maintained by ArcGIS’s Utility Network capabilities. Cathodic Protection Zones It’s Not Voodoo U.S. Federal regulations require that the location of all components of a CP system be documented or mapped. Documenting the CP assets in a map provides the intuitive reference that CP departments across the industry have long relied on to understand these critical systems. With this basic understanding of CP, and leveraging the capabilities of ArcGIS, data management of CP can be demystified.  What was once a mysterious technology can be a simple data management activity that enhances the usability of this information to end users. PLEASE NOTE: The postings on this site are our own and don’t necessarily represent Esri’s position, strategies, or opinions. ... View more

One Source of Truth for Cathodic Protection Professionals   By Tom DeWitte and Tom Coolidge Managing Cathodic Protection (CP) has traditionally been a story of siloes for data management. For many CP departments, multiple data systems contain the information they rely upon. One system stores and manages the compliance dates. Another system stores and manages the data collected by field inspections. A third system stores and manages the location of the CP assets. Yet another system may be used to model these electrochemical circuits of pipes and CP components. This siloed approach to data management has left many CP Professionals frustrated, confused, and wondering why it is so difficult to gain a comprehensive understanding of what is happening with a specific CP circuit. Why are these CP Professionals, who are performing a task that is not only critical to the safe operation of the pipe network, but also federally required, unable to get a single comprehensive view of the information needed to manage this CP system? Advancements in technology are enabling CP departments to consolidate these disparate data silos into a single source of truth. One geospatial data management solution can store and manage location, compliance dates, and field inspection data. This single geospatial enterprise system can provide this consolidated information to the entire organization, whether they are in the office or in the field. It also can use this one source of truth information system to model the CP circuits. One Source of Truth with UPDM ArcGIS, organized with the natural gas and hazardous liquid industry data model known as the Utility and Pipeline Data Model (UPDM), provides the capabilities needed to be that one source of truth. ArcGIS has a long history of mapping the location of cathodic protection assets. Since its original release in 2015, UPDM has also enabled the storage of field inspection data from activities such as test point readings and rectifier inspections. Since the release of ArcGIS Utility Network in 2018, the utility network has provided the core capability to model the circuits in which those cathodic protection assets participate. The upcoming release of UPDM 2026 will allow CP professionals to specify business rules to automatically manage the compliance dates. This last component of data management enables ArcGIS to provide the one source of truth CP departments have been looking for. CP and Federal Regulations In many countries, such as the United States, cathodically protecting metallic pipes in natural gas or hazardous liquid pipe networks is more than just a nice engineering solution. It is the law. In the United States, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is responsible for regulating pipeline networks that transport natural gas or hazardous liquids. PHMSA, since 1971, has required that each buried or submerged pipe must be protected from external corrosion (CFR 192.455 and CFR 195.563). In addition to requiring that all metallic pipes be cathodically protected, PHMSA requires that each operator maintain records or maps documenting the location of cathodically protected piping, cathodically protected facilities, galvanic anodes, and neighboring structures bonded to the cathodic protection system (CFR 192.491, CFR 195.589). CP Test Station Additionally, PHMSA requires operators to ensure that the CP system is regularly inspected to validate and document that the electrochemical process is functioning correctly (CFR 192.465, CFR 195.571). Managing Location Mapping the location of CP assets and cathodically protected piping is a federally required activity that applies to all natural gas and hazardous liquid organizations, regardless of size. GIS professionals responsible for documenting the location of newly installed CP assets are familiar with desktop tools such as ArcGIS Pro for placing these components. This location and asset descriptor information is automatically stored in a Geodatabase. Once stored, it is immediately available to all organization users for viewing, querying, and analysis. But what if that action of mapping the CP asset did more than simply comply with federal regulations to document its location? Managing Compliance Dates What if mapping the CP asset in ArcGIS also automatically initializes the compliance dates? This would be a single edit operation. In most CP organizations today, there are two edit operations: one to map the asset and one (in another system) to initiate compliance date management.   The spring 2026 release of UPDM 2026 adds a couple of attribute rules to the PipelineDevice featureclass. These attribute rules will automatically calculate the “Last Inspection Date”, “Next Inspection Date”, and “Compliance Date” fields for the newly placed CP asset.   The initialization of the compliance dates, by performing a mapping task that organizations are already performing is an immediate 50% reduction in the time and cost required to setup the compliance date management system. Documenting Field Inspections By combining mapping with the initialization of compliance dates, a CP asset, such as a CP Test Point or CP Rectifier, is now ready for a CP technician to perform the federally required inspection. ArcGIS and its Field Maps mobile application enables CP professionals to easily perform this field inspection activity. It is important to understand that performing the field inspection is only one part of the field activity. The other part is to have the information available to understand the results. Here again, recent advancements in the management of related records and the ability to create a graph of historical readings for a designated asset addresses a core need of CP field technicians. The need is to see the trends in CP measurements over the course of many inspections. The trend in measurements is as important as the measurement itself. Completing the asset inspection satisfies the compliance requirements for a compliance cycle. Here is another opportunity to streamline another often-redundant activity. That is the recalculation of the asset’s compliance dates to prepare for the next compliance cycle. ArcGIS and its attribute rule capabilities automate this process. By storing inspections in ArcGIS, when the CP field technician submits the completed inspection document, the system automatically recalculates the “last Inspection Date”, “Next Inspection Date”, and “Compliance Date”. No manual intervention required. Modeling the CP Circuit For most of the history of cathodically protected pipe networks, CP technicians have spent the non-inspection season using colored pencils and paper maps to define the extent of a CP circuit/zone manually. Now that mapping CP assets, managing compliance dates, and performing inspections can be stored and maintained in a single ArcGIS system, an organization can address this very time-consuming activity. Leveraging the capabilities of ArcGIS Utility Network, and the CP capabilities defined within the natural gas and pipeline industry data model, UPDM, the CP circuits/zones can be automatically generated. These CP circuits generated by ArcGIS are more than graphical representations; they are models of the electrical flow. The models also tabulate summary information for the CP circuit/zone, including its total length and the number of anodes connected to it. When a CP technician is in the field trying to determine the cause of a failed CP circuit/zone, a circuit/zone is not visible to the technicians since it is buried under about a meter of dirt. Having an interactive map that not only displays each unique CP circuit but also shows a little blue dot indicating where you are in relation to those circuits provides the simplicity of understanding they have long been looking for.  Providing a Comprehensive View Combining these siloes of CP data into a single ArcGIS system, organized with UPDM and leveraging the capabilities of ArcGIS Utility Network, provides staff responsible for managing this critical system with a single source of truth - a single source providing the entire organization with a comprehensive view of the assets, the compliance dates, the inspections, and a model of the CP circuit’s electro-chemical flow. PLEASE NOTE: The postings on this site are our own and don’t necessarily represent Esri’s position, strategies, or opinions. ... View more