topic Re: Subnetwork Management in ArcGIS Utility Network Questions

Subnetwork Management

shildebrand — Fri, 14 Feb 2025 15:41:48 GMT

Hi everyone,

I am currently in the early process of deleting and updating subnetworks in our utility network. When reviewing this documentation, I run into problems at the last step. Using the water system shown below, I have removed all subnetwork controllers. Then I validate the extent and get no errors and no dirty areas display within the error inspector. Then I update the subnetwork using the find subnetwork pane or geoprocessing tool successfully. When I run the export subnetwork too, the tier parameter says that there are no clean subnetworks discovered.

Can anyone give me some guidance on how to setup a system and pressure subnetwork on the below water system? Generally speaking, the pink line pumps water from a river to a treatment plant and the pumps to distribution. Does there need to be an asset that serves as a subnetwork controller at the beginning of the pink line to represent the supply (river)? If I set the pumps at the plant as subnetwork controllers for a pressure subnetwork, all assets are assigned to the system subnetwork. Wouldn't you think that everything after the pumps would be the pressure subnetwork?

Overall, what assets do you use as subnetwork controllers within a water utility network? For example, the esri default Naperville water data uses a water treatment plant as the controller for the system subnetwork. For us, the treatment plant is an area that contains several assets which could control a subnetwork. How do you handle wells that feed a treatment plant? What about bodies of water that serve as a source for a system?

I've gone through most of the content within this documentation, but have had a difficult time applying it to our utility network. Any help regarding subnetwork management would be greatly appreciated!

Re: Subnetwork Management

gis_KIWI4 — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 01:55:41 GMT

@shildebrand - I am not very experienced with water networks but I will try answering this from a Subnetwork Management lens.

Can anyone give me some guidance on how to setup a system and pressure subnetwork on the below water system? Generally speaking, the pink line pumps water from a river to a treatment plant and the pumps to distribution. Does there need to be an asset that serves as a subnetwork controller at the beginning of the pink line to represent the supply (river)? If I set the pumps at the plant as subnetwork controllers for a pressure subnetwork, all assets are assigned to the system subnetwork. Wouldn't you think that everything after the pumps would be the pressure subnetwork?

The water network is generally modelled as a Hierarchical Network so you can have a device that is part or more than one subnetwork from different tiers.
Every subnetwork needs a starting point which is the subnetwork controller. So yes, you would expect a subnetwork controller to be present at the start of the pink line.

I am currently in the early process of deleting and updating subnetworks in our utility network. When reviewing this documentation, I run into problems at the last step. Using the water system shown below, I have removed all subnetwork controllers. Then I validate the extent and get no errors and no dirty areas display within the error inspector. Then I update the subnetwork using the find subnetwork pane or geoprocessing tool successfully. When I run the export subnetwork too, the tier parameter says that there are no clean subnetworks discovered.

This would imply that there are no subnetworks to export.
Could you check the Subnetworks Table to see if there any records in there?

what Assets do you use as subnetwork controllers within a water utility network? For example, the esri default Naperville water data uses a water treatment plant as the controller for the system subnetwork. For us, the treatment plant is an area that contains several assets which could control a subnetwork. How do you handle wells that feed a treatment plant? What about bodies of water that serve as a source for a system?

This will vary based on organizational requirements. It will completely depend on how you decide to configure your Utility Network. Any device or JunctionObject can be set as a subnetwork controller.
If you have assets within the Treatment Plant, perhaps one of the valves or pumps could be a subnetwork controller.

Hope this helps.
Are you able to break your problem statement down into specifics scenarios and we can try working through that.

Re: Subnetwork Management

shildebrand — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 15:55:51 GMT

Thank you for your help with this! Any ideas on what type of device you would use to represent a body of water like a river? It's not something we currently have in our data model.

When I view the subnetworks table, it is showing multiple records with the same subnetwork name with different subnetwork controllers. I have removed all of the controllers, so i'm confused as to why they are still showing up?

Re: Subnetwork Management

gis_KIWI4 — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:10:02 GMT

@shildebrand - If you are using the foundational model then it looks like you could possibly use a Device belonging to the ASSETGROUP = Supply or ASSETGROUP = Storage. I will let the experts from the Water Domain confirm this.

https://solutions.arcgis.com/water/help/water-distribution-utility-network-foundation/DataDictionary/DataDictionary/#Asset_Type_Water_Device_Supply

Subtype: Supply
The Supply asset group in the WaterDevice feature class represents assets with a primary function of supplying water to the system.

If you wish to create an ASSETTYPE = River for ASSETGROUP = Supply you could do that too.
The requirements for something to be a subnetwork controller are that it should a WaterDevice or WaterJunction with Terminals.

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Regarding the subnetworks.
The Records in the Subnetwork will remain until we actually run the Export Subnetwork Tool.
It will be interesting to see what the subnetwork table looks like.
Can you check the following attributes - IsDeleted and Status
Both these should be set to True if you have followed all the right steps -https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/help/data/utility-network/delete-a-subnetwork.htm

Re: Subnetwork Management

SamDeLore — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:57:37 GMT

Hi @shildebrand ,

In our UN water model we have essentially "dummy" devices to act as a controller, they don't represent any physical feature or asset, they are purely there for the UN to function.

We use these at reservoirs, creeks etc, wherever we want the subnetwork to begin right on a pipe or linear feature.

At pump stations we use the pumps themselves as subnetwork controllers.

The added bonus of this, is if you need to start multiple tiers at the same location, you can create a dummy asset for each tier, then J-J associate them to the actual start feature which gets around the limitation of 1 subnetwork controller tier at any single feature

Re: Subnetwork Management

shildebrand — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:00:02 GMT

Thank you, I will for sure look into adding some type of a device to represent the river.

Regarding deleting subnetworks, the Is deleted field is set to "True". But I cannot locate a "Status" field. The "Is dirty" field is also set to True, but when I validate topology, no dirty areas are returned.

Re: Subnetwork Management

gis_KIWI4 — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 01:40:13 GMT

The behavior of not seeing returning dirty areas is expected.
Regarding the Subnetworks, it still a bit odd that your IsDirty flag is set to True.

I would suggest running the Update Subnetwork Tool again to see if that changes.
I reckon the Export Subnetwork Tool expects "Clean" subnetworks to be exported and that is where your issue is.

Below is an example from our Electrical Utility Network.
Before we start.

Step One - Modify Controller and remove subnetwork Controller (Don't delete the feature, I have seen that done before)

Step Two - Validate Topology. At This Point, IsDeleted = True and IsDirty = True

Step Three - Update Subnetwork using the geoprocessing tool. This will change the IsDirty = False and IsDeleted will remain True

Step Four - Use "Export Subnetwork" tool

This should remove the line from the Subnetworks Table.

Re: Subnetwork Management

shildebrand — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 15:42:38 GMT

Thank you for your help. Is is possible that the "Is Dirty" field is the same as the "Status" field? Regardless, both are set to true, so that probably isn't the issue. Below is a snip of what happens when trying to run the export subnetwork tool. Do you know if the entire utility network database (which includes multiple subnetworks that don't work or are useless to us) needs to be "clean"? Or does the subnetwork that you are attempting to delete just need to be "clean"? We will probably need to get some help from Esri technical support regarding this or from some other outside resource.

Re: Subnetwork Management

gis_KIWI4 — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 18:17:12 GMT

IsDirty is the Field Name and Status is the alias. They are the same.

this field needs to be False.
True implies that the subnetwork is dirty.

Only the subnetwork you are trying to delete needs to should have the IsDirty field set to False.

The tool needs subnetwork to be not dirty before it can be exported