Gas and Pipeline Blog

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. To help address this industry wide issue, esri has partnered with three leading utility locate hardware manufacturers: Radiodetection, Subsite, and Vivax-Metrotech.

Esri's Utility and Pipeline Data Model (UPDM) 2026 is available now. This year's release includes updates to stay current with the ASTM F2897 barcode standard, alignment with the Common Ground Alliance Damage Information Reporting Tool (DIRT), and enhancements to support the mapping, modeling, compliance and inspection needs of Cathodic Protection.

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 the digital representation within Synergi Hydraulics is about to get significantly easier, thanks to its integration with the ArcGIS Utility Network and UPDM.

In the world of cathodic protection, mapping the Cathodic Protection (CP) assets is so important that it is federal law in the United States. 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 CP assets.

Guess what?  The long-awaited and greatly anticipated second installment of our three-part Survey123 AI Capabilities blog series is finally here. You might be asking yourself, “What’s coming up in part two?” Or maybe you’re thinking, “Wait, did I miss part one?” No worries, I’ve got you covered! If you haven’t checked out the first post yet, you can find here - https://community.esri.com/t5/gas-and-pipeline-blog/the-survey123-assistant-for-gas-utilities/ba-p/1....

The safe management of underground utilities is a cornerstone of modern infrastructure planning and mapping. Learn what Esri has been working on this year in support of loading Locate (811) data into ArcGIS.

Utilizing computer vision in ArcGIS Survey123 to identify objects, read text, and analyze patterns from images to enhance utility field operations.

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. 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. This article provides a introduction to understanding CP and how to manage it within ArcGIS.

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. 

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. 

Contractor management is a growing need in the natural gas industry. Natural gas utilities need a way to manage contractors and the work that they complete. With ArcGIS, contractors can complete work in the field, attach photos, and have all information available to be accessed within their organization immediately. But how can the gas utility access that information? Check out this blog to learn more about collaborations - Esri's solution to the contractor challenge.