Data gathering of water structures and mains -determine what customers would be affected

[GeorgeJonesRIGOV]

Was wondering how I would go about how to collect water main structures for water mains. One thing we've always thought would be cool is if we could develop an "outage map," with our water mains. Say, for instance, there's a water main break, it would be cool to be able to select the line and see which residents are affected. We could then use this to automate messages to residents about the main break/boil orders/etc. 

I was just wondering if any of you guys have done this in the past.

thanks GJ

[AustinAverill]

I have done this a few ways in the past. 

1. Isolate every segment of pipe that can be valved off in your system and then use the geometry of your pipe segments to create a buffer and and intersect a parcel layer or service connection layer that contains enough information to interface with your CRM. This method can be a bit more neurotic if your distribution main data is underdeveloped, as this can represent a pretty time intesive task.
2. In the past, I have developed a different workflow using our distribution features as a reference, and then utilizing a point and polygon layer to record break information. This solution was created using WebApp Builder, and field workers would generate point data for the valves they had turned off, then would draw a polygon around all of the parcels that were impacted by those valves being shut off. The office staff would then using the screen widget to intersect the break area with our service connection layer to produce a contact list for boil water/outage calls, etc. This solution is a bit more labor intensive for your staff, but has the advantage of taking real world input from the field crews who have vast amounts of experience in your distribution system. It also does not rely heavily on your valve and distrubution main data being perfectly developed.