Effective Data Management Procedures to Support Detailed Sewer System Models

Effective management of data is critical to the success of developing a system-wide sewer model. Throughout a typical model building project, data management efforts represent more than half of the labor effort required. As such, the data management strategy can significantly impact the efficiency of the model development process, model accuracy and long-term use of the model. This paper presents procedures developed and utilized as part of an integrated system-wide sanitary sewer modeling project for the City of Dayton, Ohio and Montgomery County (Dayton/MC). These two utilities have interconnected sewer systems represented in separate GIS platforms and maintenance/management (CMMS) databases. The primary objective of this project was to develop an integrated framework to support the coordination of on-going data transfers among several software applications, the development of detailed system-wide models, and efficient use of these models by multiple consultants and both utilities. In addition to presenting specific examples from the Dayton/MC system, the paper includes protocols used which can be adapted to other projects involving sewer system model development.