Maintenance Program GIS Activities

by David Bennetts, P.E., Senior Project Engineer, Maintenance Program

The District is currently in the process of converting all of our Routine Maintenance aerial photographs to a GIS application. This is part of a larger effort by the District staff to create an integrated GIS system utilizing existing data developed by the District.

The District has approximately 500 11" X 17" aerial photographs, which are used for the Routine Maintenance Program. The photographs show drainageway location information, property boundaries, and work limits for mowing and debris removal. The photographs are part of the contract documents for the routine contractors, and are also used by District staff and other interested parties. These photographs quickly become outdated as adjacent areas are developed or other changes occur in the field.

The new images will utilize MRSID aerial photographs obtained from DRCOG. The new photographs are fit into our existing format, and a geodatabase with street names for all streets within the District boundaries was added to help locate drainageways. Mowing and debris removal limits and match lines were then added in a GIS shapefile format. Attributes in the shapefile will also include local government information, reach id's, and any specific notes for the particular location. The current plan is to update these photographs as needed to keep pace with development and changes in the field.

Once this conversion is completed, cost-tracking information will be added for all drainageways on which maintenance has been performed. This will then allow the District and interested local governments to track how much money was spent on a specific drainageway for a given period of time.

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