Development of a New Gis-based Storm Water Database Updating System: from Field Data Collection to Geodatabase Creation

This paper presents our efforts in the updating of the Storm Water (SW) Database using Global Positioning System (GPS), direct survey and measurements of the Storm Water structures (or called Manhole) in GIS database management. The main task assignments include (1) Designing a data structure, which becomes an effective geodatabase structure to represent the storm water structures and the corresponding pipes; (2) Updating the existing Drainage Inventory Abbreviations, which includes verifying all the existing drainage inventory abbreviations, updating, simplifying, and adding additional abbreviations; (3) Creating Structure picture database, which is linked with structure type to ensure the type is used correctly; (4) Collecting field data by using GPS, which includes the collection of storm water spatial and attribute data respectively. Each Structure’s latitude, longitude and elevation is determined by using GPS; each Structure’s attribute data include Structure type, lid size, invert, pipe count, pipe’s material, shape, size, invert, etc. (5) Implementation using ArcObject Language combining with Visual Basic in ArcGIS 9.1, which includes seven functional modules: entering field data; editing field data; linking GPS data with SW data to calculate pipe elevation; creating structure and pipe layers based on collected data; connecting created new pipes with existing data; data quality control; and updating existing database; (6) Data Quality control, which ensures the created data’s quality by editing field data or the created Structure’s attribute data, adding lost or missing structures, changing pipe flow direction, breaking in pipe segments, connecting two structures, etc. The functions from field data collection, geodatabase creation, to final the database updating are included in the Storm Water Database Updating System (SWDUS), which is a highly practicable and easy operating GIS application system.