GIS applications for electricity, gas, water, and telecommunications service providers are especially varied. However for all these industries the starting point is to ensure that all paper archives have been digitised and assigned to a geo-spatial database. Without this the benefits of operating a GIS will be dramatically reduced as activities will tend to be task-based rather than as part of a wider data management system.
Assuming this has been done, typical GIS applications that we have developed include: Electric Facilities Databases (EFD) for responding to storm-caused outages, and the notification of the relevant companies so that service can be quickly restored, gas source and physical pipeline management that includes pipe pressures on valves, pipe diameter, outage management, emergency response, gas distribution, network operation, and planning and research, telecommunications analysis to monitor signal coverage, test results, trouble tickets, customer enquiries, and service integrity; high-resolution maps detailing the location of underground water pipelines and watersheds.
Utility providers confront various challenges while planning, designing and implementing their operations. Natural catastrophes, sabotages and other industrial accidents can cause critical disruptions to the distribution and supply of utilities to millions of people. With a vast area of infrastructural assets, and a large number of critical resources, the service providing companies need to design a sustainable system for managing their operations to ensure effective distribution and usage. GIS-based data management systems and solutions developed by the SBL Geospatial services team help the Utilities providers to leverage operational efficiency, provide superior services and manage them cost effectively. In particular vectorised GIS mapping, accompanied by a well-managed geo-referenced database, will allow far more efficient sharing of up to date, business critical data amongst all stakeholders.
Power
SBL's GIS Mapping for Utilities services are central to any enterprise resource planning. These services help power supply organisations to plan, control, and co-ordinate business critical areas such as, amongst others, outage management, geographical database planning, distribution management, supply line management, and installations management.
Oil & Gas
Our Oil and Gas GIS services centre on the rationalisation and Geo-referencing of large volumes of enterprise data such as CAD, paper, any digitised formats, ISAT records, Pipeline Open Data Standard (PODS), and Pipeline Data Models. Typically our clients require this rationalisation to: mitigate leakage and supply disruption through spatial trend analysis, help to effectively manage maintenance scheduling, ensure wide access to as-built drawings of plants and assets, support development and strategic planning,
Telecom
Our Telecoms customers use our utility mapping services to help remain competitive by ensuring uninterrupted service and faster communication networks. Our GIS services are only a part in this, but an important part. Indeed to implement faster technology, a detailed and in-depth understanding of the geographical context of the systems installations and service networks is vital.
Water & Drainage
Water management is critical in a world faced with fierce water scarcity problems. Increasing urbanisation has aggravated the risk of water logging in cities and townships, which in turn interrupts normal living of its citizens. In addition, famine and water scarcity in the agricultural landscapes call for proper water supply to these areas. Therefore, water resource management has become essential across the board.
SBL helps water and sewage management organisations to efficiently design and implement quality utility services. Water supply resources and the pipeline network can be planned, designed and established meticulously using our GIS utility mapping services. Our services have so far helped many public and private conglomerates to provide highly effective water management systems, something of which we are proud.
In particular our GIS team has developed a dynamic, user-friendly modelling tool for the analysis, design, management and operation of both simple and complex pipe networks thereby providing a complete and effective working environment for sophisticated urban drainage and sewer engineering. This hydrodynamic pipe flow model solves the complete St. Venants (dynamic wave) equations throughout the drainage network, both looped and branched. By developing suitable algorithms, our model predicts accurate solutions.
Hospitality and Tourism
GIS for Hospitality and Tourism is focused on effective provision of the right services, at the right times, and from the right locations. Without detailed location-based information it is impossible for service providers to assess the needs of their customers and, more importantly, understand to what extent they are meeting them. It is also an essential tool for analysing competitor activities and for planning one’s own marketing activity based on: demographics; the proximity of the competition; the proximity of high-profile tourist destinations that might drive traffic; opportunities or threats posed by the opening of new businesses in a neighbouring geographical catchment. GIS is also used extensively by those responsible for planning and maintaining the tourist infrastructure. It is very difficult to ensure that development work is fit for purpose, and executed with the right priorities in mind if questions like the following are left unanswered: "Which routes do tourists use?" "Are there times in the day when critical massing occurs?" "Do we have the facilities to cope, and are they in the right geographical areas?" "If not, where do we need to build, and which of the existing facilities can we afford to close?" "Can we cross-reference these questions with survey data, and map results in relation to complaints?" Once a GIS has been implemented for data analysis it can also be used in areas such as: facilities maintenance planning; security and emergency response planning; planning for seasonal or event-based upsurges in visitor numbers.
Route Network Analysis
The main application for RNA is the development of cost effective route designs. Optimal routes can be created by manipulating either a Cadastral file or a shape file and clipping out specific features such as rivers, contours, roads, slopes etc. for analysis. As standard we will design a spatial database and model the features on a 3D surface for network analysis. This service is typically used by organisations or agencies that manage facilities such as utilities, communications and, in particular, transport networks.
Through RNA we provide customers with a more cost effective, environmentally sensitive and economically viable option. Depending on the format of the digitised data, DEMs can be generated for use in trend analysis, fault or outage reporting, and improvements planning. We design geo-databases that facilitate geo-route calculations, information storage and information sharing.
Network analysis can be used in the Utilities sector to monitor and analyse their distribution systems and meter-reading routes. Municipal public works departments use networks to analyse bus and waste-disposal routes and to determine best possible plans. Businesses use network analysis to find the optimal routes for the delivery of goods and services. Retail stores use network analysis to determine prime locations, competitor threats, required resources and transport facilities. This is used as part of an over-arching Business Geo-intelligence Infrastructure.
