Anglian Water Article

Anglian Water Purchase a Geotechnical GIS from Howlands

Anglian Water has commissioned A F Howland Associates to produce a geographic information system to access and interrogate borehole records and site summary information gained from its ground investigation term contracts. Howlands are to provide a standalone system able to search the wealth of information that has been previously collected by the authority. Anglian Water admit that it has not maintained its records in a readily accessible manner. However, it is often necessary to gain a quick check on whether work has been carried out in an area of new work, and to create a summary of the findings.

Howlands have developed a fully featured geographic information system that stores raw geotechnical data. This can be supplied either as GEODASY data files of AGS data files. The system creates a project symbol that acts very much as a map pin against a background map of the Anglian Water’s region. The pins represent past geotechnical investigations and point and click procedures interrogate the system’s database and display a wealth of information on the project. The information is displayed initially to screen, but can be printed if needed.

At increasing levels of zoom, the actual boreholes from the project are displayed. The system utilises the powerful database functionality behind Howlands renowned borehole software, GEODASY. This is used to create borehole records at the point of interrogation either for screen preview or print. As the data is stored in its raw form, it can be manipulated and processed. The preview and print is generated in real time and does not rely on scanned images. Howlands state that this is important since the reliance on scanned images eliminates completely the ability to process the contained data. Also, the storage overhead and process time involved with large scanned images is a practical limitation on the real use of GIS. Access to the raw data means that the functionality of the system can increase and grow with the user’s needs.

Such systems open up the archival opportunities that stem from geotechnical data produced by computer systems. Howlands have always recognised value in accumulating ground data and have advocated the use of GIS functions for many years. Indeed, before it was disbanded they provided a powerful GIS system for the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) that contained the historic land use of the area and the data from the famous Docklands Borehole Database System.

Recent development in technology has meant that GIS is affordable for all organisations. Howlands argue that payback is achieved by having ready access to the organisation’s own accumulated data.

The system has been designed against a well structured development programme with Anglian Water. It retains the intuitive use that is characteristic of Howland software and is an ideal vehicle for organisations with a defined area of interest and an accumulating wealth of data.