Abstract
In the utility sector the digitalization ‘in the trench’ set in only 5 years ago. Driving force behind it were the introduction of mobile smart device. These devices became unmissable with laws and regulations that demand the presence of lots of information about quality and work safety. The development speed
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of new applications for the mobile smart devices also plays its part.
In the Netherlands the major part of utility networks are buried underground. This makes them more resistant to weather and other threads, but brings other risks. Most important are the risks of excavation damage and invalid registration of the location of pipes and cables.
There has been several projects for standardization of information exchange of the utility network revision updates. Some of the standardization projects were successful, but in all the projects the standardization of Geo-Information was of less importance.
This research projects focusses on data exchange between network operator and the executing contractor in underground utilities. The scope of the research project is limited to the commodities electric power and natural gas and the focus is on residential service connections. Three scenarios help define the scope. Relocation pipes and cables for the creation of a roundabout, Adding multiple residence to the supply network and the last scenario is repairing excavation damage.
The research problem focusses on how standardization can help make information exchange in this application more efficient and effective. The standardization is twofold. A study is performed on what information the data model must comprise and the second part is to study the technical communication protocols. The goal is to create a model to enable standardized communication in a heterogenous world.
The research starts with a study into existing data models and communication standards. Several data models are compared and one of the data models, IMKL2015, is chosen as the main donor for the new data model. IMKL2015 is an INSPIRE compatible information model for cables and pipes in the Netherlands. The newly create model is a subset of IMKL2015 with some small additions to make it ready for asset information exchange. The communication protocol is based on the WFS-T protocol.
Also part of the project was the development of a prototype using recent web technologies. The prototype was used as Proof of Concepts and to evaluate the developed data model and WFS-T implementation. The evaluation is executed using the earlier introduced scenarios. The evaluation showed that the model is a useful, but that the model needs more research before adoption is possible.
The developed model is not perfect, but demonstration of the created prototype triggered interest and discussions by professionals in the field. It is those professionals who should take the next step by study the results ant conduct a business case analysis to prove the claimed advantages are a reasonable and feasible goal.
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