GIS Asset Management System

The Township of Freehold, New Jersey, which previously relied on paper maps for the inventory and maintenance of its water distribution and sanitary sewer infrastructure, retained Hatch Mott MacDonald to implement a comprehensive GIS to improve the collection, review, analysis and inspection of asset information related to operation and maintenance.

In addition to the GIS development efforts,  HMM’s “AssetHound” application, an infrastructure asset management system,  was implemented, in order to update the GIS, record inspections, maintenance, and emergency repair information in the field. 

HMM developed a GIS platform for the Township of Freehold that supports the following activities:

• Landbase Development – Fundamental to any GIS database the landbase layer provides the background and coordinate system mapping for GIS data.  HMM has developed a GIS database for the Township that includes: planimetric features, parcels, and digital orthophotography.
• Water and Wastewater GIS Database – The Townships existing paper water and sewer infrastructure maps were converted to a digital format to produce a Township wide infrastructure map. 
• Utility Asset Management System -  HMM’s  AssetHound application was deployed using the GIS database developed by HMM.  AssetHound is a “smart-client” application which allows synchronization between the Townships server, field computers, GIS database and the asset management database.   The GIS is the interface for selecting assets in the field, which are being inspected. HMM developed the Townships asset management database, along with the AssetHound application, to allow for the collection, inspection, maintenance and reporting of the following assets:
  
  • Manholes
  • Valves
  • Hydrants – In addition to collecting inspection, and maintenance information in the field.  An additional module was built to allow field users to record the results of Fire Flow testing.