Key Insights on GIS for Stormwater Management

Justin Proctor from Ecopia AI’s (Ecopia’s) stormwater team recently joined experts from Geographic Technologies Group, the City of Tulare, and Bad Elf for a webinar focused on GIS strategic planning for stormwater and sewer systems. This session was part of a broader webinar series exploring asset management strategies for state and local governments. In this blog, we highlight the key insights shared during the discussion and provide access to the video recording.

GIS strategic planning for stormwater and sewer systems

Jason Marshall, VP of Operations at Geographic Technologies Group (GTG), kicks off the webinar by introducing GTG as a GIS consulting firm specializing in strategic planning for government agencies across North America. He outlines GTG’s strategic planning methodology and discusses how this approach can be applied specifically to stormwater and sewer GIS data management, helping to enhance operational efficiency and improve service levels for communities.

Jason shares insights on the challenges, visions, and goals related to GIS strategic planning for sewer and stormwater utilities, emphasizing the significant value it offers. He highlights that a GIS strategic plan for these utilities can result in increased efficiency when collecting an inventory of infrastructure assets and planning maintenance. A key point he emphasizes is the importance of connectivity in GIS to gain a comprehensive understanding of infrastructure. For instance, knowing the locations of infrastructure, like outfalls is important for National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits. Moreover, understanding how road maintenance intersects with water line locations can help minimize disruptions.

Next, Jason outlines GTG’s six-pillar approach to ensure a sustainable and successful GIS strategic plan and explores how GIS strategic planning projects are structured for GTG’s utility clients. Jason shares real-world examples of these strategies in action, including a project with the City of Tulare, where a GIS strategic plan helped the city increase the speed and efficiency of its stormwater and sewer operations. He introduces the next speaker, Justin Patananan, the GIS Systems Analyst for the City of Tulare, to expand on this.

Implementing a strategic GIS plan: Insights from the City of Tulare

Justin begins by discussing Tulare’s journey toward modernizing its GIS system as a result of its strategic planning initiative with GTG. Serving a population of 63,000 across a 23-square-mile area, Tulare’s GIS supports crucial infrastructure, including sewer, stormwater, and water systems. Before 2020, the city's GIS operations were primarily outsourced to third-party firms and consultants. The public works and planning departments had limited in-house GIS capabilities and discovered that much of the data they relied on was over a decade old, failing to reflect the recent developments and changes within the city. Justin also explains that staff relied on paper-based methods to locate assets.

Recognizing the need for modernization, Tulare initiated a strategic plan with GTG in 2019 that addressed the city's organizational needs, staff involvement, and system infrastructure. The first phase of the project involved recognizing the need to bring GIS staff in-house and integrate more software and applications into the organization. The second phase involved deploying an ArcGIS hub which would serve as a central point for their GIS data and map applications to help staff. The third phase focused on developing an enterprise action plan, outlining a three-year roadmap for further implementation. 

Justin explains that following the execution of the strategic plan enabled the city to transition from relying on paper-based searches for as-built information to utilizing a GIS-based viewer. This shift dramatically increased operational speed and efficiency, providing significant value to staff and laying the foundation for a more robust GIS infrastructure.

The importance of accurate data in infrastructure management

In the next portion of the webinar, Noah Golinko, Geospatial Enablement Specialist at Bad Elf, explores the importance of creating a digital system of record for managing infrastructure assets and how Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technology can play a role in this process. He shares that his team helps state and local governments implement GNSS technology in the field to enhance asset management and decision-making. 

Noah explains that a digital system of record tracks key infrastructure elements such as pump stations, catch basins, and stormwater outfalls—providing a comprehensive view of what’s happening beneath the streets. This system enables agencies to maintain accurate, up-to-date records of their assets, which can help identify and prioritize maintenance needs, ensure regulatory compliance, and make informed decisions regarding aging infrastructure and flood-prone areas. Lastly, Noah discusses how his team trains field crews on using GNSS receivers and helps integrate the data into GIS applications.

Ecopia’s AI-powered land cover data: leveraging the power of AI to improve stormwater infrastructure and resilience 

AI-powered geospatial data: an accurate, efficient, and cost-effective solution

In the following portion of the webinar, Justin Proctor from Ecopia highlights how Ecopia is supporting stormwater planning in communities across North America. Ecopia’s AI-powered systems digitize imagery, creating high-definition vector maps at scale with the accuracy of a trained GIS professional. This eliminates the need for costly and time-consuming manual digitization.

Justin shares several case studies, demonstrating how Ecopia’s comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date geospatial data is enhancing stormwater management planning across North America. 

Supporting stormwater decision-making in Jacksonville 

The first case study Justin shares focuses on Jacksonville, where the city has long leveraged geospatial analytics to guide stormwater decision-making. The Department of Public Works leverages land cover data not only for planning and monitoring stormwater infrastructure but also for determining the stormwater utility fees (SUFs) that help fund the maintenance of the infrastructure.  However, the city found that keeping this detailed data up to date in a constantly changing environment was both time-consuming and costly, especially when manually updating information across 370,000 parcels of land.

By partnering with Ecopia the city was able to obtain 21 layers of high-precision pervious and impervious land cover data in just over 4 weeks at a price point that was 84% less expensive per parcel compared to other geospatial data providers. This partnership has provided the Department of Public Works with a reliable source of truth for land cover, allowing them to focus on analysis and planning rather than the labor-intensive process of manual feature digitization. For a closer look at the high-precision data created by Ecopia, click here to view a map of the land cover data developed for Jacksonville, Florida.

Delivering high-precision land cover data to King County

Across the country in Washington, King County used Ecopia’s comprehensive, accurate, and, up-to-date land cover data to inform public sector decision-making across various initiatives.

To avoid relying on fragmented data sets with inconsistent quality, the King County GIS Center leveraged Ecopia-generated land cover data. In under 8 weeks, Ecopia delivered 16 detailed land cover layers encompassing all natural and impervious surfaces across the county’s 23 hundred square mile area. This high-quality data supports a wide range of county initiatives including enhanced flood modeling, accurate stormwater assessments, wildlife restoration efforts, and climate action planning. Additionally, it aids in transportation planning and social justice projects contributing to King County’s efforts to improve everyday life for its residents.

Optimizing stormwater utility fee calculations in Detroit

Justin highlights the City of Detroit as another municipality that relies on accurate impervious surface mapping. In Detroit, calculating SUFs is a key component of funding public works projects. To ensure these calculations are precise, the city needs up-to-date, comprehensive land cover data—something manual processes often struggle to keep pace with in a rapidly evolving urban environment

To overcome the challenges associated with manual digitization, Detroit partnered with Ecopia to extract high-resolution land cover data from geospatial imagery establishing an annually updated source of truth for impervious surfaces used in SUF calculations. Ecopia’s standardized approach allows the city to confidently assess shifts in impervious surfaces to optimize SUFs. Justin shares that partnering with Ecopia, enabled the City to identify an average of 2% annual change in land cover equating to a discrepancy of more than $5M annually. This previously missed revenue is now captured and reinvested to support stormwater and green infrastructure initiatives throughout the community. 

Improving flood preparedness in Peterborough

Justin highlights that flood modeling is a critical element for the Canadian city of Peterborough. After a major flood in 2004, the city ramped up its efforts to leverage geospatial data and mapping analysis to better understand how land cover influences flooding and to prepare for future flood events. Like many municipalities, Peterborough faced challenges in maintaining detailed, accurate, and up-to-date datasets in a rapidly changing environment.

By collaborating with Ecopia and Jacobs, the city integrated a sophisticated flood model based on a single, reliable source of truth containing high-quality, regularly updated land cover data. Powered by a 2D surface mesh derived from Ecopia’s data, the Integrated Flood Model (IFM) enables the city to simulate potential flood scenarios, strategically prioritize stormwater infrastructure projects, and build a more resilient community. 

Enhancing green infrastructure and stormwater planning in Los Angeles

Next, Justin explains how maintaining a high-precision land cover database empowers communities to develop innovative stormwater management solutions that also benefit the environment and improve residents’ quality of life. For instance, the City of Los Angeles needed data to strategically place stormwater medians across its vast transportation network. The City’s Bureau of Street Services turned to Ecopia’s data on traffic medians, tree canopy, street trees, bus pads, and speed bumps to identify optimal median locations that enhance traffic flow, channel stormwater, and create functional green spaces.

These medians not only support stormwater management but also function as community green spaces, contributing to a more livable, sustainable, and resilient urban environment for residents. Click here to discover more about the project.

Powering coastal resilience with NOAA

Lastly, Justin discusses Ecopia’s relationship with The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management is responsible for supporting the environmental, social, and economic well-being of the US coast by linking people, information, and technology. The agency’s digital coast website facilitates this mission by providing land cover data to communities and organizations to leverage in their geospatial analysis. Keeping data up to date with the changes is critical in all locations but especially in coastal communities that are increasingly susceptible to natural hazards. 

To equip these communities with the data needed for stormwater analysis, NOAA provides high-precision land cover data on its digital coast website. While their 30m land cover data sets were helpful, NOAA partnered with Ecopia to produce a layer of 1m resolution for increased granularity. With this more detailed data, coastal communities can now better detect change and land cover and develop hazard mitigation strategies based on up-to-date information. Learn more about Ecopia's work with NOAA here. 

Building a more resilient future with AI-powered land cover data

These are just a few examples of ways Ecopia empowers communities with high-precision land cover data to enhance their stormwater mapping and impervious surface analysis.‍ If you’re interested in learning more about how Ecopia’s AI-powered geospatial data can support your stormwater projects, don't hesitate to get in touch. 

For more information about GIS strategic planning for stormwater and sewer systems, watch the full webinar below.