Posted - Hayley Merrill: You may recall the news headlines from September last year in which a Pacific Gas and Electric Co (PG&E Corp.) pipeline exploded in the San Francisco suburb of San Bruno, California, killing four people and destroying 38 homes. The hearings have just recently begun and are examining the circumstances that led to the fatal explosion. It has become immediately apparent that the company is missing critical information that keeps track of its pipelines including location-intelligence, potential failure points and maintenance records. In fact the company has stated that is has had a real challenge converting paper records to computer files for a number of years now.
A San Francisco Chronicle article suggests that software upgrades and errors in managing the utility’s information system were contributing factors to lack of maintenance of the pipeline. It appears this is not only a significant challenge for PGE&E Corporation but many other utility companies worldwide who are finding the management of geospatial information really complex and that the value behind its intelligence is grossly underestimated. Mary Muse, a PG&E Corp. gas engineer, involved in the computerisation of old pipeline paper maps to digitised maps, told a convention of mapping experts, “Validation of individual field values was not performed. This led to incorrect or inconsistent values being populated in the fields."
Whether an organisation manages the capture and validation process itself or outsources it is critical that good (and known) data quality underpins business planning and decision making. Surely it has never been more critical to recognise the valuable asset that location-data is – especially if it helps mitigate disasters like this.
A San Francisco Chronicle article suggests that software upgrades and errors in managing the utility’s information system were contributing factors to lack of maintenance of the pipeline. It appears this is not only a significant challenge for PGE&E Corporation but many other utility companies worldwide who are finding the management of geospatial information really complex and that the value behind its intelligence is grossly underestimated. Mary Muse, a PG&E Corp. gas engineer, involved in the computerisation of old pipeline paper maps to digitised maps, told a convention of mapping experts, “Validation of individual field values was not performed. This led to incorrect or inconsistent values being populated in the fields."
Whether an organisation manages the capture and validation process itself or outsources it is critical that good (and known) data quality underpins business planning and decision making. Surely it has never been more critical to recognise the valuable asset that location-data is – especially if it helps mitigate disasters like this.
No comments:
Post a Comment