Clark County GIS Innovates Fire Hydrant Flowing

It's that time of year again, Spring Time! Each spring, Winchester Municipal Utilities, and the City of Winchester and Clark County Fire Departments let the water flow from fire hydrants across Clark County. This is an important activity for both the Water Utility and the Fire Departments. It allows WMU to clear out the water lines and check the water pressure in the Water System. The Fire Departments need pressure information at each hydrant to determine the ability to fight fires in each section of town.

Prior to 2012, these agencies would use paper maps and tables to find and record hydrant information. Let's just say that water, paper, and ink mix a little bit too well. In 2012, Clark County GIS introduced a high tech method of finding and recording fire hydrant information. That was the year that CCGIS introduced the tablet computer to the crews.

Since the introduction of the tablet computers, WMU and the Fire Departments have been able to collect all of the fire hydrant data in real time. There are no more days, weeks, and months of waiting for data to be entered into spreadsheets. Like magic, the tablet uploads the information to "the cloud" and Clark County GIS downloads this directly into a spreadsheet. No more typos, no more smeared field sheets, the infomation can be shared by email, at the end of every day.

A change for the better!