Spring NEARC 2018

AUTHORS: Rich Gallacher, GISP Town of Manchester; Liz DaRos, GISP Town of Manchester

ABSTRACT: During construction season the Town of Manchester receives on average 20-30 Call Before You Dig (CBYD) tickets from the CBYD Call Center in the form of emails. The Town has two business days for routine tickets to mark out underground utilities allowing for construction to start. For emergency tickets such as a broken water service, the Town must immediately mark out the construction zone. The Town's GIS Unit was tasked to create a mobile application that would automatically map incoming CBYD ticket emails allowing the Town's locator staff to schedule the daily CBYD mark out's more efficiently and to keep an inventory of all the CBYD tickets for the entire construction season. The GIS Unit used ArcGIS Desktop (ArcPy) and Collector for ArcGIS/ArcGIS Online to create a mobile application that allowed locator staff to see incoming CBYD tickets on their mobile devices, determine if they were routine or emergencies, edit the ticket attributes at the construction zone and associate photos with each ticket.

AUTHORS: Jason Parent, University of Connecticut; Tom Meyer, University of Connecticut; John Volin, University of Connecticut; Robert Fahey, University of Connecticut; Chandi Witharana, University of Connecticut

ABSTRACT: We evaluated the effectiveness of an enhanced tree trimming (ETT) program for its ability to reduce tree-related power outages on an electric distribution system during storm events. Evaluations encompassed thirteen years of trimming (i.e. 2005-2017) data and were performed for both backbone (originating directly from a substation) and lateral (offshoots of backbones) utility lines. The study site spanned the entire state of Connecticut, where the dominant vegetation is temperate deciduous forest. We controlled for variations in weather, tree cover, and wire type, by pairing ETT-treated zones with nearby untreated zones. ETT-treated and untreated control zones had the same wire type and similar percent tree cover and line lengths. Relative outage rates were calculated for each pair to indicate the performance of ETT-treated zones relative to background outage rates of untreated zones. ETT-treated backbone conductors had overall outage rates that were 0.07 - 0.09 outages/km/year lower than untreated backbones, which is a 33 - 42% reduction when compared to all untreated laterals (0.2 outages/km/year). ETT-treated lateral conductors had significantly lower outage rates, than untreated laterals, for "minor" outage types (i.e., blown fuse, tripped recloser, etc.) but not for "major" outage types (broken poles or wires). Overall outage rates on laterals were reduced by 0.07 - 0.36 outages/km/year which amounts to 35 - 150% reduction over the outage rate for all untreated lateral zones; it should be noted that these results are applicable only to storm-damaged areas. Our study provides a robust empirical evaluation of ETT and also proposes a geospatial methodology that controls for variations in weather and environment.

AUTHORS: Neil Curri, PVE, LLC; April Beisaw, Vassar College

ABSTRACT: New York City began creating its distant watershed with the construction of the Croton Dam at Yorktown in 1837. Over the next 150 years, subsequent reservoirs would displace thousands from homes and businesses by submerging land and by regulating land uses within the larger watersheds. In this study, we attempt to measure the impacts of the New York City watersheds on two rural communities (Town of Olive in Ulster County and Town of Kent in Putnam County) in terms of lost land for businesses, farmsteads, villages, roads, etc. A series of maps show how the watershed permanently changed the composition and character of both communities, and encourage new dialogue regarding the acceptable costs of water management programs. There are many challenges when using archival sources to generate historic geographic analyses, but the long-term perspectives that can be generated (here maps show over 100 years of changes) are well worth the added effort.