News Releases 

City’s use of mapping technology to locate storm water inlets wins award

GIS-based system protects residents from harmful flooding

For Immediate Release April 20, 2010

Media Contact:
Kevin Neal
Communications Officer
817-944-5441 (cell)

Using efficiency-enhancing technology to help identify storm water structures resulted in the City of Fort Worth earning a top award in the Public Technology Institute’s Solutions Award Competition.

In 2009, the Transportation and Public Works Department began using a geographic information system (GIS) to precisely locate storm water assets such as inlets, manholes and pipes throughout the city. GIS integrates hardware, software and data to capture, manage, analyze and display information.

Clogged or congested inlets can lead to poor drainage and potential flooding hazards. For years, workers have cleaned inlets, or storm drains, largely on a reactive basis. Before and during large storm events, crews did not have the information needed to quickly locate features that were considered critical. Consequently, crucial time was spent searching for inlet locations. Available storm water maps, which dated to 1991, had fragmented information.

The use of GIS has helped Fort Worth restructure the way inlets are cleaned. Improved storm water management operations have been the result. The new process makes the city’s inlet cleaning program more cost-effective by reducing the time and fuel spent locating inlets.

Storm Water Management Division crews are now using the GIS maps to check inlets and clean them as necessary. A unique ID is used to track the date each inlet is visited, record whether it was checked or cleaned, and identify the crew that visited the location.

In the Public Technology Institute’s Solutions Award Competition, Fort Worth competed in a category for cities with populations of 350,000 to 749,999.