Integration between Subsurface Utility Engineering and GIS: A Case Study

The utilities’ damage during construction represents a challenge for the engineers for decades, especially for the underground services. Therefore, the researchers tried to minimize the potential risk of this damage. Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE) represents a new solution to minimize and eliminate this risk. The SUE is a method to classify the mapped utilities based on the source of information for this mapping. On the other hand, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) is a vital tool in utility management, operating, and maintenance. This chapter introduces the basics and benefits of both technologies and provides guidelines for integrating these two technologies. This integration allows users to further spatial analysis. The latter can enhance the managing, maintaining, and operating procedures in utilities industries. Then, illustrates the basics of SUE and GIS and their benefits in utility protection. Then, illustrates the methods of integrating both techniques and the converting from one mapping method to another. Then, discusses the integration issues via a suggested case study. Lastly, the chapter lists some challenges and benefits of the GIS-SUE integration, such as finding a process to convert old SUE maps into spatial databases, determining the cost of this integration during the planning phase, and converting these solutions into a feasible automated system.