The DMAE (Water and Sewer Department) from the city of Porto Alegre/RS – Brazil, implemented recently a GIS/GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) solution package that allows the field teams to perform asset collection and inventories for the networks and consumers, with higher precision.
The Water and Sewer Department (DMAE), it is the responsible agency for caption, treatment and distribution of water, and also the collection and treatment of sanitary sewer in Porto Alegre city. It is DMAE’s responsibility to oversee and maintain these services, besides planning and promoting, in a steadily way, all network’s improvement and expansion, to guarantee the necessary infrastructure for the sustainable growth of the city. 
Currently, 100% of the population of Porto Alegre are supplied with treated water and 87 7% of the population have available the sewage collection service. The DMAE has the capacity to manage up to 80% of the sewer produced in the city. The resident population in non-regular lots is attended by social programs.
Registration of networks and consumers using Mobile GIS tools
“The registration of water networks and sewer along with all elements are very important for us to know the existing structure, project improvements, perform preventive maintenance, register new networks, aiming to increase revenues and in emergency situations make the right decision in a shorter amount of time. Using the Leica Zeno 10 together with the reference station Leica GR25, we managed to replace the traditional form of cadastral survey. We dismissed the use of a tape and clipboard for drawing the sketches combined with a conventional GPS to collect position, says the responsible DMAE engineer, Fernando André Neuwald.
The workflow consists primarily of creating a project in Zeno Office in the office, where all layers are defined and also the corresponding attributes. Background information is also added (eg existing network, satellite images). To finalize the process of creating the project, the same is exported to the field controller and after the field data collection, the data is returned to the office for processing.
The use of a reference station allows all mobile devices to receive real-time positioning correction using NTRIP (Networked Transport of RTCM via Internet Protocol), also allowing the use of data from the base station for post processing the data from mobile units, in situations where there isn’t a data connection available. The GNSS devices work with both GPS and GLONASS systems, enabling work with less than 50 cm accuracy. The field work is usually carried out under difficult environmental conditions, so the selection of durable equipment to support temperature variations and especially water protection is of extreme importance.
For more information about the GIS/GNSS technologies from Leica Geosystems, please visit the Leica Geosystems’ website (www.leica-geosystems.com.br) or get in contact with Camila Silva (camila.silva@leica-geosystems.com.br), or with Ricardo Serrato (ricardo@manfra.com.br).
