Background
The PS 3150 accounting standard was introduced by the Public Sector Accounting Board (PSAB) in 2009 and outlines the requirements for Local Governments to include tangible capital assets on annual financial reporting statements. This new legislation resulted in a concentrated efforts by Local Governments to inventory their assets with location, age, condition and other types of data. Since the inception of TCA, Local Governments have realized that in addition to having a good inventory of existing infrastructure assets, current workflows for capturing infrastructure change resulting from land development, capital infrastructure and maintenance activities are no longer sustainable.
How can you manage your assets if you don’t have the data? The City of Kelowna, the fastest growing City in British Columbia and one of the top 10 fastest growing Cities in Canada (2024) needed to optimize their intake of infrastructure data and has implemented MMCD IDS (Infrastructure Data Standards) as a solution.
The Challenge
In most circumstances it is the Local Governments GIS (Geographic Information System) that serves as the intake mechanism and central repository for infrastructure and other asset data. Asset data residing in GIS has both spatial (location) and attribute (physical properties, age, condition etc.) components. In addition to this, survey and engineering consulting firms in British Columbia mostly use Autodesk Civil 3D for their geomatics, design and construction workflows. Civil 3D is an object-based design modeling and drawing production program that also supports both spatial and attribute data.
The current challenge is CAD (Computer Aided Design) and GIS integration – a discussion that’s been going on for decades which is not unfamiliar to many Local Governments. Engineering design model drawings created using Civil 3D can easily be updated and attributed to reflect as constructed conditions, but it has never been easy to transfer data from CAD systems to GIS. Due to lack of industry standardization and a limitless variety of methodologies for assembling data, this has resulted in a common practice of redrawing data in a GIS and manually entering attributes using hardcopy “as-built” drawings as a reference. This manual workflow is time consuming, prone to data transposition errors and requires significant staff resources – especially in a fast-growing municipality like Kelowna where infrastructure is changing at a rapid pace.
MMCD Infrastructure Data Standards
With its current staffing resources, the City of Kelowna could not keep up with asset register (GIS) updates and has turned to MMCD IDS (Infrastructure Data Standards) as a solution for standardized post construction data deliverables. With standardized data submissions, GIS updates can become an automated process which lessens the burden on staffing resources.
British Columbias Master Municipal Construction Documents association was founded in the early 1990’s as a non-profit organization to provides standards and consistency for both infrastructure specifications and owner/construction contractor contract documentation. MMCD was a natural fit for CAD standardization when IDS was introduced in 2009.
MMCD IDS is a suite of standardized tools used by engineering consultants and built on Autodesk Civil 3D that lend themselves to design modeling, drawing production, construction, asset data exchange and lifecycle management, as shown in the following illustration.
City of Kelowna
Phase 1 of MMCD IDS Implementation at the City of Kelowna set the precedent for standardization and consistency with data deliverables. Phase 1 required the following from both infrastructure
and land development consultants:
1. Use of Kelowna modified MMCD IDS available from Kelowna’s web site
2. Use of standardized folder structure for locating design model and production drawings
3. Standardized names for design model and production drawings.
The City of Kelowna is currently in the 2nd Phase of MMCD IDS Implementation which involves the following components:
1. Training and support for internal designers and consultants for MMCD IDS
2. Development of a detailed post construction data delivery specification
3. Development of an official Administrative Policy that outlines high level requirements
4. City of Kelowna MMCD IDS Manual
The Administrative Policy is a key component and is recommended for any Local Government that wishes to implement MMCD IDS as it drives the initiative and is an official policy of the organization, which is not tied to an individual or a role within the organization. Other tools for enforcement will be contract line items for capital projects and tying data delivery and record drawings to substantial completion certificates for developers.
Data consumption will be facilitated by Safe Software FME where a standardized workspace is developed that searches a drawing submittal for specific items. FME also has the potential for
automated checking and validation of submissions that can accept or reject data submissions based on their alignment with the data delivery specification.
Summary
Data governance should be the cornerstone of all activities and workflows that support infrastructure asset data starting with project procurement and continuing through lifecycle management. Given that most Local Government departments have a vested interest in infrastructure data – finance, engineering, public works, emergency services, planning, licensing and permitting – it doesn’t make sense not to have good records. Right out of Australia’s International Infrastructure Management Manual – “it will never be more efficient and cheaper and more efficient to obtain complete and accurate asset data other than at the time of commissioning”. Data is an asset, and we should treat it as such, and resilience is synonymous with critical build asset reliability Drivers for MMCD IDS implementation are interestingly variable:
1. City of Burnaby (pop. 250,000) – finance and accounting
2. City of Prince George (pop. 75,000) – asset management
3. District of Saanich (pop. 120,000) – consistency with engineering workflows
4. City of Kelowna (pop. 150,000) – staffing resources
Finally Local Governments need to be resilience in an age of climate change and the ever-looming megathrust earthquake that has rattled the region every 350 to 400 years. Records are important
for not only efficient asset management but also for when rebuilding may be required.
Next steps with MMCD are an update to IDS in 2024 that will include a data delivery specification as part of the standard offering that owners can use as a supplemental specification to
infrastructure construction contracts.
Andrew Walther, P.Eng. founded MMCD IDS in 2009 and has been providing services to public and private sector organizations relating to infrastructure data workflows and standards since 1995.
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