Improving disaster resilience requires accurate data about subsurface utility and other infrastructure. New York has has experienced several disasters over recent decades, foremost among them 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy. The experience of 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy showed that communities interested in addressing utility resilience currently have little access to underground infrastructure information, which is typically siloed in network owners/operators' proprietary systems, is rarely integrated with other data sets, and is inaccessible to the excavators, disaster planners, emergency responders and others who need it. The UNUM project, funded by the National Science Foundation, is designed to address the challenge of creating a single accessible map of all of New York's underground infrastructure to support emergencies and disasters such as 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy.
Underground infrastructure mapping in NYC
Over the past decades the City of New York has initiated several projects involving underground utility networks. The first project was the conversion of citywide paper maps of water mains into CAD format. The water supply map was near completion when the city began the development of the citywide base map in a GIS. The base map provided locationally accurate platform, including block, lot, street, buildings and photogrammetric imagery of the entire city. Since then most agencies have contributed their data to the base map project which is virtually all open and publicly available. The city's sewer paper maps were entered into the GIS and the water main maps were converted from CAD to GIS. Both sewer and water main maps were integrated with the city base map, demonstrating the ability to use city's cadastral map data for underground mapping as well.
9/11 emergency
Within hours of the World Trade Center attack, an interim site was equipped to response to the emergency. The Emergency Mapping and Data Center was set up to respond to map requests. The map grid of the site was developed by the Fire Department of New York to enable first responders to navigate the site safely. In addition, maps were developed to advise citizens of street closing and outages of utilities. Maps were submitted to the media and newspapers with daily updates of these conditions for citizens. Thousands of maps were created and distributed within a six week period.The operation was nonstop for more than 18 hours a day for three months. The Deep Infrastructure Group (DIG) team digitized data of the World Trade Center site provided by infrastructure agencies and utilities. The digitized maps enabled first responders to navigate the site safely. The combination of photogrammetry and LiDAR, revealed the location of fires burning underground. Freon becomes a poisonous gas when heated and locating the underground tanks enabled safe removal of the freon and the tanks themselves, preventing loss of life of workers on the site and residents in surrounding areas. This is a classic example of the value of knowing the location of underground infrastructure.
The 9/11 emergency clearly demonstrated the value of compiling an integrated data set with a common base map that can be shared easily and quickly among all players. But the 9/11 experience also revealed the difficulty in achieving an integrated map with the currently available data sets and integration tools and was a primary motivation setting the directions for the UNUM project.
Unification for Underground Resilience Measures (UNUM)
To directly address the challenges experienced during these events the Unification for Underground Resilience Measures (UNUM) project was initiated to investigate subsurface data development, integration and interoperability options. Overcoming these barriers to data integration requires the design of an integrated 3D data system with robust security and data protection that is capable of integrating data from different network owners, municipal and other sources based on a standardized subsurface data model and a willingness to share data securely among all stakeholders. One of the key goals of the the project is the development of a detailed road map for the implementation of a standards-based subsurface data model capable of integrating all of NYC's subsurface data from multiple sources into a single map.
UNUM involves two pilots in NYC neighbourhoods: Sunset Park, Brooklyn and the Grand Central Business Improvement District. These community test beds will be used to refine an infrastructure data integration strategy and to assess the vulnerabilities of utility infrastructure. The New York City pilot area are far apart in terms of demographics, diversity of their populations and their economic bases. They also differ widely in the types of underground infrastructure problems they have experienced.
Use cases addressed by UNUM
The UNUM project, which is supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, addresses emergencies and disasters that are related to underground infrastructure. Emergencies are typically characterized as localized incidents with limited damages while disasters are more wide ranging, cover a lot of area, cause a large amount of very expensive destruction. NYC has experienced two disasters in the last two decades: 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy.
There are many use cases that involve underground infrastructure. The UNUM project is focused on just two uses cases; emergency response and disaster planning and response. Other projects in NYC target other cases including excavations, excavations for new foundations, maintenance, smart cities, digital twin, and so forth. For UNUM's use cases the data focus is on the subsurface utility networks, their features and attributes and their relationships to one another.
Quality and availability of subsurface infrastructure data in NYC
Over the past years extensive research has been carried out to determine what data is available in NYC and who is responsible for each data set. It has been found that there is actually a fair amount of data. New York City itself, which manages the water and sewer utility systems, has very good data which is open and publicly available. In contrast for private utilities such as Con Edison, National grid and Verizon, knowledge about the structure, depth, and reliability (completeness, currency, and accuracy) of their data is uncertain because other than the through the 811 Street Markup (one call) system, there's very little sharing of this data. In general most of the underground utility and communications network data in NYC is within silos that are rarely, if ever, integrated into a single data set and are inaccessible outside of the networks owners themselves.
Single integrated map
The The vision which motivated UNUM is a single integrated data set that can show all the different utility layers reliably (accurate, up to date, and complete) in 3D, together with other related GIS layers, registered to a common base map and georeferenced to a common, horizontal and vertical datum. This would reveal conflicts, interdependencies, and risks for cascading effects for NYC's utility network. Subsurface utility engineering (SUE) surveys are becoming more commonplace and data like this is becoming available for individual construction projects. This data is being captured in a GIS and compiled entire networks making it possible to see how different networks (electric, gas, water, sewer, steam, fibre,copper, etc) relate to one another. Especially important are interdependencies such as telecom systems that require power, pumped water and wastewater systems, and virtually all utility systems that rely on digital communications because of the potential for catastrophic failure involving multiple networks.
An open standards-based model for underground infrastructure
To achieve the vision of a single map of New York's underground infrastructure will require developing a data model that encompasses all of NYC's underground infrastructure and that could form the basis for a subsurface digital twin for the city. Bringing the relevant data together during 9/11 took weeks to do because the different data sets were not only in a variety of formats but each had a different data model. UNUM decided to take a standards-based approach and has adopted the Open Geospatial Consortium's Model for Underground Data Definition and Integration (MUDDI). This model has the additional benefit that it is is supported by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) 38-22 and 75-22 underground utility standards. For NYC adopting the MUDDI model makes it possible to build on the work already done by other jurisdictions including Scotland, the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain, Denmark, Flanders, Netherlands, Singapore and others. Experience to date with the model has shown that the MUDDI model is comprehensive and able to describe all the key features that are found underground in NYC.
The illustration shows a conceptual picture of all the things that can be captured and integrated through the MUDDI model. At the centre are individual network features such as cables, pipes, valves, transformers, switches, and meters. Shown below the features it can be seen that each feature has attributes (age, material, location, dimensions, quality level, threat level, pressure, voltage, fiber capacity, etc) and lower right accessory features (access, support structure, container, serial#, etc). Underground facilities are surrounded by a natural environment (soil, geology, ground water, chemical contaminants). Together the network features, their attributes, supporting structures, and environment comprise the utility networks themselves. Utility networks can be be represented in a GIS and related to other layers such as catchment areas, service districts, preservation districts, and so on.
New York intends to develop a detailed model (referred to as a profile) for the city's underground infrastructure based on the MUDDI conceptual model. The same conceptual model is being used in other jurisdictions. For example, in the UK the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) project has created a UK profile for the excavation use case. Over the next few years based on this profile, all utility and communications networks in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland will be captured and integrated into a single map.
Conclusion
Improving emergency and disaster resilience requires accurate data about subsurface utility and other infrastructure. The 9/11 emergency clearly demonstrated the value of an integrated data set with a common base map that can be shared easily and quickly among all players. But the 9/11 experience also revealed the difficulty in achieving an integrated map with the currently available data sets and integration tools.The vision which motivated the UNUM project is a single, integrated and accessible map for New York City that integrates reliable location data for all of New York's underground utility layers in 3D, registered to a common base map and georeferenced to a common datum. To achieve this will require a shared data model enabling location and other data from different utilities and other sources to be integrated into a single map of New York's underground infrastructure UNUM has taken a standards-based approach and has adopted the Open Geospatial Consortium's MUDDI model, also used by other jurisdictions such as the UK. The UNUM project is developing a road map for the creation of a shared data model encompassing all of the city's underground infrastructure based on the MUDDI model.
This post is based on Rae Zimmerman's, Alan Leidner's and Wendy Dorf's talk on the UNUM project at the Subsurface Utility Mapping Strategy Forum (SUMSF).