Enhancing Rural Texas Water Systems with Advanced GIS Mapping 

Rockett Special Utility District (SUD), located near Dallas, Texas, serves approximately 12,000 customers across 920 kilometers of distribution lines, including rural and extremely rural areas. The utility faced challenges with outdated CAD drawings that made it difficult to accurately locate infrastructure such as water meters, valves, and hydrants. This led to inefficiencies, as field crews often relied on memory or verbal guidance to find assets, resulting in delays and increased operational costs.

To address these issues, Rockett SUD partnered with Texian Geospatial and Asset Solutions to implement a modern, real-time GIS mapping system using the Esri platform. This system replaced the paper-map workflow and enabled real-time updates and sharing of web maps between the field and office. The solution included setting up an ArcGIS Online account and using ArcGIS Field Maps for real-time data collection, which supports offline mode and GNSS metadata for high-accuracy location data. The deployment of Arrow Gold® GNSS RTK base stations and rovers provided centimeter-level accuracy, crucial for mapping assets in the service area.

This setup was more cost-effective than subscribing to a private RTK network. The equipment was paired with iPads equipped with special cooling cases to withstand the Texas heat, and field crews used ATVs to navigate rural roads efficiently. As a result, Rockett SUD significantly improved its operational efficiency. In just seven months, two field workers collected data on over 4,000 assets, eliminating the need for frequent calls to locate infrastructure. This has freed up staff to focus on primary tasks and improved response times to service demands. The new system also allowed for the recording of previously unmapped assets, ensuring that valuable location data is preserved for future use.

Read the full case study here.