Vodokanal — GIS Utility Management

Project Overview

Vodokanal is a public utility company where I led a small development team building GIS-based solutions for water and sewage infrastructure management. The web application provides utility engineers and field workers with interactive maps displaying the complete network of pipes, pumps, valves, and treatment facilities across the service area. The system manages data for thousands of kilometers of underground infrastructure.

The project addressed a critical need for the utility company to digitize its infrastructure records, which were previously maintained as paper maps and spreadsheets. By creating a centralized GIS platform, we enabled real-time monitoring of the utility network, streamlined maintenance workflows, and improved emergency response times for infrastructure failures such as pipe bursts and equipment malfunctions.

Technical Challenges

The biggest technical challenge was rendering and interacting with large geospatial datasets in the browser. The utility network consisted of hundreds of thousands of geographic features, including pipes, nodes, facilities, and sensor points. Loading all this data at once would overwhelm the browser, so we implemented a tile-based rendering strategy using Leaflet with custom vector tile layers. The server generated vector tiles on-the-fly from PostGIS spatial queries, delivering only the features visible at the current zoom level and viewport.

Another challenge was integrating real-time sensor data from SCADA systems monitoring water pressure, flow rates, and pump status across the network. We built a data ingestion pipeline that consumed sensor readings via MQTT protocol, stored them in a time-series database, and displayed live values on the map interface with configurable alert thresholds for abnormal readings.

My Role and Approach

As the team lead and primary developer, I designed the overall system architecture and made key technology decisions. I chose Leaflet for the mapping library due to its lightweight footprint and excellent plugin ecosystem, PostgreSQL with PostGIS for spatial data storage, and .NET Core for the backend API. I mentored two junior developers on the team, conducted code reviews, and established development practices including automated testing and continuous integration.

I personally developed the spatial query engine that powered the search and analysis features, allowing engineers to find infrastructure elements by various criteria such as material type, installation date, diameter, and maintenance history. I also built the work order management module that tracked maintenance tasks from creation through completion, with GPS-based field worker tracking.

Key Features Implemented

The platform included several features I designed and built: an interactive map with layer controls for toggling visibility of different infrastructure types such as water mains, service connections, hydrants, and valves; a spatial analysis toolkit for calculating pipe lengths, identifying network connectivity, and planning maintenance routes; an asset management database tracking the full lifecycle of infrastructure components from installation to replacement; and a mobile-responsive field worker interface for logging inspections and maintenance activities on-site.

Results

The GIS platform successfully digitized over 3,000 kilometers of utility infrastructure, replacing the legacy paper-based system. Emergency response times improved by approximately 40 percent as dispatchers could now instantly locate affected infrastructure and identify the nearest isolation valves. The work order system reduced maintenance scheduling overhead by automating task assignment based on geographic proximity and worker availability. The project won recognition from the regional government as a model for utility infrastructure modernization.