Both in the pipeline and the transportation industries, field engineers all around the world have taken advantage of the technology of satellite imagery. Most field engineers in other disciplines have, at the very least, a good sense of the benefits this imagery can provide. Simply put, this information is faster, better and cheaper than any alternative. However, satellite imagery can play an even larger role for field engineers in the utility and telecommunications arenas, and most industry participants are not taking full advantage of what is available to them. To be sure, the basics are being covered. But field engineers need not look very far in order to improve their systems and gain further benefit from this technology.
       This article focuses on the potential uses of satellite imagery for telecommunications and utility field engineers, especially in the subsets of site selection, site planning, and site detailing. Each element can be a key to the success for a field engineer, from early usage in transportation and pipeline engineering to future potential in the utility and telecommunications disciplines.

Site Selection / Site Planning
For years, companies in transportation and pipeline engineering have used satellite imagery as an engineering method for site selection. According to ESRI, the challenge for managers is to preserve the basic tenets of maximizing public safety, minimizing environmental risk, and achieving the highest possible levels of engineering quality, all at the same time. Most companies acknowledge several ways in which this can be achieved. These include:
• Increasing productivity by achieving goals with fewer resources
• Increasing efficiency by reducing time constraints
• Making better decisions by measuring knowledge and information, not the lack of it
• Increasing the competitive profile by knowing the costs relative to the requirements (lowering the contingency factor)
• Shortening the project approval process by increasing the defensibility of decisions.
      The oil and gas industry has increasingly used GIS technology for positioning new pipelines, a tool that reduces costs in both construction and operation. Themes and variables used as input in this process primarily address direct construction costs and pipeline efficiency once the pipeline is built. Some of the variables include:
• Shortest distance from source to market
• Least amount of grading (removal of trees, etc.)
• Costs associated with rights-of-way
• Slope of terrain
• Number of stream, road, and railroad crossings
• Substrate (rock, soils, etc.) associated with burial
• Existing laws and regulations (wetlands, etc.)
• Proximity to population centers
• Use of existing utility corridors and easements
• Other engineering factors.
       What is rarely taken into account during the process of site location is the cost of environmental impact during construction, as well as ecological and liability costs that may result from accidental releases once construction is completed. Some of these costs can be substantial, running into the millions of dollars, and may include:
• Environmental damage
• Litigation and settlement costs
• Environmental response and investigation
• Criminal and civil penalties
• Environmental remediation
• Damage to reputation and community relations.
      Over the past few years, an increasing number of environmental spatial data sets have become available to the general public. These sets offer a greater opportunity for companies to avoid such environmental and liability risks, with relatively little effort, by incorporating them into standard GIS siting procedures.
      In the transportation and pipeline industries, site and route selection is critical to a project's success. Satellite imagery provides an engineering staff with the tools necessary to create a composite map that defines a range of suitability for the pipeline path. As a result, project managers can define suitable corridors as well as a definitive route. Imagery and geospatial-analysis tools provide critical environmental, political and thematic data to the entire engineering staff so that informed and efficient decisions can be made. In the past, when this information source was not available, extensive field research and data gathering was necessary. Not only that, but the information was typically available only to a select few as part of the overall decision-making process.
      Just as field engineers in the transportation and pipeline industries achieved significant savings on their projects by using satellite imagery, so too can these benefits accrue to utility and telecommunications engineers. Satellite imagery applications that allow an engineer to pre-analyze site locations for large equipment enclosures and transformers can provide the very same efficiencies as these other industries have enjoyed. Routes may be shorter in this application, but site analysis and selection criteria use much of the same capabilities.
      Satellite imagery, site planning and selection tools can be used for every requirement of a field engineer's site. Analysis tools can help in site selection in new-growth areas and provide the same efficiency when planning rehabilitation or upgrades in built-out areas.
      With increased regulation, and due to permit issues with the placement of ever-larger enclosures for DSL technology, satellite imagery and its related tools can provide a field engineer with the ability to analyze multiple potential sites directly from the desktop, without requiring time-consuming and costly visits to the area and the compiling of reams of data. These tools can allow an engineer to make more informed decisions and cut travel time by 40 to 50 percent. This factor is even more important in the utility industry, where staffs are being reduced and centralized, and individual engineers are forced to cover wider service areas. While some travel will still be required, it can be minimized with better up-front planning and the analysis provided by desktop imagery tools.
      Local regulations are becoming more stringent, especially those aiming to minimize the visual impact of roadside boxes that hold a growing assortment of new equipment. In fact, getting permits for their location is a key project goal. Satellite imagery can be used to analyze these sites for visual and environmental impact and, in turn, to prepare documents that present the proposed site to permit-granting agencies in the best possible light.

Site Detailing
Satellite imagery is also tremendously efficient once a project has progressed beyond its initial planning and permitting stages. After a site has been selected for development, accurate measurements can be made from signal or power sources and added to the site plan. These measurements are annotated along proposed feed routes, which can then be identified from the common visible features of the image. Combining the features available on the imagery with existing plant maps and records for the area will provide sufficient information for preliminary, detailed plans for site development.
      While it is important to understand that this technology will likely not eliminate site visits altogether, it is possible that the full application of imagery technology can reduce the travel time required for field research by as much as 50 percent. There will remain a need to take some final local measurements where vegetation or cloud cover might prevent adequate measurement in some areas, and the physical location of buried facilities will still need to be addressed, as is done today. However, a field engineer will already have a tremendous head start on collecting the necessary data. As a result a single, well-planned visit to the actual site should be all that is required.
      Satellite imagery can be used as the foundation for detailed site drawings, using a simple application with basic, traditional CAD capabilities to overlay the details, dimensions and notes onto the image. The end-result provides a picture overview of the existing site with CAD renderings of cable routing information and site foundations structures such as pads or vaults.
      Imagery provides a real-world view of the area for site development. These images are accurate enough for most required dimensions, and show the surrounding developments and lines-of-sight which aid permit approvals. In addition, images make the most suitable base maps for the detailed design and layout of the feeding facilities, site and pad development, and any required landscaping.

Looking Ahead
In the future, and given the benefits discussed within this article, the use of satellite imagery geospatial engineering tools should fully expand into the utility and telecommunications fields. The efficiency and wealth of information that is enjoyed by transportation and pipeline firms will receive greater recognition in its sister industries, and available tools will expand greatly to provide desktop access to field engineers everywhere. Site selection and planning will become a science with tools at the fingertips of the engineers, providing well-thought-out proposals for permitting.
      Once this decision is made, the use of imagery and engineering tools will continue to streamline the steps taken by field engineers by providing an accurate overview and basemap for the site to be developed. The imagery and its adjunctive tools can allow up to 70 percent of a site's details to be laid out and documented, thus preparing the engineer for a single, efficient visit to the physical site for final measurement and analysis. This process will save companies both time and money and allow them to better service their customers' needs.

About the Author:
Bob Britton-As director of Kinetic Solutions™ new Engineering Services Group, Robert W. (Bob) Britton leads efforts to expand Kinetic's engineering assistance applications. With more than 22 years of experience in the geospatial industry, Britton's primary focus has been in program development for telephone, electric and gas utility companies. Britton holds a bachelor's degree in ocean engineering from Florida Atlantic University.

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