Nathan Sturgill

Public Utilities Department GIS Internship

11/04/21

Weeks 8 & 9

– The past two weeks have consisted of progressing through the CityWorks training programs. During the past two weeks, I have gone through the introduction course and the database and environment setup prior to Cityworks installation. The second course of CityWorks taught me how to work through the system using the basic installation method and working through how to mitigate issues involving the setup of the software. The AMS and PLL course also provided me with the information necessary to connect individual users of CityWorks to the system through a SQL server connection. Connecting individual users to the CityWorks system allows them certain access through the system to use its products and functionalities. 

Throughout this semester I have also been going through the CityWorks training programs and being taught by Janelle the ins and outs of the GIS system associated with the Department of Public Utilities. I have been going through the CityWorks training program because I will be an intern for Janelle Valdinger as an affiliate through CityWorks in the spring semester. These past weeks have also consisted of looking for apartments near the CityWorks location of West Bend, Wisconsin and this is because of the upcoming summer internship with the company I am hoping to be a part of. I hope to acquire this position and work with the partners at CityWorks in West Bend, Wisconsin and this has been a desire of mine ever since the presentation CityWorks gave to the students of Ohio Wesleyan University that I attended as well. CityWorks training programs have shown me that with the similarity to ArcGIS software, this would be a very good fit for me in the furthering of my path in GIS systems and knowledge to help me along in my future career. 

Nathan Sturgill

Public Utilities Department Internship

October 22, 2021

Week 6&7

• To start out week 6 I worked more on the initial basemap for the city of Delaware and the attribute audit for the storm and water systems located throughout the city of Delaware. I finished this attribute audit and was able to make clear to Janelle and the rest of the Public Utilities Department about the missing data in the storm and water systems in the GIS folders containing this data. This will help the department mitigate future problems that might occur when looking for data in the water and storm systems. After I finished the attribute audit I was then instructed to sign up for the Trimble company learning program that teaches the basics about CityWorks as a whole. Janelle instructed me to go through the course at my own pace and to work on the course while also learning the city of Delaware GIS ins and outs as well.

I was able to get started on the CityWorks training program and have so far made some progress throughout the program. I learned that the CityWorks system works very similar to that of Arcmap and ArcGIS in general, but it does have some key differences. For example, base maps in CityWorks do not work on the same editing scale that they do in Arcmap. I have been learning the very basics of the system and how to run everything in the system myself such as the process of making work orders for others to see in CityWorks and how to assign different people in the system to different problems that need to be addressed in the system. I expect to continue working on the CityWorks system and become familiar with the tools necessary to operate the system at a high level. I also continue to learn how to handle record drawings in the Department of Public Utilities and how to insert some of these record drawings into Arcmap with the help of Janelle.

Nathan Sturgill

Department of Public Utilities Internship (GIS)

October 8th, 2021

Week 5

To start out week 5 I was instructed to continue my ongoing work from last week, which included making a base map of my own through ArcGIS that I can work out of to help Janelle and the Public Utilities Department mitigate ongoing problems. In the ArcGIS base map, I have been using I have now learned how to properly create a definition query that can be used to find missing data in the City of Delaware GIS data sets. I was guided through this process by Janelle and have begun to create my own definition queries to find missing data and solve these problems with new values. The definition queries I have created and use are to find the missing data such as missing information about water valves, meters, and pipes located across the city of Delaware. This data is vital to maintaining the quality of water and drainage systems in the city of Delaware. I have also used definition queries to identify which record drawings created by engineers have missing values when placed into Delaware’s ArcGIS maps and also which record drawings contain a broken link that can help GIS technicians such as Janelle when identifying the problems associated with missing data in the record drawings.

I have begun working on an attribute audit for the different record drawings representing the different sections making up the city of Delaware. As of now the attribute audit only concerns the water and storm systems located throughout the city of Delaware and this missing data is the primary goal of the attribute audit. While creating the attribute audit I use a definition query to see what missing data lies in the attribute table for each water system and storm system. Creating this attribute audit has been a difficult task because all of the variables involved along with creating a definition query that is specific to finding a certain type of missing data and this can be very time-consuming. For the coming week, I will continue to work on this attribute audit that will help Janelle and others work within the department. I will also soon be instructed how the City Works GIS system is used by the city of Delaware by Janelle.

Nathan Sturgill

Delaware Public Utilities Department GIS internship

October 1, 2021

Weeks 3 & 4

      For week three I went over more ESRI tutorials and learned how to get started with LIDAR imagery used in remote sensing. This can be a very useful skill for the future and will help me stand out amongst my peers. I also reviewed the basics of ArcGIS to prepare me for week 4 and this included becoming familiar with all the basics again and learning to use ArcOnline more efficiently for the internship. 

     Week 4 has been the most informative week of the semester thus far. I have learned more about the city of Delawares GIS system and what goes into creating their base maps in ArcGIS that aid workers in placing work orders and mitigating problems across the city of Delaware. I am also learning to create my own base map as an intern and plan to help aid Janelle in creating solutions using GIS technology. I have learned to create a map of storm drainage pipelines located beneath soon-to-be-developed land within the city of Delaware and during this process, I have learned to distinguish between manholes, inlets, and outlets that are connected to the larger storm drainage system in place. A project like this can help engineers when planning and constructing the soon-to-be-developed land. Adding things in from Arc Catalog has taken some time because of the amount of data that the city of Delaware contains in their ArcGIS inventory. With all of this said I am excited to start another week for the internship and I look forward to working with more fieldwork/data in the future. Next week I will also continue the progress on creating my base map for the internship and will learn to create a definition query that can help solve problems related to the functionality of the system. On the agenda as well will be to work with different record drawings that show the layout of certain areas of the city and working on the details of these drawings to translate them into ArcGIS.