CS4C - Concurrent Session 04C: Using GIS as a Tool in Managing a National Dam Safety Program

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has oversight of energy infrastructure throughout the United States, including jurisdictional responsibility for non-federal hydroelectric projects. FERC licenses approximately 1,600 hydroelectric projects, and staff from the Office of Energy Projects regulate more than 2,900 structures. We have embraced geographic information system (GIS) technology as an important tool in the dam safety decision making process. This paper describes our experience with GIS and how we are integrating this technology with our dam safety daily workflow.

FERC began its GIS program in the mid 1990’s. Our Compliance and Dam Safety staff spent the next 15 years creating standards and working with licensees on adequate GIS submittals for project boundaries, project asset locations, and danger reach analyses. Our GIS program took a significant leap forward in 2014, when we moved our data to a system-wide geodatabase on the Esri GIS platform. FERC’s enterprise GIS provides a central data store, and gives multi-user edit capability to staff in our five regional offices. Most significantly, we use Esri’s software tools to build web based applications that help us manage compliance and dam safety with real-time data awareness.

This paper explains how we built our GIS program using off-shelf software technology and describes our dam safety Situational Event Monitor and award winning High Flow Dashboard. FERC uses these applications to track natural hazards, weather, and flood events and their potential impact to hydroelectric projects and dams. The dashboard includes a data capture form used by staff when dam operators notify us of high flows. Finally, the paper outlines the basic building blocks required for a GIS program focused on dam safety, and FERC’s in-the-works enhancements that will allow real-time notifications, advanced forecasting, and post-event analysis.