The DuPage Water Commission, a wholesale water distributor in DuPage County, Ill., decided to upgrade its information management system of hand-drawn maps, road atlases and corporate memory. Following an engineering firm’s recommendations, the commission defined the necessary geographic information system (GIS) layers and datasets, consolidated data, and hired GIS coordinator Frank Frelka. With a background in public works, Frelka first tried to adapt the system to a water distribution data model, but it wasn’t a good fit. “We had 27 customers, not thousands,” says Frelka. “The feature classes such as service laterals, fire hydrants and commercial and residential customers didn’t
