The Arlington (Texas) Water Utilities Department has always been an early adopter of technology. In the mid-1990s, the department launched a project to electronically catalog the entire sanitary sewer and water system.But what began as a simple mapping project has blossomed into a system that combines explicit descriptions of department assets with geographic information system (GIS) coordinates. The result is a database that can produce a computerized ranking for any length of pipe and provide impartial guidance on which assets most immediately need repair or rehabilitation.The department has achieved greater efficiency, not only by allocating its resources to the projects
