Geospatial Database Development: Supporting Geohazard Risk Assessments Through Real-Time Data and Geospatial Analytics

Abstract

TC Energy owns and operates over 32,000 miles of natural gas pipelines within 38 states in the United States, a sizable portion of which crosses through terrain highly susceptible to geologic hazards. To better support geohazard risk management, TC Energy has implemented a customized web-based geohazard platform (GeoForce) to identify, inventory, and track geohazards across their U.S. pipeline system. The platform was built within the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) ArcGIS Enterprise environment and leverages a diverse amount of ESRI product offerings. The platform is hosted on ArcGIS Portal and includes multiple custom apps and dashboards which allow users to efficiently view, summarize, add, and update geohazard data. Another key component of the system is a connection to ArcGIS GeoEvent Server. GeoEvent Server allows for the delivery of near real-time geohazard threat notifications through emails and dashboards (i.e., seismic events, flooding, precipitation). The notifications also provide detailed information for the sections of the system affected by the event, and in the case of a seismic event, a suggested course of action in alignment with TC Energy procedures. ArcGIS Image Server was leveraged to host over 4 terabytes of LiDAR imagery which can be used in concert with the other geohazard datasets present in the database. Custom geospatial scripts were also developed to create a near real-time link between the GeoForce master database and TC Energy’s master data mart, asset information, regulatory, and other organizational data. These scripts flag and report where spatial and/or attribute data have changed or may no longer be valid and therefore require follow-up action to support risk management (e.g., when pipelines are abandoned, HCAs are updated, or pipe properties are updated). The scripts also store the centerline attribute changes in a table for further review to identify potential trends. The GeoForce database is also built as a launching platform for proactive analytics, and eventually predictive analytics for critical precipitation thresholds for landslide risk management, landslide susceptibility mapping, system-wide risk scoring, seismic events and ILI bending strain coincident with geohazards. Details related to the threat alerts that are issued by the geospatial system are stored and visualized in a PowerBI integration. With the incorporation of ArcGIS Notebook Server, algorithms will be developed that will review the historical threat repository that is being generated and issue threat alerts based on probability of a hazardous event occurring in proximity of the pipeline system.