Asset management pipes helped with BoomBasis
Trees generally enrich our living environment. But under some circumstances, trees also have undesirable effects. For example, for pipeline operators, trees, and especially their roots, pose a risk to the safe location of cables and pipes. NEO helps pipeline operators visualise these risks with up-to-date tree information in the TreeBase service. Water utility Vitens applies the BoomBasis service of the Tree register added for asset management: "We can now predict with greater accuracy which pipes are likely to leak." TreeBasis is produced on behalf of the Cooperative Tree Register. It provides an up-to-date insight into location, height, trunk position of trees in the Netherlands.
As a water company, Vitens operates around 50,000 km of pipelines. Unfortunately, leaks do sometimes occur, but ideally they are prevented, of course. Vitens uses a model that predicts on which pipes a leak will occur, in order to intervene in time. Various environmental factors influence the occurrence of leaks on pipes. One of the environmental factors is the presence of tree roots, which affect pipes. Mattheus de Koning, data scientist at Vitens: "We use BoomBasis to determine which pipes have trees near them and that is used as input for our prediction model." Replacing the pipes just before the leak reduces the risk of failures.
"TreeBasis is proving to be a valuable input factor for us for our maintenance model. In general, we see that the number of trees above a pipeline has a predictive value on the occurrence of leaks. In addition, we see that, in the case of storms, leaks mainly occur with downed trees. For us, BoomBasis has improved the model. We can now predict with more accuracy which pipes are likely to leak." TreeBasis we make on behalf of the cooperative Tree register. The Cooperative Tree Register is a collaboration of Wageningen Environmental Research, GEODAN BV and NEO BV. TreeBasis provides up-to-date insight into location, height, trunk position of trees in the Netherlands. The data available to the Tree Register are made accessible in an API. In the API, information is served per tree object (Id).
Together with the Tree Register, NEO is taking the next step in making tree information in the Netherlands better and more complete. Using the latest techniques and all kinds of earth observation data, all tree crowns present in Boombasis have been provided with an accurately determined trunk position, allowing an even better picture of the risks to pipes. In addition, NEO continuously monitors the trees, so that, for instance, after storms or other events, an up-to-date insight is quickly obtained into e.g. fallen trees and the possible impact on assets.
