Mobile data collection with handheld GPS units facilitates a San Francisco utility's quest for cleaner water, enabling a two-pronged effort to build a storm drain GIS layer and educate citizens about pollution. Apr 1, 2006 By:
Kevin P. Corbley, Randy Stauffer
In 1972, the United States declared war on water pollution with the passage of the Clean Water Act. As the primary water/wastewater utility for a city flanked by water on three sides, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) played an aggressive role in the battle to eradicate industrial contaminants that were fouling both San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. And in 2005, SFPUC deployed mobile GIS to take the water pollution fight directly to the public.
