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With upcoming Memorial Day parades pondered the "numbering hydrants"
challenge a bit more based on some excellent feedback.<br>
<br>
Here are some hydrant label working candidates:<span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black"><br>
</span>
<table border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="2" width="90%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap" valign="top"><span
style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">geo:30.434478,-84.277222</span></td>
<td valign="top"><span
style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">
use the web link model. Viable and explicit, but long for
"over the phone" communication<br>
</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap" valign="top"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black">30.434478|84.277222
<br>
</span></td>
<td valign="top"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black">drop
the longitude negative sign unless this scheme is adopted
outside of the US.)</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap" valign="top"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black">0XD-89E-JM8-EQ6
<br>
</span></td>
<td valign="top"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black">6
digit geo 0-9,A-Z (eliminating o,l,i,z) includes sign,
quickly converted on any smartphone, browser, etc. <br>
</span></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black"><br>
</span>Feedback Notes:<br>
<ul>
<li>trucks can’t be guided by 911 dispatch...have GPS/GIS elves
at each fire station (one for each shift) that would have a
tablet with WAAS GPS ( $250 Garmin WAAS-corrected units provide
better accuracy)</li>
<li>an information rich label such as this really identifies a
location and not the hydrant itself. If asset management is
important, when a hydrant is moved then the label for that
hydrant would change. From a database design standpoint that is
an problematic system since you then have the identifier for an
object changing. </li>
</ul>
<p>Comments: <br>
</p>
<ul>
<li>Sounds like 911 is typically "thin staffed" (can't for example
geo direct a fireman to a fire) . Also know that 911 really
scrambles activating multiple fire departments to larger fires
and arranging "coverage" for the fire departments who are
"depleted" when they respond to the original event. Not sure on
command chain on a fire? Local FD calls the shots I until
"relieved" by county, state, federal? Not sure how much
"intel/recon" command and control 911 does but it is clearly
involved past one fire department responding. Pretty sure 911
coordinates in county owned heavy equipment (likely from
highway) if needed? <br>
</li>
<li>Would not suggest lat/lon as a (unique) key field in a
database. Would suggest using a machine generated (and enforced
unique key), probably hidden from most users except the DBM. In
the rare event you had multiple hydrants all inside 1 sq meter
could use an additional, optional index number on forms and
screens (visible to maintenance users, and labeled on the
hydrant #1, #2, #3....). Data/compute resources are now very
cheap, no need to "economize" on fields. <br>
</li>
<li>National Grid system appears too coarse and too complicated to
encode/decode, especially when 1 meter accuracy is desired.<span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black"></span></li>
</ul>
<p><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black"><img
alt="" src="cid:part1.7D170973.48DFDE2F@clbcm.com"
height="149" width="199"></span></p>
<p>Thought it might be best to develop a list of <b>Use-Cases </b>
involving the hydrant label. [<i>list of actions or event steps,
typically defining the interactions between a role (actor) and a
system, to achieve a goal</i>] Started that below. This could
help guide things. <br>
</p>
<p>But first, a bit of backgrounding research to help focus.<br>
</p>
<p><b>Background </b><br>
</p>
<p>(from random sources - quick and dirty, not complete.) <br>
</p>
<ul>
<li><i>"The faster we can get water on the fire, the faster
conditions will improve "</i></li>
<li><i>"It does us no good to get to the fire, only to find that
we don't have enough GPM to decrease the BTUs. That means the
fire doesn't go out.</i>"</li>
<li>The Insurance Services Office(ISO) sets standards which
regulate insurance premiums in a fire department's response
area. One standard is to flow 250 gallons per minute for two
hours uninterrupted. In the city, no problem hook up to a
hydrant and flow 250 GPM for the rest of the day. In rural areas
other means are necessary to get the water to the fire.</li>
<li>On a large industrial fire, one million gallons of water might
be used over a 24 hour period (700 GPM or more). This can easily<i>
exceed a city's water supply. </i><br>
</li>
<li>Most hydrants are set up on a grid system (fed from multiple
directions). Each open hydrant reduces pressure and flow
throughout the grid. Flow rate quickly becomes an issue. <br>
</li>
<li>"Portable ponds" may be set up (similar to above ground pools)
for close-in water storage, then dozens of tank trucks are used
to shuttle water from nearby supplies to those ponds, rapidly
dumping their loads and making many round trips. Many tank
trucks (sometimes dozens or more) can be drawn in from
surrounding areas, some located as much as an hour or more away.
</li>
<li>The more rural an area is, the more water capacity is needed
to be immediately trucked to the location, before a solid <i>local
</i>water supply can be established, hence <i>larger tanks on
suburban fire trucks.</i></li>
<ul>
<li>A typical large urban fire truck holds 400 to 500 gallons of
water, which is only enough to put out a car fire. Any real
structure fire rapidly requires at least one supply line from
a hydrant.</li>
<li>A typical suburban fire truck holds abut 750 gallons, with
some holding 1000-1500.</li>
<li>Tank trucks (used to shuttle water) are typically 2000
gallons, with some as large as 5000 (like a highway truck that
halls gas) <br>
</li>
<li>Large wildfire airplanes typically hold 3000 gallons of fire
retardant chemicals. (have no idea where they deploy from and
timing?)</li>
<li>Typical county search/rescue/police helicopters can only
carry 250 gallons of water and are of very limited practical
use during wildfire, except for the most immediate response
(minutes) prior to it spreading. <br>
</li>
<li>The supply line hose on most fire trucks is 1000, 1500 or
2000 feet. However runs up to 6000 feet are possible see:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRedtAWvMYQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRedtAWvMYQ</a> (can realistically
take 30+ minutes after being on location to deploy the supply
hose under ideal conditions, with a large, well trained crew.)</li>
</ul>
<li>Wild fires pose especially difficult challenges<br>
</li>
<ul>
<li>Early stages of wildfire can <i>double in size every minute.
</i>Early pinpoint accuracy and fast response are critical. <br>
</li>
<li>Hydrants are rarely available</li>
<li>Nearby neighborhoods open hydrants to "wet things down"
quickly causing pressure problems<br>
</li>
<li><i>Immense </i>volumes of water are required. <br>
</li>
<li>Shifting winds push heat and smoke in odd ways, making
stopping the fire's advance difficult. Firefighters and
personnel "down wind" need fire-suits and respirators, and
many are needed. <br>
</li>
<li>Large areas of woods and fields <i>without fire roads</i>
greatly limit the speed in which fire trucks can get water to
"the fire line" to limit expansion. Impeded access allows the
fire to expand. <br>
</li>
<li>the larger the fire the more fire departments will be called
to respond (40-50 local fire departments for a 100 acre fire
is not unusual) A great many of people will be involved. <br>
</li>
<li>Emergency deployment of County owned and volunteered
equipment will be part of the containment/extinguishment
effort.<br>
</li>
<ul>
<li>Ambulance and EMTs to help injured victims, and
firefighters</li>
<li><i>Bulldozers and earth moving equipmen</i><i>t</i>
(including any heavy equipment resources in the area)</li>
<li>Chainsaws, brush hogs, Indian pumps, shovels and rakes
(hauled to location, along with firefighters)<br>
</li>
<li>ATVs and Gators to quickly move firefighters</li>
<li>Food, water, and shelter for large numbers of
firefighters, sometimes over extended periods</li>
</ul>
</ul>
</ul>
<p><b>Observation</b><br>
</p>
<p>A higher priory than physically labeling the individual hydrants
appears to be having, <i>at the minimum</i>, a very good, up to
date, database <i>of exact hydrant locations</i>, with relevant
capacity/flow rates, etc. Other GIS priorities: up to date fire
road information (hopefully well maintained), very good water
information (natural and man made) near any higher risk fields and
forests. Also very beneficial, knowing "in near real time" where
heavy earth moving equipment is located? And, being able to
communicate detailed GIS information, intelligently, in real time,
under stress, with other resources such as: US Forestry, National
Guard, Army Engineers, etc.<br>
</p>
<p><font size="+1"><b>USE CASES</b></font><br>
</p>
<p>(This is just a starter list, and not prioritized for "hydrant
labels" alone. )<br>
</p>
<p><br>
<b>1. FIRE!</b><b><br>
</b>A person is in a neighborhood and is the first to report an
active fire to 911 or an area fire department.</p>
<p>Notes: <br>
The majority of people will telephone and verbally report
something like:<br>
<i>Directional, Number, street Name, Suffox, Apartment #</i><i><br>
</i><i>And ideally: "near the corner of ABC St. and DEF St." </i><br>
[I'm guessing here] The 911 may pick up a geolocation from a cell
phone, however that is frequently unavailable or <br>
unreliable. If the person is calling from a VoIP phone the
location is at the town or city level, <br>
and may be way off. <br>
It would be rare, in the first reporting, for anyone to have a
hydrant code (whatever the format is), when calling to report a
fire. <br>
Need for a hydrant code here: MINIMAL<br>
<b><br>
</b><b>2. FIND ALL NEARBY HYDRANTS QUICKLY!</b><br>
</p>
<p><i>"It’s tough for <u>volunteer</u> firefighters to know where
all those fire hydrants are...<br>
It’s </i><i>important to know where a hydrant is to decide how
many feet of hose is needed, <br>
what type of </i><i>connector is needed and what the pumping
capability" </i><br>
</p>
A. From directional, number, street Name, Suffix, Apartment #
reported, received over the <br>
phone.<br>
A cell phone ap could go from the above info to the county GIS and
likely get get centroid of <br>
largest building on a lookup of the parcelID of the above street
address (tax database has <br>
building shape files). Once the centroid is known do a radius sweep
of the hydrant database. Also <br>
include any other water supplies (lakes, ponds, deep rivers, storm
water run off ponds.)<br>
Cell phone map application could show fire building, and could zoom
in and out showing all <br>
hydrants. Of critical importance to fireman is visualizing a
location he can relate to when under stress<br>
(streets, cross streets, common building names for larger buildings,
navigatible alleys and parking lots, <br>
etc.) At the hydrant symbol on the map he may need GPM, hydrant
connector types, etc. <br>
<br>
B. Fireman on scene, arrived from general location information such
as: "Fire near corner of ABC St. and <br>
DEF St." or "Right next to the Hills Building", etc. <br>
Cell phone GIS map application. Fireman views map, locates position
of fire on map <br>
with a finger point. App brings up all hydrants in area as above. <br>
<p><b>3. FIND NON HYDRANT WATER!</b></p>
<p>O.K. its not a hydrant label challenge but is very relevant none
the less. Quickly RULE OUT hydrants if they are not available or
have insufficient capacity. Quickly find water! Quickly Geolocate
where the needed portable ponds could be located. Quickly
optimized transport routes from water supply to the portable
ponds. Coordinate with 911 activating tanker trucks and direct
them. Pinpoint portable ponds for them to drop at. <br>
</p>
<p><b>4. DISASTER!</b><br>
<i>"the lowly fire hydrant is one of the few things that can
survive a disaster intact"</i><br>
</p>
<p>This is a "general" use-case: In large urban areas the fire
hydrants can be used as <i>physical land markers</i> during and
after a disaster. <br>
</p>
<p>Hydrants might be of some value, particularly where human density
is high. <br>
</p>
Natural<br>
<ul>
<li>geophysical- earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, volcanic
activity, wildfires/urban fires</li>
<li>hydrological - avalanches and floods</li>
<li>climatological - storms, hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones,
extreme temperatures, drought </li>
<li>meteorological - cyclones and storms/wave surges</li>
<li>biological - disease epidemics and insect/animal plagues</li>
</ul>
<p>Man-made<br>
</p>
<ul>
<li>"complex" emergencies - conflicts, violence, terrorism, riots,
insurrection, bombs, war, chemical/biological ,etc.</li>
<li>food/famine insecurity</li>
<li>post incident breakdown of law and order - chaos, anarchy,
looting, civil disturbances, gangs, rapes, shootings, assorted
psychiatric issues, hindrance/violence towards rescue and
restoration workers. </li>
<li>displaced populations - including active (sometimes violent)
resistance to emergency evacuation<br>
</li>
<li>evacuation/relocation,<i> long term displacement </i>from
numerous storm/flood damaged homes</li>
<li>ready access to needed medications plus skilled
nursing/assisted living, or "friends and family" based care </li>
<li>children without parents/guardians</li>
<li>pets, farm animals, wildlife etc. </li>
<li>industrial accidents*</li>
<li>transport accidents*</li>
</ul>
<p>*Including large scale emergency medical needs, release of
hazardous materials, significant <br>
supply chain and transport disruptions<br>
<br>
</p>
<p><b>5. Reduce Ongoing Insurance Costs</b></p>
This needs to be developed. I believe each home is rated by distance
to a functional hydrant? Who supplies the data and makes the
ratings? How is risk measured and how does it impact the long term
cost of insurance? How are fire hydrants budgeted, planned, placed
and maintained? Can good planning reduce insurance costs?<br>
<p><b>6. Inventory Maintenance</b><br>
</p>
<p>Not sure on maintenance use cases? Blowing out lines, replacing
damaged hydrants, periodic testing, insurance certifications. <br>
</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>O.K., its just a starter list of potential use-cases. It does
point up many GIS needs. The actual label on the hydrant seems
only a small but important part of it. Quality GIS info is at the
top of the list, and simple, easy to understand applications to <b>quickly
</b>exploit all the great GIS data that is likely available are
clearly critical.<br>
</p>
<p>Rick<br>
</p>
<span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black"></span></span><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black"></span><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p></o:p></span>
<blockquote
cite="mid:73e4b08ca97e45a7aba33211906c3bb7@EXCHG04.spartanburgcounty.local"
type="cite">
<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div>
<div style="border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF
1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext">From:</span></b><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext">
SHRUG-L [<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="mailto:shrug-l-bounces@lists.dep.state.fl.us">mailto:shrug-l-bounces@lists.dep.state.fl.us</a>]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Rick Labs<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, May 17, 2016 2:56 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> Bassett, Seth; Scott Warner;
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:shrug-l@lists.dep.state.fl.us">shrug-l@lists.dep.state.fl.us</a><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: shrug-l: Numbering Hydrants<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Scott, Seth, others who may be interested,<br>
<br>
I worked up a demo spreadsheet that shows how you can label
anything with a simple
<b>12 character code</b> (for instance hydrants, or even
mail/packages) and have that code encapsulate 6 decimal
accuracy geo coding (about 1 meter accuracy). The code is
designed to be compact and easy to speak. Case is not
important and the letters O, I, L, and Z are not used because
of frequent confusion with numbers (0,1,2). <br>
<br>
The spreadsheet both encodes and decodes. Unambiguous,
universal format works worldwide down to a meter.
<br>
<br>
You can get the file named <b>encodelatlon.xls</b> from this
directory:<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://clbcm.com/shrug/">http://clbcm.com/shrug/</a><br>
<br>
There are no macros (or VBA code) in the spreadsheet but you
will likely have to "allow editing" if you want to play around
with it.
<br>
<br>
Rick<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<pre>-- <o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre>Richard J. Labs, CFA, CPA<o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre>CL&B Capital Management, LLC<o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre>Phone: 315-637-0915<o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre>E-mail (preferred for efficiency): <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:rick@clbcm.com">rick@clbcm.com</a><o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre>Mailing address: 8 Laureldale Dr., Pittsford, NY 14534-3508<o:p></o:p></pre>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Richard J. Labs, CFA, CPA
CL&B Capital Management, LLC
Phone: 315-637-0915
E-mail (preferred for efficiency): <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:rick@clbcm.com">rick@clbcm.com</a>
Mailing address: 8 Laureldale Dr., Pittsford, NY 14534-3508</pre>
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