8 Geographic Information Systems Available to Purchase

This chapter highlights some innovations introduced to the pipeline industry through Geographic Information Systems (GIS). GIS has shown to be effective in both the pipeline design as well as operations part of the lifecycle. We begin with the concept of Spatial Data Management, which serves as the cornerstone of any robust GIS by thoroughly guiding the planning, implementation, policies, standards and practices for the acquisition, storage, and retrieval of spatial information. The following section looks at some GIS enabled tools that have enabled pipeline engineers and other designers to automate their tasks or define new ways of working. This is followed by a discussion on how GIS supports the fulfillment of regulatory requirements. Finally, a summary is presented as a discussion on The Central Database Paradigm, the future path of data-centric engineering.