How-To Guide: Part Five

Methodologies

Learn about best practices and methodology
for developing water service area boundaries.

States should adopt and promote the technical requirements that have been established by the EPA to streamline and standardize data collection for stronger drinking water planning, environmental justice analyses, emergency response, and other uses. Let’s break down how.

Step One: Adopt a Common Definitions related to System Boundaries

In the Community Water System Service Area Boundaries Data Standards provided by the EPA in June, 2024, the agency provides common definitions, descriptions and examples of terms often used in water system mapping. Examples include defining a PWSID, a service area versus a service line, in addition to  going into detail of the differences between parcel, municipal, and county boundaries.

The U.S. Safe Drinking Water Act defines a Community Water System (CWS) as a public water system that has at least 15 service connections that serve year-round residents or that regularly serves at least 25 year-round residents. The service areas should include all parcels/customers currently served by the water system. Some service area datasets include jurisdictional area boundaries – the area that the system currently serves plus locations that it may serve in the future or is legally required to serve but is not currently serving. The EPA data standards focus on boundaries of the area currently served but may be applicable for datasets representing jurisdictional boundaries as well. The data standard calls for clear identification of whether a boundary represents the current area served or the jurisdictional boundary. If you would like to learn more, we recommend exploring the EPA Community Water System Service Area Boundaries Data Standards. 

Step Two: Establish Geospatial Standards

The EPA has provided Geospatial Policies and Standards to make it possible for many different organizations to use the same format and structure for their data and applications.  

If you plan on submitting corrections to the EPA for your community, we suggest you read the EPA’s National Geospatial Deliverable Standards here to learn more about how the US EPA  ensures locational data consistency and integrity through consistent methods of data collection, identification, and cataloging.

While it is likely easiest to edit the digital geospatial boundaries provided by EPA, you may have your own data that you are collating and making available. This could include coordinate reference system, datum, and scale/ resolution. This should also include the geospatial file type for publishing and sharing. When compiled and shared publicly, boundaries should be shared in an open source file format, such as geojson or geopackage. Most systems will not have boundary data in a gis file, but a hierarchy of the data format should be used to start with the highest quality data possible. This will save time and reduce the introduction of errors as service area boundary maps are digitized. 

Step Three: Step Three: Follow EPA Metadata (This doesn’t prevent adding additional fields to meet State needs!)

As can be seen on the EPA Community Water System Service Area Boundaries Landing Page, the agency has provided all metadata for public access on Github. If you would like to explore this data in depth, check it out here.

The most vital piece of metadata when collecting and sharing service area boundary data is the US EPA PWSID of the water system, but we recommend the following metadata to also be required:

  • The coordinate reference system and projection for the GIS data

  • PWSID - as {2-letter-state-code}{pwsid number} e.g. MA3035000

  • The name of the water system e.g. Boston Water and Sewer Service Commission

  • Data source - the type of data that the boundary was generated from, which can be one of:

    • Census Place

    • Image from Utility

    • Description from Utility

    • Water Lines

    • Layer from Utility

    • County boundary with other systems removed

  • A URL detailing the dataset or organization where the information came from, if available.

  • The email address for the person providing the file.

  • The date that the contributed data was last updated by either the water system, contractor, or state regulator (YYYY-MM-DD)

  • The date that the data was contributed (YYYY-MM-DD).

  • Options for service area type should include:

    • Current_Service_Area: The collection of parcels whose buildings are served by a connection from the relevant pwsid

    • Waterline_Adjacent_Parcels: the collection of parcels whose buildings are approximated to be served by the relevant pwsid when the source data is a waterline map

    • Jurisdictional_Area_Extent: The collection of parcels that are required to be served by a connection on request/ payment of connection fee by the relevant pwsid

    • Jurisdictional_Area: The convex hull of Jurisdictional_Area minus known PWSIDs

    • Municipal_Boundary - use this when a census boundary is used to estimate the service area boundary, despite the municipal boundary and service area boundary not aligning perfectly

  • The state or EPA region that holds primacy over the system and handles reporting.

  • A category variable derived by SDWIS that denotes the number of people served by a system. Possible values are "<=500", "501-3,300", "3,301-10,000","10,000-100,000" and ">100,000".

  • The reported number of service connections in the system.

  • The method used to derive the service area. Possible values include "Census Place", "Decision Tree", "OSM", "Parcel", "Random Forest" and "State".

  • Whether the service area has been verified to be correct, date of that verification, and how the verification was preformed.

  • Type of entity that performed verification (ex: Non-Profit, Municipality)

EPIC and partners have estimated service area boundaries for over 90% of community water systems, so states can get started by using the EPA map as a starting point. There are also likely other state or local processes you have already in place to work with water utilities such that adding service area boundaries isn’t a big lift - for example,  consider partnering with teams conducting sanitary surveys. Though agency personnel are likely overworked already, contacting systems through existing communication pathways will likely be more successful than having two new GIS employees contact every system. 

Further, states should consider the number of community water systems in a state - and the relative capacity (time, technical knowhow) of those systems. It is likely larger systems will have a GIS file of their boundary or at least an image of their boundary. Smaller systems may have little to no data and more frequently lack the time or technical capacity to make maps themselves. With this capacity in mind, consider where partnerships are needed - see Planning  & Partnership section.

Step Four: Consider What Data Exists & Capacity of Water Systems

Step Five: Select Tools

States have multiple avenues to help them develop the data and can evaluate what tool is best for their context via consultation with key partners.

For example, if approximate data is sufficient for the intended use, then a state can use EPIC's approximations via the [National Map]. States can also use this data as a baseline and add additional components for their internal use.

But if more accurate or precise data is needed (and in most instances, we think it is!) then a state should determine the tool that you would like to use to facilitate data development. As a general matter, EPIC advises against the creation of new tools from scratch since other tools are available and making their own tool would take much more time and money. That said, some states have successfully developed tools - for example, Texas developed the Texas Water Service Boundary Viewer for creating service area boundaries and allowing water system personnel to modify and update the boundaries over time.

Available tools include:

BlueConduit

As part of their lead service line prediction software for water systems, BlueConduit enables water systems to easily update and refine their service area boundaries. With permission, this data can be added to the national map.

Water Suite

As part of their drinking water monitoring and management software for states, WaterSuite enables water systems to easily update and refine their service area boundaries. With permission, this data can be added to the national map.

Internet of Water Boundary Sync

Internet of Water created an open-source application that can be deployed in each state. This tool enables water systems to easily update their boundaries and state administrators to approve. To be released in Spring 2023.

Most systems will not have boundary data in a gis file, but a hierarchy of the data format should be used to request the highest quality data possible. This will save time and reduce the introduction of errors as service area boundary maps are digitized. Preferred data and file format in order of preference are as follows:

  1. Open source GIS file of service area boundary, such as geojson or geopackage

  2. Proprietary GIS file of service area boundary, such as shapefile

  3. GIS file of the location of water lines that can be used to estimate the service area boundary

  4. Image of service area boundary, shared as a pdf, jpeg, png, or similar file

  5. Image of water lines

  6. List of address served by the water system, such as the list used for meter reading or billing

  7. Verbal description of the service area

Step Six: Request the highest quality existing data from community water systems

States can request information sharing on a voluntary basis. Many states have had high success rates with the voluntary submission of existing maps. Recognizing that every state will be different, EPIC developed a template that states can adapt and use for outreach purpose: Template for states to contact water systems.

Final Step: Aggregate and Visualize the Data

The job as a state is to then aggregate and visualize the data - but there are some data sharing options that make this easy. Head to the next section Data Sharing and Accessibility for some options.

Previous
Previous

Budgeting & Resources: Learn about resources available to states that want to develop this data.

Next
Next

Data Sharing & Accessibility: Learn ways to make water service area boundaries easily accessible.