Advancing Pipeline Integrity Monitoring through GIS Mobile Applications

The frequent field inspection and rapid incident response are critical processes for safety and reliability of pipeline infrastructure. Conventional practices such as paper-based checklists and post-field data entry involve high rates of human mistakes, delayed flow of information, limited situational awareness, and slow response for field incidents. This study evaluates a digitalized workflow implemented through a field-oriented Geographic Information System (GIS) that integrates collected field data through GIS mobile applications with notification and workflow management systems. The system was deployed to cover the frequent safety inspection for hundreds of site locations on a pipeline network system. After one year of implementation, compared to manual approach, the digitalized workflow has achieved 400% increase in the total number of the conducted checklists, 94% reduction of non-visited sites per week, and 90% decrease of the time required to resolve negative observations. Finally, the system has proved the elimination of human mistakes and provided instant responses for field incidents.