Attendees to the 2019 Fall Conference of the pipeline open data standards association (PODS) learned from Kirk Cameron (New Century Software) how to set up PODS 7.0 in ‘physical’ configurations on Oracle, SQL*, and on APR, the Esri ArcGIS for pipeline data model.
* Including Microsoft SQL Server, PostGIS, SQLite.
Buddy Nagel’s (Kinder-Morgan) presentation delved into the new business rule functionality of the ‘next generation’ model. Business rules are pseudo-code definitions of how a row, or attribute within a row, of data are validated before data is written. A PODS business rule project sets out to develop a ‘semi-formal methodology and tool-kit’ for writing the requirements and specification of data validation rules. Rules are written in PBRDL (PODS business rule definition language) and stored in a new ‘Business Rule’ table. As an example, consider the following constraint ‘If HISTORY.TO_DATE is populated, then HISTORY.FROM_DATE should be populated and should be earlier than HISTORY.TO_DATE’. As required, a rule might ‘fire’ and return a list of records that do not validate.
Chris McLaren from the US department of Transport’s PHMSA office of pipeline safety described current concerns and challenges in assuring the safety of the nation’s pipeline network. Central to this activity is the NPMS, the national pipeline mapping system that displays GIS data from over 1500 different pipeline operating companies. Operators are required to submit geospatial data for gas transmission and hazardous liquid pipelines and LNG plants annually, about 98% submit Esri data formats. The NPMS now holds almost 1 million pipeline records, over 520,000 miles. PHMSA also maps pipeline history, accident and incidents (to track asset history), inspection boundaries, and high consequence areas. The NPMS was developed in 2009 using a ‘heavily modified’ PODS schema. A new LRS format for data submission is under consideration as part of the proposed NPMS information collection (Docket PHMSA-2014-0092). Leigha Gooding (PHMSA) then presented on the new rules covering the safety of gas transmission and gathering lines. More from the Federal Register. To ensure risk mitigation, safety KPIs are measured and trended. Monitoring performance data is reported on public websites including PHMSA data and statistics overview and national pipeline performance measures and others including the PHMSA technical resources website.
These and other PODS presentations are available on the conference website.© Oil IT Journal - all rights reserved.