GIS-based route planning kit can speed up pipeline studies

Equipment & Technology - April 25, 2003

Fugro Survey Ltd, UK, has launched a GIS-based Route Planning Suite of software tools for offshore pipeline route studies.

Drawing on Fugro's established cable route planning programme the new Suite enables an ever-wider range of geographical datasets to be co-visualised and queried on the geophysicist's PC, bringing faster delivery of comprehensive desk study results. National hydrographic data, oilfield infrastructure, previous survey data, wrecks, maritime boundaries, public domain marine information, and cable and pipeline databases are the data types generally accessed.

Bid response times are also aided by use of the Suite, as all features and risks in the vicinity of a planned survey can be viewed and assessed quickly and efficiently. Virtually any geographical data can be added to the Suite.

The Fugro CableDB database of global telecom and power cables is one of the major data types viewed in the Suite. The location and identification of the burgeoning number of cables is of obvious interest to pipeline planners as well as the cable industry. Cable position, status, ownership, armour type and other attributes can be browsed and accessed. Selected cable data can then be requested in multiple CAD or GIS formats (such as Microstation DGN, AutoCAD DWG, Geomedia MDB and ESRI shapefile) to suitend-users requirements, and rapidly transmitted.