Case Study: Philadelphia Water Department achieves faster hydrant repairs and cost savings with Cityworks

Fire Hydrant App Improves Workflow in Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Water Department was managing 27,000 fire hydrants with a paper-based workflow that cost about $17,000 a year in manila survey cards and required roughly a week of manual data entry to get inspection results into the database, delaying repairs and creating safety risks. To modernize hydrant reporting and asset management the city implemented Cityworks, a GIS-centric asset management solution alongside a new JavaScript-based ArcGIS mobile app for field reporting.

Cityworks enabled the Fire Department to enter hydrant data once on the mobile app and transfer it daily into the Water Department’s database, eliminating the extra data-entry step, preventing lost paperwork, and speeding scheduling of repairs. Built in roughly three months, the solution cut the $17,000 annual printing cost, removed about a week of manual processing, improved inspection completeness, and accelerated defect detection and repair—delivering lower costs and better fire protection for Philadelphia residents.

Philadelphia Water Department

Charles Zitomer

Director of Field Operations for the Water Department