Use Outage Damage Assessment

Outage Damage Assessment can be used to perform damage assessments and respond to outages caused by severe weather conditions and emergency incidents.

Prepare for an outage

To prepare for an outage event, effective organizations train in advance of an event, using mock exercises to familiarize personnel with the processes and technology they will use in the field during a real outage. The Outage Damage Assessment solution includes mobile apps such as, ArcGIS Workforce and ArcGIS Field Maps, which mobile workers will need to be trained to use in advance of an outage event.

In this workflow, you will assume the role of a manager that needs to educate office staff and field assessors involved in the damage assessment process.

1. Before getting started with the solution, review and follow the configuration steps.
2. Open the Damage Assessment Center app.
3. In the app header, click the Help button.

   This page displays information that can be used in a training briefing to help teach office and mobile workers to use the apps included in the solution. The page is organized by application, with a tab for Damage Assessment Apps, Damage Assessment Manager, and Outage Damage Assessment Dashboard.

4. Use the following sections assign damage assessments, conduct damage assessment, manage damage assessments, monitor impact and administer damage assessments to learn how to use the solution.

Assign damage assessments

Once an outage event has occurred the dispatcher identifies the location that needs to be assessed and assigns it to the field assessor.

In this workflow, you will assume the role of a dispatcher who needs to assign damage assessments to field assessors so they can evaluate the impact of an outage.

1. Open the Damage Assessment Center app.
2. Click the Create button in the app header to open the Damage Assessment ArcGIS Workforce project.
3. Click a location or asset on the map and then click Create Assignment.
4. Select the Assignment Type as Damage Assessment.
5. Assign a field assessor by selecting a name from the Assign drop-down menu.
6. Optionally, select a Priority from the drop-down menu.
7. Enter any comments in the Description field and click Create Assignments.

Conduct damage assessments

After an outage event, damage assessments can be conducted by field personnel to determine the impact of the event. Using field apps with location-based information helps the organization prioritize repairs to the network.

In the workflows below, you will assume the role of a field assessor who has been assigned to conduct damage assessments at a given location .

Start assignments and collect damage locations

As a field assessor, I need to start an assignment and collect the location of damaged assets in the field.

1. Open the ArcGIS Workforce app and sign into your ArcGIS Organization.
2. Open the Damage Assessment project.
3. Tap on an assignment in the To do list to view its' location on the map and details about the assignment.
4. Tap Start (iOS) or START (Android) to begin working on an assignment.
5. Tap Open in Field Maps to begin collecting damage assessment locations.

   This will open the Damage Assessment - Field Assessor Map in ArcGIS Field Maps.

6. Tap the Add button.
7. Select the appropriate damage assessment type from the list of features to collect.

   If the damaged location is added to an inaccurate location, or you want to move the point manually, move the crosshairs to the correct location by panning the map and tapping Update Point. This moves the added feature to the specified location.

Complete damage assessments

As a field assessor, I need to complete my damage assessment assignment.

1. Open the Damage Assessment project in the ArcGIS Workforce app.
2. Select the assignment and tap Finish to complete the assignment.

   This will remove the assignment from your to do list.

Manage damage assessments

During the damage assessment process field assessors may require additional support from dispatchers when they lack connectivity. Using a pre configured app, dispatchers can help update the status of assignments, complete damage assessments, or add damage assessment locations.

In the workflows below, you will assume the role of a dispatcher who needs to manage damage assessments conducted in the field.

Edit assignment status

As a dispatcher, I may need to manage the status of a workforce assignment when field assessors do not have access to the internet.

1. Open the Damage Assessment Center app.
2. Click the Manage button in the app header to open the Assignment Manager app.
3. Open the Assignment Editor widget.
4. Select an assignment on the map.
5. Select the appropriate status from the Status drop-down.
6. Fill out the date and time for the status and click Save.

Edit damage assessment status

As a dispatcher, I need to manage the status of a damage assessment report .

1. Open the Update Damage Status widget.
2. Select the location(s) on the map using the Select tools.
3. Select Completed from the Status drop-down.
4. Select the date and time the damage location was completed and click Save.

Add damage assessment location

As a dispatcher, I may need to add a damage assessment location in the office when field assessors do not have access to the internet.

1. Open the Add/Edit widget.
2. Select the damage type and click on the map to add the new damage location.
3. Enter Asset ID if necessary and any notes about the damage.
4. Select Close at the bottom when done.

Monitor impact

Damage assessments can be used by electric utilities and telecommunication organizations to evaluate the severity and magnitude of an outage event. Mangers can monitor a high-level view of information about assigned work and damaged assets to determine the impact to their network.

In this workflow you will assume the role of a manager who needs to review key metrics of damaged assets and assigned work.

1. Open the Damage Assessment Center app.
2. Click the Monitor button in the app header to open the Outage Damage Assessment Dashboard app.
3. Click the Assignments tab to view assignment statistics.
4. Click the Damage Assessments tab to view damage assessment statistics.

Administer damage assessments

After an outage event is completed an organization may archive damages, download photos, and delete assessments records to prepare for a future event.

Archive damage assessments

When an outage event is over it is important to close out the damage assessments that have been resolved. You can archive all completed damage assessments to the format that works for your organization. The archived data can be used for reviewing past outage events and ensures you are ready to start conducting damage assessments for future events. The archived damage assessments can also be used as a backup in case of data loss.

In this workflow, you will assume the role of a GIS Analyst that needs to archive data after an outage event and download the photos collected in the damage assessments.

1. Open the Damage Assessment Center app.
2. Click the Manage button to open the Damage Assessment Manager app.
3. Click the Archive Data widget and click the Select button.
4. Select the features on the map you would like to archive.
5. Click the ellipse button next to each layer you would like archive and pick the format you want to export your data to.

   Note:

   Images will not be archived as attachments.

As a GIS Analyst, I may want to export data from a hosted feature layer into a local file geodatabase after an outage event.

1. Sign in and open the DamageAssessmentLocations item page for the features you want to export.
2. Click the Export Data button on the Overview tab and click Export to FGDB.

To learn more go to the Export data from hosted feature layers page.

As a GIS Analyst, I may want to delete data after an outage event is finished using a pre configured web app by completing the following steps:

1. Open the Damage Assessment Center app.
2. Click the Manage button to open the Damage Assessment Manager app.
3. After archiving the data you can using the Add/Edit widget to delete the data.
4. Use the New selection tool to select the locations on the map that need to be deleted.
5. Click the Delete button to remove the selected features.

Download Photos

Organizations may want to view photos captured during an outage event for future. You can use the Download Photo Attachments notebook to export photos into a zip file that can be shared with others.

Note:

You must be assigned a role of Administrator or custom role which includes the privilege to Create and edit notebooks in order to run an ArcGIS Notebooks and complete the following steps.

As a GIS Analyst, I may want to download photo attachments from an outage event.

1. Open the Download Photos widget and click the Download Photo Attachements button to open the Download Photo Attachments notebook.
2. Click Run > Run All Cells to load the photo extraction form in this notebook

   Note:

   Do not refresh the page while the notebook is running.

3. Enter a name for the item to be created.

   Note:

   Please note that assessments with a large number of photos may take several minutes.
4. Click Generate Attachments Item to create the item.
5. Click the item to open the attachment page.
6. Click the Download button to download the file locally.