Hydrant Mapping on Nantucket
| Sponsor: | Nantucket Fire Department |  |
| Sponsor Liaison: | Michael Cranson, Nick Esposito, Tim Vamosi | |
| Student Team: | Patrick Beaudin, Jackson Hopkins, Kohki Miyazaki, Sam Small-Zlochower | |
| Abstract: | The Nantucket Fire Department has been using hydrant location data that are incomplete and outdated, leading to wasted time and increased risk during emergency response. To improve the quality of this data, we used professional grade surveying equipment to verify and update the location data for all hydrants on the island. We identified 814 hydrants, whereas the current Town GIS (Geographic Information System) lists only 592. We found 274 hydrants that were unmarked in the current GIS, 67 that had been moved since the GIS was last updated, and 36 that had been removed. 16 hydrants in GIS were inaccessible due to obstructions or were on private property. We recommended procedures to ensure the hydrant location data are regularly updated and shared among pertinent parties in a timely manner. | |
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Executive Summary
Current GIS Data
Access to adequate water supplies to fight fires is a major concern of all fire departments, especially rural departments like the Nantucket Fire Department (NFD). Presently, the NFD uses an app called Bryx to locate fire hydrants during an emergency. Bryx gets its data on hydrant locations from the Nantucket Town Geographic Information System (GIS). Unfortunately, the data in the GIS have not been updated since 2020, so all the hydrants that have been installed, moved, or removed since its last update are not reflected in the current version. Furthermore, there is no systematic process in place for regularly updating the GIS hydrant data and sharing it among pertinent parties.
Project Goal and Objectives
The overall goal of this project was to help improve the ability of the Nantucket Fire Department to access water sources in an emergency by verifying, updating, and synchronizing the current hydrant data in GIS. To achieve this goal, we completed the following objectives:
- Determined how data on hydrants and other water sources are accessed and coordinated through the ProPhoenix CAD app used by the Nantucket Police Department and the Bryx app used by the Nantucket Fire Department.
- Liaised with Town GIS Office to determine data types and formats to use for updating hydrant datasets.
- Updated the existing data on hydrants and other water sources and verified the information through field observation.
- Suggested protocols to ensure that data on hydrants are updated and shared in a timely fashion among pertinent entities, including the Town GIS Office, NFD, NPD, and the Wannacomet Water Company.
- Conducted spatial data analysis to identify and evaluate the areas protected by water sources and helped ensure the NFD met or exceeded accepted fire flow standards.
Hydrant Data
The map in Figure ES1 shows the current inaccurate data that is in Bryx. Our collected data reflects this issue. In total, we geolocated 814 hydrants on the island of Nantucket shown in Figure ES2 and found that 274 hydrants are missing from the Town GIS and Bryx map, 67 hydrants have been moved to a different location, and 36 hydrants have been removed entirely. In short, we conclude that the current Bryx map is an unreliable source of information during emergencies. To mitigate this issue, we proposed five short-term and six long-term recommendations to improve the accuracy of hydrant data utilized by the NFD.
Protection Coverage
Figure ES3 shows the unprotected homes from the analysis Armijo et al. conducted in 2021. They identified a total of 2,129 unprotected homes represented by yellow diamonds. Figure ES4 shows the 2,612 unprotected buildings found during our analysis using our gathered hydrant locations that are not within the water protection area.
Installation of CMMS
The town is in the process of implementing a new asset management system, the OpenGov Enterprise Asset Management CMMS, which is currently designed for Wannacomet and the Sewer Department (N. Porter, GIS Coordinator, Personal Communication, October 23rd, 2025). The data from the work performed on the asset is distributed to all users in the editing version every 24 hours. The CMMS stores information about each asset and provides improved asset performance monitoring, work order scheduling, logging, and reporting.
Once this asset management system is completed, the hope is that the NFD will be involved in the later development of the CMMS so that it has access to up-to-date hydrant data. The benefit of being able to see hydrant changes reflected automatically will be a very helpful tool for them to use. Additionally, the NFD is currently in the process of looking at the software FirstDue as a replacement for Bryx. FirstDue will combine the functions of several software programs including Bryx into one, and it is expected that it will be able to access the hydrant data in the CMMS automatically making the implementation process smoother.
Recommendations
Short Term Recommendations
Recommendation 1: The NFD should use the data we collected as a stopgap measure for locating hydrants in Bryx. As of now, our data is the most up to date data set with accurate location information since we used the same surveying equipment used by Wannacomet.
Recommendation 2: Wannacomet should be responsible for editing the hydrant data in the CMMS program. The Wannacomet Water Company is responsible for managing and testing hydrants, so they should be given the ability to make the appropriate changes to the hydrant data when hydrants are added, removed, or moved. This will ensure that all parties are working with accurate information.
Recommendation 3: The NFD should conduct outreach to homeowners with existing dry hydrants and those planning to install dry hydrants. The outreach should encourage homeowners to have their dry hydrants tested annually. A start to this process might include making informative posts on the NFD Facebook page and taking out advertising space in local newspapers.
Recommendation 4: The NFD should establish a database that includes all the pertinent data on dry hydrants. We learned that the NFD tests and approves dry hydrant installations, but the data are retained as ‘institutional knowledge’ among staff and not systematically recorded in a spreadsheet or database. As such, some of the data has been lost and the current data is fragmented and inaccurate. The database should include the location, source type, and water volume.
Long Term Recommendations
Recommendation 5: The NFD should implement a process that allows them to be notified when a hydrant change is made. For example, whenever a new hydrant is added or taken out of service and Wannacomet updates their own database, a notification of this change should be forwarded to the NFD. This could be implemented with the CMMS system the town is in the process of developing. Additionally, the NFD could implement a system that allows them to temporarily flag hydrants or make comments on a map.
Recommendation 6: All pertinent parties should be involved in the development and implementation of the CMMS. The NFD, Town GIS, and Wannacomet, as well as all the other departments that want to be involved, should understand the process of the CMMS and should be in constant communication with one another throughout the entire design and implementation of the system.
Recommendation 7: All pertinent parties should agree on finalized permission structures and data fields for hydrants to ensure reliable data entry into ArcGIS. The publicly available Town GIS map uses ArcGIS. By ensuring hydrant data can be transferred smoothly between CMMS and ArcGIS it allows changes made in the CMMS regarding hydrants, such as removing or adding ones, to be reflected automatically in the ‘editing version’ of the Town GIS that will then become public. This will also reduce the workload on Nathan Porter, who up to this point has had the sole responsibility of entering hydrant changes to the Town GIS map.
Recommendation 8: The NFD should be responsible for maintaining dry hydrant data in the CMMS. Building on short-term Recommendation 5, the database can be merged into the system when the NFD is incorporated into the CMMS. The NFD will continue to test new and existing dry hydrants, so it should be able to update the data as part of that process. The dry hydrant layer should not be publicly available since most of them are on private property but including them in the CMMS will allow for automatic updates to software the NFD uses.
Recommendation 9: The pertinent parties with access to the CMMS should agree on the frequency and timing for updating the asset data. A routine schedule for updates will ensure timely edits to the CMMS as well as allow time to double check edits for accuracy. With multiple departments soon to be accessing the same data, maintaining data reliability in the CMMS is critical for the operations of all who use it.
Recommendation 10: The NFD should establish protocols for systematically collecting consistent data from homeowners when they install dry hydrants. Part of a new testing procedure might be to bring surveying equipment so the dry hydrant can be precisely located. Annual dry hydrant testing will allow the NFD to have accurate data and ensure reliable water access in remote locations.