FME Emergency Response

The Problem:
An unplanned release has occurred from a petroleum pipeline. To remediate the site, you will need to quickly assess the impact of the incident and provide information to the response team.

The Solution:
When time is of the essence, FME is a highly adaptable and responsive tool, which makes it ideal for use in emergency response scenarios. FME makes connecting to and utilizing disparate datasets faster and easier. This allows responders to focus on decision making and data collection, instead of getting bogged down in number crunching.

This presentation will show how FME was utilized to provide several visualizations of the impacted area. We will touch on specifics in the following two:

Impacted Area Depth:
FME was used to generate a 3d model and a TIN Surface. The greatest depth of the PID (Photoionization Detector, a device for detecting gases) sample locations with an impact greater than 5ppm was considered the bounds of the impacted area. These points were combined into a point cloud that was then used to generate the TIN surface, which was then was used to generate the 3d model. From there, volumes could be estimated for the impacted region. A DEM was created from the point cloud and a color ramp was applied to the DEM to generate a heat map of the impacted area, showing the locations that have the greatest depth.

3d Profile and Grid Visualization:
Safe Software's FME was used to combine field PID readings from around the impacted area into a custom grid and profile view of the impact depth. This visualization created vertical rectangles that approximated 1 ft. interval depths of the field readings, allowing stakeholders to better understand both the horizontal and vertical extent of impact, and better judge resources requirements for the response. With the use of FME in the field, complex data was quickly processed to successfully produce highly responsive decisions.