Tetra Tech provides consulting. engineering, program management, and construction management services that address fundamental needs for water, environment, international development, infrastructure, resource management, and energy worldwide.
Tetra Tech is currently working with the USEPA as part of the Superfund Technical Assessment and Response Team (START). They are responsible for responding to emergencies that can range from oil and hazmat spills to natural disasters including water infrastructure compromise and pollution.
In 2014–2015, they were responsible for supporting Flint, Michigan during one of the most well-publicized water crises to strike the country.
In Flint, Tetra Tech’s team was using pen and paper to collect information about residents as well as water samples. Information collected in the field included manually gathered GPS coordinates, and had to be manually entered into a digital format. This led to a less-than-reliable database that made it difficult to plan a response.
Something Needed to Change
After trying numerous remedies, including fillable PDF forms and a digital pen system, Tetra Tech realized they needed a more targeted solution; they turned to iFormBuilder.
By integrating iFormBuilder with the Esri platform field teams were better prepared to collect data that was instantly available to regional managers, operational managers and headquarters, through a real-time dashboard that utilized mapping applications to provide a comprehensive overview of the information that was collected.
Solutions in Action
Using the integrated version of iFormBuilder and Esri, teams navigated Flint using the Esri Collector App to identify homes in need of water sampling. When a home was identified, the surveyor would launch the iFormBuilder application to complete the process, which included both occupant/owner data collection and physical water sampling.
Process outcomes:
- A more complete, accurate database based on metadata collected with each record.
- Reduced time in the field due to autopopulating survey fields and easy-to-use forms.
- A more efficient process from start to finish, leading to better decision-making and responses, and more.
- Reduced manual data entry and duplicate tasks stemming from pen and paper data collection.
Tetra Tech utilizes iFormBuilder outside of Flint as well. Thanks to the flexibility of the platform, the organization works with multiple forms for air monitoring, container inventory, facility assessment and more.
iFormBuilder is flexible, user friendly and designed to operate in a variety of field conditions with the ultimate goal of increased field efficiency and cost reduction. Thanks to integrations, the application can be customized to meet specific business needs, from custom form fields to automated workflows and reporting that allow business leaders and response teams to formulate detailed, effective responses while making better decisions.
Want to learn more about how your field inspections could improve? Check out our Smart Water resource page today.
