COLWOOD – The City of Colwood and the Capital Regional District (CRD) have entered into a service agreement that will allow the City to create a Geographic Information System (GIS) foundation for its core asset management system.
Cities face the constant challenge of maintaining aging infrastructure such as storm water systems, roads, buildings and other municipal assets, while also building new services and systems to meet community needs.
Through this new agreement, the CRD will provide Colwood staff with access to their geographic information system base map, which already includes many of the municipality’s assets.
City staff will work with experienced CRD technicians to expand their GIS skills and populate the map with all City assets, including manmade infrastructure like roads, pipes and light standards, as well as natural assets like parks, trails, forests and significant trees. This will bring all asset information together in a visual context to enable effective and coordinated decision-making.
A strong asset management system provides an inventory of each asset by type, age, value and condition. This GIS inventory will be the foundation for a robust and accessible asset management strategy that ensures the assets provide the desired levels of service in a sustainable way, while managing risk, at the lowest lifecycle cost.
“A long term asset management plan ensures investments in infrastructure repair and replacement are made at the right time and in the most cost effective way,” said Colwood Mayor Carol Hamilton.
“This collaboration with the CRD is an excellent example of how regional and municipal organizations can share existing expertise and resources, reduce costs, and ultimately save tax payer dollars.”
“The CRD is pleased to work with the City of Colwood using a shared services model” said CRD Board Chair Steve Price. “Working together, we are mapping infrastructure and finding new ways to serve the community.”