Finding evidence in water-service records
OCR helped find water-service records for checking possible lead-pipe-free locations.
What I did
I built Python and R workflows to read text from the drawings and find locations for further review.
Result: The broader City effort identified 1,000+ potential lead-pipe-free locations, with $1M+ in estimated savings. The City team was a 2023 TCEQ Technical/Technology award finalist for Lead Services.
Tools
- Python
- R
- OCR
- Record analysis
Potential locations still need material confirmation, and the savings are estimates. The separate synthetic ML prototype does not show historical accuracy or realized savings.
Technical details
City of Lewisville · Software Developer - GIS
Useful service-line details were stored in historical drawings that were difficult to search.
- Read text from historical drawings with OCR.
- Search the extracted text and group related service records.
- Send possible matches for review against the service-line inventory.