Transforming Pidpa’s Water Network Management through digitization to a Centralized GIS System

Pidpa, a major drinking water supplier in Belgium, serves over 1.1 million people across the Antwerp Province through a vast network of water infrastructure. To ensure effective management and maintenance of this network, Pidpa undertook a project to digitize its paper-based mapping system. Previously reliant on approximately 3,000 large-scale maps and 90,000 synoptical drawings on Mylar®, Pidpa faced challenges in keeping its water network information up-to-date and synchronized across multiple offices. By leveraging ESRI’s GIS technology, Pidpa converted its physical maps into digital TIFF images, which were georeferenced and integrated into a seamless, hybrid mapping system. Over time, the raster data from the scanned maps is being converted into vector data to further enhance data accuracy and usability.