Custom app for sewer inspection and pumping station rounds
An observation is made once: in the manhole, alongside the camera vehicle, or at the pumping station. Everything after that is a processing of it. Since 2020 the inspector no longer converts their observation into a class themselves, which makes the demands on that single record higher than ever.
Why the field now has to capture more
Stichting RIONED states in its classification methodology of March 2019 that applying the classification was decoupled from January 2020: inspectors record in detail what they observe, and it is then up to asset managers to apply the classification. That shifts the weight: the judgement is passed later, by someone who wasn't there, based on what you have written down.
The coding follows NEN-EN 13508-2, in the Netherlands the edition with the national annex from March 2021. That standard describes the internal condition of pipes, manholes and inspection chambers in codes. A record consists of the condition aspect code with three characterisations, the third of which comes from the RibX protocol, and there are separate tables for pipes and for manholes. These are choices made at the point of observation and cannot reliably be reconstructed afterwards from a video. The older standards NEN 3398 and NEN 3399 were withdrawn on 28 January 2020.
Pumping stations are different, and this confusion features in many specifications. The coding of NEN-EN 13508-2 applies to external sewers under gravity flow; rising mains and pumping stations fall outside that scope. For the pumping station round there is therefore no national coding to fall back on. What gets recorded is what your own round prescribes, which is why pumping station rounds so often remain on paper: no file format enforces them.
How we build this
The input is the product here. What an inspector has to tap in the manhole determines whether the file can later support a judgement.
Which objects, which observations, which fields are mandatory. For pumping stations no one prescribes this, so you define it yourself.
Code, characterisations and extent are chosen during the observation and not reconstructed afterwards. For that, the input must present the choices rather than an empty field.
In a manhole, under a viaduct or in rural areas, coverage drops out. That is the normal situation, so offline is the design and not the fallback.
The record is only complete once it arrives unchanged in the file where classification takes place. That is where things go wrong, and usually only becomes visible at the next round.
What the app does in practice
Coding at the point of observation carries the whole. What else you include depends on what you inspect.
Coding at the point of observation
Condition aspect, characterisations and extent in one action. What is not recorded here cannot be classified later.
Identifying the object on location
A code on the manhole or pumping station opens the right asset with its history. That puts an end to notes like "the manhole by the school."
Photograph with location and time
For an obstruction or a situation that doesn't fit a code. A photo with a timestamp makes a record verifiable rather than disputable.
Works underground and along the road
Everything is recorded locally and synchronised later, with the original timestamp preserved. Nobody should have to wait for a signal bar.
The pumping station round with its readings
Running hours, levels, pump condition and faults, following the round you define yourself. As there is no national coding for this, configurability is not a luxury.
Pass urgent issues on immediately
A subsidence, a blockage or a pump that won't start. Such a report should leave the field before the round is finished.
Who we build for
Whoever does the fieldwork determines where the focus lies. Four situations.
Inspection and cleaning companies
You supply observations that someone else builds their judgement on. If you also work on collection and cleaning, see waste collection and recycling.
Municipal field service
Rounds past gullies, manholes and overflows alongside the regular work. The question is not whether they are checked but whether they come back in the register. That register sits on the sewer software.
Maintenance of pumping stations and pumps
Electromechanical work in places without signal, with a round that differs per client. If it concerns water treatment, see water engineering.
Consultancies and supervisory bodies
You walk along and want your spot checks in the same sequence as the contractor's. See also the inspection app.
Test your idea first: a working prototype in 1 day
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The coding has been revised and will be revised again, and a pumping station round differs from one manager to the next. Everything that concerns codes, fields and rounds should be configurable.
If you clean gullies and want to record per gully what the crew found, look at our app for gully cleaning and route planning.
Why Appfront
Offline is the normal situation here
Manholes, embankments and rural areas have no coverage. We build offline as the starting point, preserving the original timestamp.
The choice belongs to the observation
We put the coding forward at the moment the inspector looks. Coding afterwards from a photo produces a series that differs slightly from what was actually there.
An asset without a code is not an asset
We code manholes and pumping stations so that an observation lands on the right asset. Without that, merging remains manual work with errors in it.
We do not classify in the field
Assigning classes has been the manager's responsibility since 2020. We build the app that records, and leave the judgement where it belongs.
Security and privacy
What an inspector records is later used to divide money and weigh liability. Who may see what is therefore sharper here than with an ordinary work order: a contractor should see their own assignment and not a competitor's work. We set access by role, by assignment and by area, and log every viewing.
Moreover, the immutability of the observation matters. A record that can be quietly updated afterwards loses its value precisely when there is a dispute about what was visible in that manhole. We record observations, measurements and images as unchangeable, with time, location and person, even when synchronisation takes place later, and any correction appears as a visible correction alongside the original value. How we handle security ourselves is set out in our information security policy; reports from outside reach us through our CVD policy.
Frequently asked questions about the sewer app
No. RIONED describes that applying the classification has been decoupled from January 2020: inspectors record in detail what they observe, and asset managers then apply the classification. If a client nonetheless asks you to supply classes, that is an agreement between the two of you and not a requirement of the standard.
Yes, that is the starting point. In the Netherlands this concerns the edition with the national part from March 2021. The older standards NEN 3398 and NEN 3399 were withdrawn on 28 January 2020. As code lists are revised, we keep them configurable.
Yes, and that is not a minor point here. There is no coverage in a manhole, under a viaduct or in rural areas. Everything is recorded locally and synchronised later, retaining the original time, because the moment of observation is part of the observation.
Yes, but on a different basis. The coding of NEN-EN 13508-2 applies to outdoor sewerage under gravity flow; pumping stations and pressure mains fall outside that scope. There is therefore no national coding for the pumping station round. We build the round as you have defined it, with the measurements and control points you want included, and keep it configurable.
They go to the asset management file, where the classification is applied and the planning follows from it. That is a different product; see sewer software. We test the handover between them with real files.
No. A inspection vehicle has its own system for imagery and control, and we stay well away from it. We focus on the work around it: surveys without camera, manhole inspections, pumping stations and gullies. We handle the data exchange through integrations.
Yes. Each client has its own requirements for what gets recorded. We set that per assignment, rather than having your inspectors remember which client wants which fields. If you also need maintenance work covered, see maintenance software.
That depends on the number of object types, whether the pumping station round must be included, and whether data is exchanged with an existing asset management package. Coding with offline working is usually quick to become usable; the exchange takes more effort. We give a reasoned estimate after the discovery phase.
Do you know whether your field records carry a judgement?
Take an inspection from last year and check whether someone who wasn't there could assign it a class without watching the video. If they can't, something wasn't recorded properly in the field. We build this as a standalone app and as part of a wider custom app development project.