City of Fontana Saves $200,00 Annually with Turf Irrigation Web Map

The City of Fontana, California, serves a population of over 200,000 people. The city irrigates approximately 530 acres of urban landscape, including parks and parkways. Staff wanted to ensure the city wasn’t applying unnecessary irrigation to urban landscape. Fontana’s analysts asked the geographic information system (GIS) team to provide a map solution that would display— in one web application—real time water use for each of the city’s 550 meters. The map would expand Fontana’s mission to reach zero water waste during an ongoing California drought.

Fontana had been collecting its water metering and landscape data for years. Bringing this information into the city’s GIS allowed staff to make a prototype of a map service in ArcGIS Online. The map service shows in real time how many inches of water are applied per meter. Staff can compare this actual watering to budgeted watering through a calculation that converts inches to gallons, and gallons to dollars. The automation eliminates the previous manual workflow requiring staff to sift through hundreds of data pages and spreadsheets. Through radio telemetry, office staff can actually modify water application for individual meters, based on what is on the web map. The city estimates a $200,000 annual savings off its $3.5 million irrigation budget. The web map has helped conserve water, part of Fontana’s mission to better serve residents. The application has also been used to help Fontana abide by recent regulations enacted in California to help reduce water use by 25 percent during severe drought. Selected city staff now have access to the maps on any device, whether in the field or office, to monitor actual versus budgeted watering.

Water agencies wishing to reduce water waste for emergency legislation compliance and cost savings can use web map services to better understand real-time water application. ArcGIS Online enables users across water utilities to compare actual to budgeted water application, so teams can take action to curb water waste and better reach targets.