What is the PODS Pipeline Data Model?

The PODS Pipeline Data Model provides the database architecture pipeline operators use to store critical information and analysis data about their pipeline systems, and manage this data geospatially in a linear-referenced database which can then be visualized in any GIS platform.  The PODS Pipeline Data Model houses the asset information, inspection, integrity management, regulatory compliance, risk analysis, history, and operational data that pipeline companies have deemed mission-critical to the successful management of natural gas and hazardous liquids pipelines.

Typical information stored in a PODS database includes (partial list):  centerline location, pipeline materials and coatings, MAOP, valves and pipeline components, cathodic protection facilities and inspection results, hydrotesting, operating conditions, physical inspection results, leak detection surveys, repairs, foreign line crossings, inline inspection (ILI) results, close-interval survey results, pump and compression equipment specifications, geographic boundaries, external records, risk analysis methods and results, regulatory reports, and pipeline and ROW maintenance activities, among others.  

The PODS Relational Model is implemented on either an Oracle or SQL Server RDBMS, and is therefore GIS-neutral.  The PODS ESRI Spatial Implementation is essentially identical in content to the PODS Relational Pipeline Data Model, but was specifically developed as a geodatabase for implementation on the ESRI platform. 

This pipe-centric approach to managing pipeline data in a single data repository, a PODS database, helps pipeline owners to collect, verify, manage, analyze, update, maintain, and deliver all the information about their pipelines quickly and reliably to applications and end-users.  Since the data records are linked to the pipe segment, re-route, change of service, asset transfer or sale, abandonment, removal, repair, and replacement are all managed within the PODS database.

Download the Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) of PODS 5.1

The current release of the PODS Pipeline Data Model (PODS 5.1, September, 2011) contains 203 Sub-Models, 678 Tables, and, and 5,171 Columns. 

The PODS Pipeline Data Model release file automatically generates the PODS Database structure, ready to be populated with your pipeline data.  The PODS Data Model is copyright-protected, and legal use of the model requires your company be a member of the PODS Association, or have been a member when that version was released by the PODS Association.

Historical Records

The PODS Pipeline Data Model is configurable to maintain history of important data records, and accommodates history tracking for re-routes, relacement, looping, coatings, maitenance, crossings, inspections, testing, operations, new datasources (such as GPS), engineering analyses, and regulatory reports, among others.