City of Sierra Madre Partners with Nobel Systems to Advance GIS-Based Asset Management and Resilient City Operations
- Aug 13
- 6 min read
Managing municipal infrastructure today requires more than knowing where assets are located. Cities need to understand their condition, coordinate the work performed on them, preserve their history, respond effectively to residents, and make informed decisions about where to invest next.
The City of Sierra Madre, California, is moving forward with Nobel Systems to strengthen this connection through a modern, GIS-based approach to asset management.
At the center of the initiative is GeoViewer, Nobel Systems’ cloud-hosted GIS and asset management platform. The project will help connect infrastructure data, inspections, work orders, service requests, field activities, and planning information within a more unified operational environment.
Importantly, the partnership extends beyond a single utility or department. Sierra Madre’s initiative encompasses water, sewer, stormwater, streets, trees, facilities, meter operations, Fire Department needs, and other municipal assets and workflows.
The goal is not simply to implement another software system. It is to establish a stronger digital foundation for how Sierra Madre understands, maintains, and plans for the infrastructure its community depends on.
Building One Connected View of Sierra Madre's Infrastructure
Municipalities manage thousands of physical assets, yet the information surrounding those assets can become fragmented across GIS databases, spreadsheets, inspection reports, work records, documents, maps, and institutional knowledge.
Sierra Madre identified the need for a more unified asset management environment with consistent data governance, workflows, and reporting while maintaining compatibility with its existing ArcGIS Enterprise environment.
GeoViewer helps bring that information into an operational context.
Rather than using GIS primarily to answer “Where is this asset?”, Sierra Madre can increasingly use its infrastructure information to answer more strategic questions:
• What condition is the asset in?
• What maintenance or inspections have been completed?
• What needs attention next?
• How frequently is the asset requiring work?
• What are the potential consequences of failure?
• Should the City repair, rehabilitate, or replace it?
• Where should limited capital resources be prioritized?
This shift turns GIS from a mapping resource into a platform for asset intelligence and lifecycle decision-making.
GeoViewer as the Operational Layer for Citywide Asset Management
One of the most significant aspects of the Sierra Madre partnership is its citywide scope.
GeoViewer is being positioned as a GIS-based asset management and operational platform that can support multiple municipal functions rather than operating within a single department. The project encompasses water, sewer, stormwater, streets, urban forestry, meter operations, facilities, Fire Department activities, and public service workflows.
Across the City, this can include:
Streets and Public Works: Supporting street maintenance, pothole repairs, pavement rehabilitation, condition tracking, and coordination with water and sewer improvements.
Sewer Management: Connecting cleaning, manhole inspections, spill tracking, FOG and BMP activities, and infrastructure history.
Trees and Urban Forestry: Maintaining updated tree condition information through routine inspections to create a more current understanding of the City's urban forest.
Meter Operations: Supporting meter exchanges and route-based data collection within the same GIS-driven environment.
Fire Department: Bringing wildfire readiness information, hydrants and water supply assets, access and evacuation data, critical facilities, defensible-space activities, and emergency information into a geographic framework.
The real value is not simply digitizing each of these activities individually.
It is connecting them through a common geographic foundation.
For City leadership, that can provide greater visibility across departments. For employees, it means more consistent access to operational information. And for Sierra Madre, it creates a scalable platform that can evolve as municipal priorities change.
Taking Asset Management Into the Field
Reliable asset management depends on accurate information from the field.
For Sierra Madre, this is particularly important because crews may operate in canyon and hillside areas where connectivity can be inconsistent. GeoViewer Mobile is designed to support connected and disconnected workflows, allowing personnel to continue accessing and collecting information when cellular service is limited.
Field personnel can use GeoViewer to access asset information, search infrastructure records, update work activity, capture GPS locations, attach photographs and videos, and access designated as-built information. Offline updates can synchronize when connectivity is restored.
The strategic value goes beyond mobile access.
Every completed field activity can contribute to the City's asset history.
An inspection provides condition information. A photograph documents what crews encountered. Completed work records what was done and when. Over time, these activities build a stronger digital history that can support future maintenance and replacement decisions.
This also helps Sierra Madre preserve institutional knowledge rather than allowing critical infrastructure information to remain with individual employees or disconnected records.
Connecting Maintenance, Resources, and Asset History
GeoViewer also creates a stronger relationship between assets and the resources required to maintain them.
Maintenance activities can be associated with mapped infrastructure and supported by scheduling, assignments, field execution, documentation, materials, and historical records.
Over time, Sierra Madre can develop a more complete view of:
Asset condition and maintenance frequency
Inspection and repair history
Labor and material requirements
Operational costs
Service impacts
Recurring infrastructure issues
Overall lifecycle performance
This creates a better foundation for deciding when continued maintenance makes sense—and when rehabilitation or replacement may offer greater long-term value.
For municipal leadership, that connection is critical. Asset management is ultimately not about maintaining everything equally; it is about directing limited resources toward the infrastructure where they can deliver the greatest value.
Moving From Condition Data to Better Capital Decisions
Day-to-day maintenance tells an important story about long-term infrastructure needs.
GeoViewer is planned to maintain time-stamped condition observations for infrastructure such as streets, trees, hydrants, water mains, and manholes. Rather than continually replacing historical information with a single current score, Sierra Madre can preserve how asset condition changes over time.
That history can strengthen risk-informed capital planning.
Investment decisions can increasingly consider:
Condition
Criticality
Maintenance history
Service consequences
Lifecycle cost
Proximity to critical facilities
Wildfire risk
Traffic classification
Geographic relationships with other planned improvements
This can also help the City coordinate projects across infrastructure categories. A planned street rehabilitation project, for example, can be considered alongside water or sewer improvements in the same area.
Instead of making investment decisions from isolated datasets, Sierra Madre can build a clearer picture of condition, risk, cost, operational history, and location.
Strengthening Public Service and Emergency Readiness
Connected infrastructure management ultimately supports a larger municipal objective: serving the community effectively.
GeoViewer's public-facing capabilities can support a closed-loop service request process in which resident-reported issues—such as potholes, leaks, or downed trees—can move from initial request through field response and completion.
Sierra Madre’s project also recognizes the City's emergency and wildfire environment.
GeoViewer can support wildfire readiness information including WUI/LRA overlays, access constraints, water supply assets, evacuation information, critical facilities, prevention activities, and management dashboards. During emergency events, location-based photographs and structured records can also help organize damage documentation.
This demonstrates an important advantage of a citywide platform: the same infrastructure intelligence that supports everyday operations can also strengthen emergency preparedness and response.
Building for Sierra Madre's Next Chapter
The Sierra Madre partnership represents a forward-looking approach to municipal asset stewardship.
GeoViewer is currently deployed across more than 77 municipal and utility clients, while Nobel Systems develops, hosts, supports, and continues to enhance the platform internally. Nobel Systems also brings more than three decades of GIS experience and extensive Southern California municipal and utility experience to the initiative.
For Sierra Madre, the result is intended to be much more than a technology upgrade.
It is a foundation for:
More connected city departments
Better field-to-office coordination
Stronger infrastructure histories
Improved asset lifecycle management
More informed capital planning
Greater operational visibility
Stronger public service and emergency readiness
As cities face aging infrastructure, constrained budgets, workforce transitions, and increasing expectations for resilient public services, the ability to connect asset information with everyday operations becomes increasingly important.
The future of municipal GIS is not simply about creating better maps.
It is about turning those maps into better operations, stronger asset stewardship, more resilient infrastructure, and better-informed investment decisions.
Through its partnership with Nobel Systems and GeoViewer, the City of Sierra Madre is building that connected foundation—bringing its assets, people, field activities, and planning information together to support smarter municipal operations today and for the future.
About Nobel Systems
Nobel Systems, Inc. is a leader in Cloud GIS and Smart Utility Solutions, delivering innovative mapping technology, data services, and strategic consulting to support sustainable public service operations. Founded in 1992 and headquartered in Redlands, California, Nobel Systems, Inc. serves clients across the United States and internationally.
Learn more at www.nobel-systems.com
