 |
||
|
Drinking Water Academy |  |
 |
||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
Electronic Sanitary SurveyDWA Develops Software for Personal Digital Assistants to Enhance Sanitary Surveys
Electronic sanitary survey software incorporates questions from the eight elements of a sanitary survey into an easy-to-use checklist format for the PDA. After the inspector answers several questions, the program selects a small subset of questions relevant to the particular system. States have the flexibility to customize the initial question set to fit their specific needs. Once the applicable questions have been determined, the inspector proceeds with the survey; data is saved into the PDA and can later be downloaded to a database on a desktop computer. The software can automatically generate a sanitary survey report which allows the report to be generated and sent to the system more expeditiously. A work group of state staff, sanitary survey experts, and ASDWA developed the national form. EPA SDWIS/State staff also participated to ensure compatibility between the two programs. The software provides a significant amount of flexibility to the states to customize the tool, based on their requirements and the particular water system being inspected. The software is an Access database and data is migrated from the PDAs using XML protocol. Use of XML makes it easier for states that do not use Access to migrate the data to their databases, and also makes it easier for states to migrate the data to SDWIS/State. Software is now available nationally. The DWA is in the process of developing Tablet PC and hard copy versions, which shall be available in spring 2004. OGWDW and ASDWA are hosting a national conference in May 2004 on using PDAs and Tablet PCs to enhance water security and Safe Drinking Water Act implementation. For more information about the conference, click here . Updates on the project will be provided in periodic bulletins, distributed by e-mail. To be added to the mailing list, or for more information on the project, contact Jamie Bourne at bourne.james@epa.gov or 202-564-4095.
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
The
DWA built on work done by the State of Idaho to develop an electronic
version of a sanitary survey for use by state sanitary inspectors equipped
with a personal digital assistant (PDA). 
The
benefits of using PDAs for sanitary surveys include standardizing the
sanitary survey format; increasing the inspectors' efficiency both in
performing the survey and in preparing a report following the survey;
making the data from sanitary surveys more accessible to managers; and
providing the ability to analyze the data from the surveys.