Manage Hydrants

This guide walks you through managing hydrant records, configuring your organisation’s hydrant data sources, claiming hydrants from the statewide pool, and looking after hydrants in the field.

Prerequisites

• Brigade admin or organisation admin role for most steps
• Organisation admin role to configure hydrant data sources
• Access to your brigade’s StationOne instance

Steps

1. Configure Organisation Hydrant Data Sources

Hydrants are no longer synced brigade-by-brigade from a live external API. Instead, StationOne loads the full statewide hydrant dataset for each enabled source into a shared pool automatically and continuously in the background — brigades then claim the hydrants inside their own response area from that pool (see Claim Hydrants From the Pool).

An organisation admin turns sources on once, org-wide:

1. Navigate to Settings → Organisation Settings
2. Scroll to Hydrant Data Sources
3. Under Add Data Source, choose a Source Type:
   • Victorian Water Authority (ArcGIS)
   • CFA Hydrant Database
   • SA Water (Location SA)
4. Optionally give it a display name
5. Click Add Source

Once added, a source can be Disabled (hides it from units without deleting any hydrants already claimed) or Removed entirely (units using it will need to pick a new source). Only one source per type can be added per organisation.

Who can configure this: Organisation admin only.

2. Define Response Area & Select a Data Source

Each unit defines its own jurisdictional boundary and picks which statewide dataset to claim hydrants from:

1. Navigate to Settings → Unit Settings
2. Scroll to Response Area section
3. Under Select Hydrant Data Source, choose one of the sources your organisation admin has enabled
4. Click the polygon drawing tool and:
   • Click points around your brigade’s boundary
   • Connect points to form a polygon
   • Close the polygon by clicking the first point again (or double-click)
5. Use the edit tool to adjust points if needed
6. Click Save & Import Hydrants

The response area is stored as GeoJSON. Saving it (with a source selected) immediately queues a claim of any pool hydrants that fall inside the polygon — see the next step.

Tips:

• Be as accurate as possible with boundaries
• Include all areas your brigade responds to
• Exclude areas outside your jurisdiction
• Can only create a single polygon (no holes, no multiple disconnected areas)
• You can redraw or change the selected source at any time — changing the source clears the last-synced timestamp so it’s clear a fresh claim is needed

3. Claim Hydrants From the Pool

Once a response area and data source are set, claiming hydrants inside that area happens automatically the first time you save, and can be re-run whenever the area or upstream data changes:

1. Navigate to Hydrants from the main menu
2. Find the status banner at the top (purple when a source + area are configured)
3. Click Re-sync Now
4. StationOne matches statewide pool hydrants that fall inside your response area and assigns them to your unit

What Happens on Claim:

• Each matched hydrant is assigned to your unit and given a friendly unit-scoped ID (it keeps its real asset number where possible, e.g. 7456, rather than the internal source reference)
• If a pool hydrant lands within 10m of a hydrant you already manually created, the two are merged — your manual hydrant keeps its coordinates, notes, and inspection history, and absorbs the pool hydrant’s source metadata (external ID, asset type/owner, responsible authority) instead of creating a duplicate
• Newly claimed hydrants are queued for address geocoding in the background, so addresses may take a short while to appear after a claim

Claiming does not create hydrant data — the statewide dataset itself is refreshed on its own recurring schedule per source, independent of any unit’s claim. Claiming only changes ownership of hydrants that already exist in the pool.

Note: A hydrant that later disappears from the upstream feed is never silently deleted once your unit has claimed it — it’s left in place (and logged) for someone to investigate, since your unit may hold inspection history against it.

4. Create Hydrant Manually

Add individual hydrants not present in the statewide pool:

1. Navigate to Hydrants from the main menu
2. Click New Hydrant button
3. Enter hydrant details:
   • Unique ID: Internal identifier
   • Latitude / Longitude: GPS coordinates
   • Address (optional)
   • Pipe Diameter (optional): e.g. “100mm”, “150mm”, “6 inch” — if left blank, inspectors will be prompted to fill it in the first time the hydrant is inspected (see Conducting Inspections)
   • Notes (optional)
4. Click Create Hydrant

When to Create Manually:

• Hydrants not yet in the statewide pool
• Private property hydrants
• Temporary hydrants
• Testing or training purposes
• Brigades in a state without a supported data source

If a matching hydrant later appears in the statewide pool within your response area, it will be merged into your manually-created hydrant on the next claim rather than creating a duplicate (see Claim Hydrants From the Pool).

5. Edit Hydrant Details

Update hydrant information:

1. Navigate to Hydrants
2. Click on hydrant from list or map
3. Click Edit button
4. Update fields, including Pipe Diameter
5. Click Update Hydrant

Note: Editing a hydrant’s latitude/longitude marks its location as manually edited, so future statewide syncs won’t overwrite your correction with source data.

6. Delete Hydrant

Remove hydrants from the system:

1. Navigate to Hydrants
2. Click on hydrant
3. Click Delete button
4. Confirm deletion

Warning: Deleting a hydrant also deletes all inspection and operational use history for it.

7. Report Hydrant Faults to the Authority

When inspections turn up faults (broken components, inaccessible hydrants, etc.), export a fault report for your responsible water authority and track which hydrants have already been reported:

1. Navigate to Hydrants from the main menu
2. Click More Actions → Generate Report
3. Select Failed Inspections Only as the report type
4. Choose a format:
   • CSV - spreadsheet for email or record-keeping
   • PDF - downloadable, printable report
5. Check Mark these hydrants as reported once exported
6. Click Generate Report

The exported hydrants are stamped with the date reported, and a spanner icon appears next to their ID in the hydrant list — hover it to see when the fault was reported.

Clearing a Reported Fault:

• Automatically: the next inspection that passes (no failed items) clears the reported flag
• Manually: open the hydrant, click Edit, check Clear the reported fault status, and save

Tip: You can filter the hydrant list to Reported to see everything currently flagged as sent to the authority (see Search and Filter Hydrants).

8. Review Location Corrections

When a member or public inspector suggests a corrected hydrant location during an inspection (see Suggest a Corrected Hydrant Location), it’s held for admin review rather than applied automatically:

1. Navigate to Hydrants — pending corrections appear in a banner at the top of the list; click a hydrant’s ID there, or click View all to see every hydrant awaiting review
2. Open the hydrant to see the Location Correction Proposed banner on its detail page
3. Compare the proposed coordinates against the hydrant’s current location
4. Read any comment the inspector left about where they found it
5. Choose an action:
   • Approve & Update Location — optionally add review notes, then submit to update the hydrant’s coordinates and mark the location as manually edited (future statewide syncs won’t overwrite it)
   • Reject — optionally add a reason, then submit to dismiss the proposal and leave the hydrant’s location unchanged

9. Configure Inspection Checklist

Every hydrant inspection is built from a checklist. StationOne ships with 7 default checks, but each unit can turn off any that don’t apply and add checks specific to their brigade:

1. Navigate to Hydrants from the main menu
2. Click More Actions → Hydrant Inspection Settings
3. Under Default Checks, untick any built-in check your brigade doesn’t need, then click Save
4. Under Custom Checks, add a check specific to your brigade:
   • Enter a name (e.g. “Chain present”)
   • Tick N/A if the check should support a “not applicable” option, like the built-in Road Reflector and White Road Triangle checks
   • Click Add
5. Use Edit or Delete next to a custom check to rename it or remove it

Default Checks:

• Clear of Debris
• Post Present
• Reflector Present
• Road Reflector Present (supports N/A)
• White Road Triangle Present (supports N/A)
• Accessible
• Functional

Notes:

• Disabling a default check doesn’t rewrite history — the checklist each inspection was recorded against is preserved on that inspection, so past records still show what was actually checked at the time
• Custom checks are pass/fail, same as the built-in checks, with an optional comment field and optional N/A
• Changes apply to your unit only and take effect the next time an inspection form is opened
• An inspector conducting a public or authenticated inspection against a hydrant your unit hasn’t claimed yet uses your own unit’s checklist, not the hydrant’s (see Inspecting Unclaimed Hydrants)
• CSV and PDF reports automatically add a column for each custom check and drop columns for disabled defaults

Who can configure this: Brigade admin or organisation admin role — the same permission required to manage hydrants generally.

10. Log Operational Use

Record water pressure and a timestamp any time a crew draws from a hydrant — for example during a fire, a training exercise, or a planned flush — independent of the annual inspection cycle:

1. Open the hydrant (from the list, map popup, or a QR-code linked public brigade page)
2. Click Log Use
3. Enter:
   • Pressure (kPa)
   • Date & Time of Use (defaults to now)
4. Click Record Use

Notes:

• Operational use can be logged against any hydrant your organisation can see — including one claimed by a neighbouring unit, or one that’s still unclaimed in the statewide pool — since a crew doesn’t get to choose whose hydrant is closest during an incident
• Recorded uses appear on the hydrant’s detail page, most recent first
• Available in-app, and via the public brigade portal for QR-code access without login

Unclaimed Hydrants

Statewide pool hydrants that haven’t been claimed by any unit (unit_id is blank) are still visible and usable — they just aren’t “owned” yet:

• They appear on the Hydrants → Map View for every unit in the organisation, marked with a grey pin and an Unclaimed badge
• A hydrant claimed by a different unit in your organisation shows as a violet pin with a Claimed by another unit badge — visible for coverage awareness, but its details/inspection pages aren’t accessible to you
• Anyone with hydrant access can open an unclaimed hydrant’s detail page and inspect it — see Inspecting Unclaimed Hydrants for how the checklist is chosen
• Anyone can log operational use (pressure/timestamp) against an unclaimed hydrant, the same as a claimed one
• Unclaimed hydrants don’t count toward your unit’s stats or appear in your unit’s main hydrant list/search until your unit claims them (see Claim Hydrants From the Pool)

Next Steps

After managing hydrants, you may want to:

Create Hydrant Runs

Organize hydrants into inspection routes (see Inspect Hydrants)

Enable Public Hydrant Display

Show hydrants on Station Portal:

1. Navigate to Settings → Public Access
2. Toggle Public Hydrants Enabled
3. Save settings
4. Hydrants appear on Station Portal map

View Hydrants on Map

See all hydrants geographically:

1. Navigate to Hydrants
2. Click Map View tab
3. Zoom and pan to explore
4. Click markers for hydrant details
5. Colour indicates status: green (passed, inspected recently), blue (not inspected recently), orange/red (fault reported), grey (unclaimed), violet (claimed by another unit)

Search and Filter Hydrants

Find specific hydrants belonging to your unit:

1. Navigate to Hydrants
2. Use search box for unique ID
3. Use filters:
   • Never Inspected - No inspection on record
   • Overdue - Past due for inspection
   • Due Soon - Approaching inspection deadline
   • Reported - Fault reported to the authority and not yet cleared
4. Results update automatically

Note: This list only shows hydrants claimed by your unit. Use Map View to find unclaimed or other-unit hydrants (see Unclaimed Hydrants).

Clear Response Area

Remove response area definition:

1. Navigate to Settings → Unit Settings
2. Scroll to Response Area section
3. Click Clear Response Area
4. Confirm action
5. Response area and sync data removed

Note: This also clears the last-synced timestamp. Previously claimed hydrants remain claimed — clearing the response area only stops future claims.

Tips

Drawing Response Areas

Accuracy Matters:

• Use satellite view for precision
• Follow road boundaries where applicable
• Include all relevant areas
• Zoom in for detailed boundaries

Complex Areas:

• Can only create single polygon (no holes)
• Multiple disconnected areas not supported
• Contact support for complex jurisdictions

Claiming Best Practices

Initial Claim:

• Review all newly claimed hydrants
• Check addresses fill in correctly once geocoding completes
• Verify GPS accuracy against the map
• Update any incorrect data manually

Ongoing:

• Re-run Re-sync Now periodically to pick up new hydrants the statewide sync has added to the pool within your area
• Review new hydrants added
• Investigate any hydrants flagged as “missing from upstream” in the logs — these are left in place, not deleted, for manual follow-up

After Claiming:

• Create or update hydrant runs
• Schedule inspections for newly claimed hydrants
• Update overdue inspection targets

Managing Duplicates

Duplicate merging happens automatically, but only against hydrants your unit created manually (data_source manual) within 10m of a pool candidate — two already-claimed hydrants from different sources are never auto-merged. If you spot a true duplicate that wasn’t merged:

1. Review both hydrants’ GPS coordinates (within 10m?)
2. Compare external IDs and data sources
3. Delete the true duplicate manually
4. Keep both if they’re actually different hydrants

GPS Coordinate Tips

Finding Coordinates:

• Use Google Maps (right-click → coordinates)
• Use GPS device on-site
• Claimed automatically from the statewide pool
• Mobile app may support GPS capture

Format:

• Latitude: -90 to 90 (negative = south)
• Longitude: -180 to 180 (negative = west)
• Decimal format (not degrees/minutes)
• Example: -37.8136, 144.9631

Common Issues

Response Area Not Saving

If response area won’t save:

1. Verify polygon is properly closed
2. Check you clicked first point to close
3. Ensure at least 3 points in polygon
4. Try redrawing with fewer points
5. Check browser console for errors

No Hydrants Being Claimed

If claiming returns no hydrants:

1. Verify a hydrant data source is selected and your response area is defined
2. Confirm your organisation admin has enabled a source in Organisation Settings → Hydrant Data Sources
3. Check that the statewide pool actually has hydrants for your state/authority (data loads on its own recurring schedule and may take time after a source is first enabled)
4. Review your response area boundaries — a hydrant must be geometrically inside the polygon, not just nearby
5. Check application logs for claim errors

Duplicate Hydrants Appearing

If you see duplicate hydrants:

1. Check if external IDs and data sources match
2. Measure distance between hydrants
3. Confirm whether one was manually created and one came from the pool (only these are auto-merged, see Managing Duplicates)
4. Delete duplicates manually if the automatic merge didn’t apply

Cannot Edit Claimed Hydrant Fields

If edits to source-derived fields (asset type, owner, responsible authority) are being reverted:

1. These fields are refreshed from the statewide feed on its regular sync — that’s expected
2. Latitude/longitude are the exception: editing them sets a manually-edited flag that survives future syncs
3. If you need a field permanently overridden, use Notes instead

GPS Coordinates Wrong

If coordinates appear incorrect:

1. Verify latitude/longitude order
2. Check for negative signs (hemisphere)
3. Ensure decimal format (not DMS)
4. Compare with map visualization
5. Update manually, or suggest a location correction from the field during an inspection (see Suggest a Corrected Hydrant Location)

Reported Icon Won’t Clear

If the spanner icon stays after a repair:

1. Confirm a new inspection was conducted and logged, not just the repair itself
2. Check the new inspection has no failed items — a partial fix still leaves the fault flagged
3. If the fault is already fixed, clear it manually: open the hydrant, click Edit, check Clear the reported fault status, and save

Related Guides

• Inspect Hydrants - Creating runs and conducting inspections
• Hydrant Management - Feature overview
• Public Access - Public hydrant display