Journal of Jazan University - Applied Sciences Branch
Vol.3 No.1 Jan. 2014 (Safar 1435 H) 49
M. A. Mubaraki
Proposal for Managing Municipality Roads
with Geographic Information System
M. A. Mubaraki
Jazan University, Faculty of Engineering, KSA
Abstract
A proposal for a geographic information system (GIS) with pavement management system for municipal road is the topic of this paper. A successful GIS implementation involves not only the information technologies themselves but also other elements, such
as personnel and their GIS skills, the organizational structure within which they work,
and the institutional relationships that govern the management of information flow. All
of these elements need to be managed in an interactive manner. GIS can serve as a platform for integrating various types of data, systems, and technologies. Because of the
nature of rapid changes in GIS and related information technology, a well-developed
GIS implementation plan is essential. Several key issues and aspects important to the
successful implementation of GIS for pavement management with successful experience and recommendations are presented.
Keywords: Municipal Roads, GIS, Plan, Implementation
1.INTRODUCTION
Pavements are one of the critical elements of the roadway transportation infrastructure in any city. Billions of riyals are
spent to construct roads. Engineers of
roads face challenges, including maintenance decision making, budgeting, and best
practices. However, deteriorating pavement conditions, increasing traffic loads, and
limited funds are challenges for roadway
asset management activities. Nowadays
municipalities have been developed asset
management systems to cope with these
challenges. One of the systems is pavement management system (PMS).
A PMS identifies maintenance needs,
helps to allocate funds, supports decision
making, and maintains good pavement
conditions under the constraint of limited
funds.
A PMS is an automated system for
storing, retrieving, analyzing, and reporting information needed to support pavement-related decision making within municipal roads (Alejandra et al.,1999). AltISSN 1658-6050
hough it has worked well in serving its
original objectives, the municipal engineers of roads are facing new challenges
arising from diverse data, technologies,
and systems, which have resulted in inefficient information exchange within the
department. Adopting geographic information systems (GIS) can help overcome
these challenges if the process is carefully
proposed and implemented. Therefore a
PMS combines GIS technology with database application tools based on pavement
evaluation rating allowing municipalities
to perform long range planning.
Successful GIS implementation involves not only the information technologies themselves but the technical skills for
the users, the organization and institutionnal arrangements that govern the patterns
of management and information flow are
also critical and must be managed. Thus, a
GIS implementation proposal might help
to improve the chances of a successful
implementation. The proposal presented
here can help road engineers and integrate
E-mail: mmubaraki@jazanu.edu.sa
50 Journal of Jazan University - Applied Sciences Branch
Vol.3 No.1 Jan. 2014 (Safar 1435 H)
Proposal for Managing Municipality Roads…………….
management of the various issues. This
paper summarizes the research process,
major findings, key recommendations, and
successful experience.
Various studies have been conducted
on the use of GIS for the management of
roadways (Mary and Jason 2007), airports
(Michael 2000), and urban infrastructure
(Geral 1998). The findings from these research efforts suggest that certain issues
must be observed in recommending a GIS.
These issues include the following:
 The interface between the GIS and PMS
should be easy to establish.
 The GIS should be easy to learn and
have excellent customer support
 Computation environment and longterm development proposal of municipal
roads must be consistent.
 The user requirements and the legacy
systems must be meeting and move in
parallel with minimum conflict.
 Operations of a GIS must be carried out
at several levels of sophistication.
The objective of this proposal is to
provide guidance to municipality and road
engineers in implementing GIS to enhance
its PMS. The focus of the implementation
proposal is identifying and selecting GIS
activities and resources essential to improve the existing PMS activities. Every
municipality develops a suitable platform
as a core technology structure and a GIS
to define the information technology directions, standards, policies, and procedures for adopting GIS and other computer applications for the municipal roads.
The GIS implementation proposal should
be compatible with the core technology
structure.
2.USER REQUIREMENTS
There are some basic issues in which
GIS can be a good system if municipalities pay good attention to them. First (Yi-
chang 2004), user requirements of a GIS
for a PMS must be taken consideration.
For instant, user-friendly interface and
flexibility for users to run statistical analysis of various PMS data, to integrate data
and extract, to integrate with other management systems, to integrate with various
database, to operate the database, to query
in good capability, graphing the data, to
present information to administration in a
more understandable format, to have capable dynamic segmentation, ability to use
global positioning system (GPS), use of
multimedia information (videos, sounds,
images), ability to customize GIS software
to suit the special requirements of users
unique referencing. Second (Shuo 2005),
some GIS Implementation Issues must be
also taken in consideration. Such as hiring
and retaining qualified GIS personnel,
convincing the decision makers to accept
the idea, maintaining permanent control
station(s) to be used as a reference for the
location referencing system, providing
training and education, ensuring that the
GIS can generate the reports accurately,
and transitioning from conventional pavement management to GIS-PMS.
3.IMPLEMENTATION GIS FOR PMS
The technology should fit the needs of
the municipality well. Therefore, involveement of both management and technical
personnel is/ are needed. The management
personnel are responsible for deciding future GIS directions. The technical personnel are responsible for designing and implementing GIS. In addition to that, GIS is
not the only technology that should be incorporated in an information technology
proposal. Other information technologies
must be coherently integrated with GIS efficiency and effectiveness. Moreover, information technologies related to GIS are
changing rapidly; therefore, the GIS implementation proposal should be a live
Journal of Jazan University - Applied Sciences Branch
Vol.3 No.1 Jan. 2014 (Safar 1435 H) 51
M. A. Mubaraki
document to ensure updating the changes.
Furthermore there is a legitimate need for
the data to be shared across applications,
therefore, the data integration especially
important for GIS technology adoption
due to the costs of geographic data acquisition and maintenance are high for GIS integration across the department, making
information flow more efficiently. However, some steps as outlined in the following sections might help in GIS implantation for municipal services (Zhanmin et
al., 2001).
3.1.Evaluate the Status of PMS
Assessing the PMS in both the network and project levels is important in
succeeding a GIS implementation because
most of the existing data and system will
in use. Accordingly, potential GIS activities, which can be used to improve existing PMS, must also be identified and prioritized.
3.2.Define the Outputs
Goals and objectives must be developed to provide broad policy framework
for PMS where GIS will be proposed and
implemented. For example, the GIS should maximize the level of integration with
information systems strategy, and minimize the staff requirements.
3.3.Define the Type of Data
Generally the data required for a GIS
include spatial data and qualitative data.
GIS implementation should consider future applications of GIS and the availability of data must be considered in GIS implementation. Furthermore, strategies should be established early to maintain the
quality of the database.
3.4.Evaluate and Select Software
GIS software provides the necessary
functions for assisting an organization to
address its objectives. GIS software package should be used for all GIS applications to insure compatibility and the staff
members will become experts by using
one package. Then GIS, therefore, can
provide adequate support for both maintaining and developing GIS applications
for the municipal roads. However, if more
than one software package must/should be
used, care should be taken to ensure that
data and information can be transferred
from one package to another easily. The
types of software and the amount of data
will help determine the hardware needs,
such as central processing unit, hard drive,
and memory requirements.
3.5. Personnel Skills
In an organization implementation, it
is likely that there will be three levels of
GIS staff and users namely; core who are
responsible for spatial database design and
development, standards establishment, and
training, master who participates with the
core staff in application design and do
high-level (macro language) application
development to user divisions such as the
Pavement Section.
3.6. Organizational Policies and Procedures
Organizational policies and procedures needed for a successful implementation of GIS for PMS depend on the organizational structure and the locus of GIS
expertise that best suit the GIS needs of
municipal services like roads maintenance. (Insufficient)
3.7. The three–stage concept
The scale of work and the resources
needed for a GIS implementation is beneficial to the implementation of a GIS (5).
The three stages include the current status,
the intermediate solution, and the ideal
stage are the components for successful
GIS. Assessing the resources at the current stage is important because it is the
point from which everything starts. The
ideal system is the visionary system for
the future. It represents the ideal system
and procedure for the agency without being compromised because of any con-
52 Journal of Jazan University - Applied Sciences Branch
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Proposal for Managing Municipality Roads…………….
straints or limitations. The intermediate
solution is the bridge between the current
status and the ideal system. The transition
from the current municipal roads PMS to
the ideal GIS-PMS should be as smooth as
possible. However, it is not feasible to
implemental the potential GIS-PMS activities at once. The ideal GIS-PMS activities
need to be prioritized.
4.SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCE
Herein some successful experience/
practices are presented in the section.
4.1. GIS for Riyadh PMS
A part of developing a Pavement Maintenance Management System (PMMS)
for the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is the
integration of the Riyadh Geographical Information system (GIS) with the RiyadhPMMS database. The Riyadh network covers more than 35,000 streets. The efficient management of maintenance and rehabilitation activities for a street network
of this size requires reliable integrated
PMMS-GIS. the technical aspects of integrating GIS with Riyadh-PMMS and, in
particular how to display the results of database queries and analysis reports on color-coded maps, and how to view pavement conditions through multi-lane dynamic segmentation and color-coded systems were taken in consideration (AlSwailmi and Al-Mulhem 1998).
4.2. GIS for Salt Lake City
A major effort has been made toward
making a pavement management system
(PMS) functional in Salt Lake City utilizing a geographic information system
(GIS) to enhance the existing PMS. GPMS was written in Map-Basic to provide
pavement engineers at Salt Lake City with
customized menus and pavement management functions. The G-PMS reads in
the unified crack indexes based on the
digital image processing algorithm, recommends the most appropriate mainte-
nance strategies, and displays those strategies on a digital map. It also provides the
functions to report estimated costs for
each maintenance activity and conduct financial planning (Lees et al 1996).
4.3. GIS for Florida
Geographic information system for
transportation (GIS-T) was used to manage the information requirements for the
Florida Department of Transportation.
Transportation Planning and Analysis Software (TPAS) was developed to manage,
calculate, and store roadway characteristics to estimate immediate and long-term
infrastructure needs. The system calculates roadway level of service, identifies
deficiencies, and recommends improvements to meet operating standards, and,
finally, calculates costs of the proposed
improvement. Deficient segments, as well
as road improvements and costs, can then
be displayed on GIS maps in an automated fashion. TPAS combines all of these
procedures and develops maps in a fraction of the time. TPAS seamlessly integrates an Arc View GIS application with a
knowledge-based expert system programmed in Visual Basic. This application
provides an efficient, cost-effective solution for a once tedious and timeconsuming task (Geral 1998).
4.4.GIS for Fountain Hills, Arizona
A prototype low-volume roads pavement management system (PMS) using a
geographic information system (GIS) platform for Fountain Hills, Arizona, was developed to all information available from
the city. City engineers provided a database with inventory and condition data,
and an AutoCAD map of the city streets.
They selected the Road Surface Management System (RSMS) package developed
at Arizona State University for the PMS
portion. This program was developed to
help local Arizona agencies systematically
manage low-volume road and street
Journal of Jazan University - Applied Sciences Branch
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M. A. Mubaraki
pavements. A menu driven MapInfo application that runs the RSMS software, imports the pavement maintenance and rehabilitation program, and interactively prepares and displays colored maps with the
analysis results was finally prepared. The
combination of RSMS and MapInfo significantly reduced the effort required to
develop the prototype system. It allowed
the development and implementation of a
GIS-PMS for the city, based on the existing digital data. City engineers were very
impressed with the prototype system's capabilities(Alejandra et al 1999).
4.5.GIS for Wisconsin
Managers of low-volume roads at
Wisconsin state face numerous challenges, including budgeting, maintenance decision making, and developing best practices. Wisconsin Information System for
Local Roads (WISLR) developed a proactive approach in assisting local officials in
their roadway asset management activities. Also offered are suggestions for future work to enhance roadway management tools for low-volume roads. WISLR
originated with a Wisconsin Department
of Transportation (WisDOT) effort to create a web-based geographic information
system (GIS) that would provide both the
state agency and the 1,922 local units of
government with accurate tracking of
roadway mileage and pavement conditions
for the more than 100,000 mi of roads and
streets under local government control.
WisDOT hoped to provide municipalities
with a powerful tool to track roadway
mileage and conditions, as well as to aid
in system management decisions. WISLR
offers a unique opportunity for local governments to capitalize on the powerful
tools made available by this application.
WISLR combines GIS technology with
database application tools based on the
Pavement Surface Evaluation Rating system, allowing municipalities to perform
long-range planning (Mary and Jason
2007).
5. MAJOR FINDINGS
Major findings that significantly affect
the implementation of GIS for PMIS are
briefly summarized as follows:
1. There are two interacting stages for implementing a GIS for PMIS. The first
is the planning and design stage where
the existing PMIS resources and limitations are examined and then the potential GIS activities identified and selected. The second stage is the management and operation of the recommended GIS activities according to the
implementation plan.
2. Several issues are critical for successful
GIS implementation: obtaining the involvement of both management level
and technical personnel, identifying
multiple technologies related to the
successful implementation of GIS, accommodating the evolving nature of
technological advancement, and achieving data and system integration.
3. Generally, for each PMIS activity at
both the network level and project level certain GIS operations can gre-atly
increase the benefits of PMIS. The
primary benefits of integrating GIS
with PMIS come from two major categories of GIS functions: providing a
user friendly basis so that a wide variety of data can be accessed easily,
manipulated visually, analyzed spatially, and presented graphically and serving as a logical, coherent, and consistent platform in a common location
reference system so that these diverse
databases can be integrated and shared
among different divisions of a department.
4. Some agencies around the world have
used GIS, apart from supporting the
development of the base map and
some ad hoc applications. PMIS is an
54 Journal of Jazan University - Applied Sciences Branch
Vol.3 No.1 Jan. 2014 (Safar 1435 H)
Proposal for Managing Municipality Roads…………….
application residing on a mainframe
system. The PMIS data is stored in a
non relational database, ADABAS,
that cannot be used with GIS directly.
Data transfer from the ADABAS to a
personal computer must be done
through ASCII files.
5. The base map contains geographic features used for location referencing.
The quality of the base map determines the success of a GIS project to a
large extent. The accuracy level required for PMIS, both absolute accuracy and relative accuracy, was determined from the perspective of specific
applications. For example, the absolute accuracy level of the existing digital base map for some municipalities
(about 15m) is satisfactory for the
main purpose of conducting planning
with the PMIS. However, the relative
accuracy level of the digital base map
must be examined further.
6. GPS is a three-dimensional measurement system. Integrated with GIS,
GPS has enormous potential for engineering surveys and PMIS. In comparison with conventional instruments,
GPS can be a more accurate and efficient method for base map development and for the collection and update
of highway inventory data than conventional instruments.
6. RECOMMENDATIONS
The following issues should be carefully observed when implementing a GIS
for a pavement management system such
as the municipal roads PMS:
1. Different applications require spatial
data at different scales. No one scale
can support all pavement-related applications satisfactorily.
2. All GIS data, suffer from inaccuracy,
imprecision, and error to some extent.
3. Both internal and external data sources
should be examined for potential use.
Internal sources can include any department, division, or specific office,
whereas external sources may include
federal and state agencies, universities,
private entities, and the like.
4. A database linkage approach should be
used to integrate GIS with municipal
roads PMS so that various kinds of databases can be accommodated.
5. Mixed database management systems
are recommended to support GIS applications for PMS.
6. The current data collection procedures
should be modified with the objective
that the PMS data could be more effectively integrated with GIS.
7. On the basis of the level of GIS
knowledge needed, municipal roads
are likely to have three levels of GIS
staff members and users associated
with PMS: core staff members, master
users, and other users.
8. Training for the GIS support personnel
is extremely important to the success
of GIS.
9. The introduction of new information
technologies must be accompanied by
the necessary change of organizational
structures and institutional arrangements.
10. The potentials of Internet and Intranet
should be fully examined as a platform
to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of GIS-oriented PMS.
11. An implementation of the GIS implementation proposal should be initiated
as soon as feasible.
REFERENCES
Alejandra Medina, Gerado W. Flintsch,
and John Zaniewski (1999). Geographic
Information Systems-Based Pavement
Management System: A Case Study,
Journal of the Transportation Research
Board, TRR 1652: 151-157.
Journal of Jazan University - Applied Sciences Branch
Vol.3 No.1 Jan. 2014 (Safar 1435 H) 55
M. A. Mubaraki
Al-Swailmi, S. and Al-Mulhem, M.
(1998). Integrating GIS with Riyadh
PMMS, 4th International Conference on
Managing Pavements Durban, 4: 15411555: Future Towards Integrated Management Systems, South Africa
Gerald. H. (1998). An Integrated Geographic Information System Solution for
Estimating Transportation Infrastructure
Needs, Journal of the Transportation Research, TRR 1617: 50-55.
Lees H. Jitprasithsiri, S., and Sorcic, R.
(1996). Development of Geographic information System–Based Pavement Management System for Salt Lake City, Journal of the Transportation Research Board,
TRR 1524:16-24.
Michael T. McNerney (2000). Airport Infrastructure Management with Geographic
Information Systems State of the Art, Journal of the Transportation Research Board,
TRR 1703: 58-64.
Shuo Li, Tommy Nantung, and Yi Jiang
(2005). Assessing Issues, Technologies,
and Data Needs to Meet Traffic Input Requirements by Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide Implementation Initiatives, Journal of the Transportation Research, TRR 1917: 141-148.
Yichang Tsai, Bo Gao, and James S. Lai
(2004). Multiyear Pavement- Rehabilitation Planning Enabled by Geographic Information System Network Analyses Linked to Projects, Journal of the Transportation Research Board, TRR 1889: 21-30.
Mary R. Ebeling and Jason Bittner (2007).
Managing Low-Volume Roads with Wisconsin Information System for Local Roads, Journal of the Transportation Research, TRR 1989 (2): 277-283.
Zhanmin Zhang, Stephen G. Smith, and
W.Ronald Hudson (2001). Geographic Information System Implementation Plan
for Pavement Management Information
System, Journal of the Transportation Research, TRR 1769: 46-50.
‫‪56 Journal of Jazan University - Applied Sciences Branch‬‬
‫)‪Vol.3 No.1 Jan. 2014 (Safar 1435 H‬‬
‫‪Proposal for Managing Municipality Roads…………….‬‬
‫مقترح لنظم المعلومات الجغرافية‬
‫إلدارة الرصف لشوارع البلديات‬
‫محمد علي مباركي‬
‫قسم الهندسة الميكانيكية ‪ -‬كلية الهندسة‪ -‬جامعة جازان‪ -‬المملكة العربية السعودية‬
‫‪Q‬‬
‫موضوووع هوولو الورقووة هووو مقتوورح لوونظم المعلومووات الجغرافيووة إلدارة رصووف‬
‫يت ووم‬
‫الشوووارع البلووديات فن ل عيووظ ف نظووات معلومووات جغرافيووة نوواج‬
‫معلوموووات لكنولوجيوووة فحسووون بوووظ يت وووم عناصووور ف ووور م وووظ المهوووارات‬
‫الشخصووية لهوولا النظوواتك الهيكلووة اإلداريووة دا ووظ منظومووة العمووظك الع قووات‬
‫المؤسسية التي لحكم إدارة انسيابية المعلومات كظ هلو العناصر يجن فن لدار‬
‫بشكظ ل اعلي إن نظات المعلومات الجغرافية يخدت كقاعدة لتكامظ فنواع عديودة‬
‫مو البيانوواتك اةنظمووةك التقنيووات بسووبن وبيعووة التيووور السووري فووي فنظمووة‬
‫المعلومات الجغرافية لقنية المعلومات المرلبية بهواك فو ن جوود يوة ل عيوظ‬
‫فنظمة معلومات جغرافية شيء فساسي عديد م اةمور المهمة لت عيظ فنظموة‬
‫معلومات جغرافية ناج إلدارة الرصف سوتكون معر ضوة بشوكظ م صوظ فوي‬
‫هلو الورقة‬
‫الكلمات الم تاحية‪ :‬ورق بلدية ‪ -‬نظم المعلومات الجغرافية ‪ -‬ية ‪ -‬الت عيظ‬
‫‪E-mail: mmubaraki@jazanu.edu.sa‬‬
‫‪ISSN 1658-6050‬‬