GIS for Asset Management at the United Arab Emirates University



Once the GIS system is ready with its integration with work order system then, a simple maintenance complain to the CDD can be worked on in the following order. A work order will begin when a person calls at CDD and CDD representative listens to the concern-pothole’s location, for example. The CDD representative requests street location information (street address or location), geocodes and zooms the map display to the pothole’s location. The CDD representative clicks the centerline of pothole to access the GIS record which is linked to the corresponding asset. He then, adds comments, a problem code and the complainant’s name and phone number for the follow-up. After the work order is created, it is automatically written to the asset management system using a web service call. Next, the work order is automatically e-mailed to the supervisor’s inbox, which shows new work order and existing work in progress. The supervisor selects the new map, views the map to identify a problem location within service district and assigns a crew. After work is performed, paper work is returned, hours and materials are recorded and a job is closed.

6.0 Benefits and Limitations of the GIS System
The advantage of integrating GIS with Asset Management at UAEU is that it will help in the coordination and exchange of information within the UAEU and proper management of university’s resources. This system will also help in avoiding duplication of efforts in terms of buying data, hardware and software and this will lead to cost reduction. Historically, the UAEU is the first University in the UAE and it is anticipated that the university must lead and become the pioneer in new areas such as IT and GIS. The potential beneficiaries of this system will be the UAE University’s, CDD staff as well as UAEU family as a whole. The CDD staff can use this system to monitor maintenance, renovation, or rehabilitation program. They can use the system to retrieve detailed information like tables, graphs and maps about any facility in the campus.

This integration of assets with GIS will provide CDD staff a customized browser based view of all the data needed to assist a complaint (Sherman, 2005).

Asset management systems also help in creating a better image for the organization by improving the communication between it and customers. The improvements in asset management lead to greater safety and reduce the organization’s exposure to liability and criticism (Greene, 2000; Lang, 1999; O’Looney, 2000).

This system may be both expensive and technically challenging and may require expensive expertise to design and develop the system. Another major hurdle may be the cost of collecting and inputting the spatial and descriptive data to the asset management system. Unknown locations of underground facilities such as pipeline and telephone lines may require use of magnetic locator that is very expensive. These costs may be very high depending on the types of assets that are being mapped. The time taken to input data may also extend to many years, leading to a possible loss of funding because benefits are not immediately realized by the organization (http://www.apett.org/pubs_journal.php).

Conclusion
Asset management is systematic process of maintaining, upgrading and operating physical assets. The key advantage is that it enhances the knowledge of engineers of various assets and their details, helps in logical decision making process; it acts as a framework that provides a measure of performance and links it to both short term and long term planning and optimal improvement of assets at least cost.

The GIS asset management system helps in time minimization, labor reduction, accuracy improvement, increases efficiency, improves customer services and is of high cost/benefit ratio.

References
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Websites

http://www.apett.org/pubs_journal.php
(Accessed on 16 November 2006)

http://www.datastream.net/products/datastream7i.asp
(Accessed on 16 November 2006)

http://faculty.uaeu.ac.ae/myagoub
(Accessed on 16 November 2006)

http://irc.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/fulltext/apwa/2001kyle.pdf
(Accessed on 13 December 2006)

http://www.uaeu.ac.ae/cdd/maintenance_form.asp
(Accessed on 13 November 2006)

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