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GIS and GPS based asset management for Road and Railway Transportation Systems in India
The MaxSys-LASA approach to asset management, with focus on roads and railway transportation systems, is based on integrated information technology designed to provide solutions to our clients. In this framework, we recognize that our clients have made choices in terms of acquiring GIS from different vendors. We further consider it as a given that our clients already have, or are in the process of documenting, the classical components of GIS based asset management relative to the transportation industry. These components include road and railway networks in terms of decision-making segments with the appropriate assets linked to each, condition of each segment, costs and economic considerations, construction and maintenance requirements, operational information, traffic flows, safety related information, and linkages to infrastructure data bases.
While GIS have played a major role in the development of spatial information data bases of municipal, state, federal and private sector agencies, the tools supplied by the various vendors have not always been fully compatible and owners of the digital data had to use translation programs to accommodate integration and seamless access. The open GIS environment, introduced in the 1990’s, enabled organizations to combine datasets from multiple sources to form enterprise solutions for spatial data access and analysis. The MaxSys-LASA team has the relevant software to access GIS based information in the format of most major vendors. However, in our operations, we use GeoMedia Professional of Intergraph that includes data capture, maintenance and management to create an open and standard product. GeoMedia Pro is a GIS software that uses Microsoft Windows technology for collecting GIS data, populating an enterprise data base, and turning information into precise, finished maps for distribution and presentation. Combined with GeoMedia Web Map, GeoMedia Pro facilitates the sharing of GIS information across the Web, as well as integrates seamlessly with other Windows-based applications, such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point, Access and creates presentations. An important feature of GeoMedia Pro is the capability of integrating CAD files and other GIS data from multiple products into a single database. For example, files from AutoCAD, ARC/INFO, ArcView, MapInfor, MicroStation, MGE and FRAME can be read directly and the editing tools provide workflows for edge-matching, hence an integrated GIS data base can easily be built from sources representing multiple map sheets. In addition, GeoMedia Pro supports a wide range of image formats such as TIFF, Geotiff, MrSid, ESRI World, CALS, JPEG, BMP, Intergraph formats, Hitachi and IGS. We also recognize that digital maps, due to the dynamic nature of assets, may be out of date shortly after they are completed (Figure 1). Hence, along road and railway corridors, we use up-to-date and high resolution satellite data, such as SPOT (5 m resolution) and IKONOS (1 m resolution) and Quickbird imagery (0.61 m resolution), (Figure 2), to complement the GIS based digital maps. 
Figure 1. Example of GIS based spatial information. 
Figure 2. Example of high resolution imagery (Quickbird). |