Road Asset Management Using GIS Krishan sidh M.S. Student Symbiosis institute of geoinformatics Pune,INDIA krishan-sidh@indiatimes.com  Suniti Tripathi M.S. Student Symbiosis institute of geoinformatics Pune,INDIA sunititripathi@rediffmail.com ABSTRACT: It is very difficult to gather and keep huge amount of data of any transportation system and virtually impossible to maintain an up to date data for those frequently changing resources without asset management system. This paper discusses the possibility of using GIS to create road development, maintenance, asset management plans. The aim of my project to clip out an area of road network to be inspected and calculate the km of road for that area and how long it take an inspector to inspect. The procedure I adopted and the asset base data I calculated for a particular area Gohale Road in Pune city are the Total surface roads, Total subsurface roads, and Asset base (cost of replacement value of material), Operating budget, Capital budget, Road trips average travel time, Average travel speed. The software I used for this project are- ESRI software’s- ARCMAP ver9, ARCREADER, ArcGIS9. This system is very helpful for department in planning, budgeting, resource allocation and repairing. As this asset management system provide complete life cycle coverage starting from planning and continuing until replacement or construction. Through the automation of the maintenance process as an asset management tool using GIS, time can be saved and accurate information of road track can be provided. Introduction Pune city has a big road infrastructure compromising 1000 km of roads and 12 bridges, which Costs around 1.2 billion IR. It is require to maintain these huge assets in more effective manner. Traditionally the asset management approach used in Pune was a reactive one. That is, rather than undertaking preventive and regular maintenance of assets, repairs are only carried out when a problem arises. This has led to major disruption in service on many occasions leading to high repair costs and losses for both the supplier and customer. This has created a perception by customers of most agencies being disorganized and inefficient and has left many customers dissatisfied with the reliability and quality of service received. Over the last few years, there has been a move towards more proactive approaches to asset management. Many agencies have started undertaking systematic maintenance works on their infrastructure. In addition, government has formed separate companies to manage some of the country’s assets, for example vehicle and building management companies. However, no state agency is presently employing asset management systems that incorporate spatial information technologies. This makes the present approaches very limited in scope. This paper discusses the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in asset management with reference to road asset management. The use of map to quickly and effectively communicate data and information is what make GIS such a powerful tool. Asset Management Definition: - There are many definitions of asset management in the literature (see References). They include: The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) defines Asset Management as follows: “Asset Management is a systematic approach of maintaining, upgrading, and operating physical assets cost effectively. It combines engineering principles with sound business practices and economic theory, and it provides tools to facilitate a more organized, logical approach to decision-making. Thus, asset management provides a framework for handling both short- and long-range planning (FHWA 1999).” Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) define asset management as, “Asset Management is a comprehensive business strategy employing people, information and technology to effectively and efficiently allocate available funds amongst valued and competing asset needs (TAC 1999),” In transportation world, Asset management is the collection, processing, analysis and maintenance of extensive information about various types of assets such as equipment, facilities and other resources to plan work to be executed to maintain these assets at an operational level in the most cost-effective fashion possible (Lemer, 1998). In terms of public-works infrastructure, asset management is the process of keeping track of and deploying the public’s capital. The priority of asset management in this context is making decisions about the effective and efficient development, use, maintenance, repair, and retirement or replacement of utility lines, highways, street furniture, and other public infrastructure (Lemer, 1998). The goal of asset management therefore is to achieve the best possible return on the investments made by the public in infrastructural development. While this may not be the view of many, it is an essential ingredient if the objectives of asset management are to be met. Components of an Asset Management System An asset management system comprises several components to facilitate the collection, processing, analysis and maintenance of data. Figure 1 highlights the major components that are required for an asset management system. While all the components of the asset Management systems presented are important for the effective functioning of the system, Focus is placed on the data collection and analysis of the components. A major component of any successful management system is an effective data collection and analysis strategy. It is only with the recent advent of computer hardware and software that allowed the development of spatial databases and GIS analysis tools that makes it possible to provide a complete inventory of existing infrastructure. The capability to collect detailed information allows effective asset management.  Figure 1. Conceptual structure of an asset management system Using GIS in Asset Management Geographic information systems handle locational data. These are information systems of hardware, software, and procedures designed to support the capture, management, manipulation, analysis, modeling and display of spatially referenced data for solving complex planning and management problems. GIS comprises five major components: spatial data, software, hardware, personnel and organization (Longley et al., 2001). Spatial data represents the most expensive component, amounting to as much as eighty percent of the total cost of GIS development. Software comprises the programs and tools to handle the spatial data. There are many packages available for this purpose. Hardware comprises the various devices needed to input, process, store, analyze and output the spatial data. These include computer processors, digitizers, scanners, printers, storage devices, and network servers and an appropriate infrastructure for asset management. Although GIS is a nascent technology, it has been successfully used in various aspects of asset management. In North America and Europe, GIS in asset management is becoming a standard approach. Several applications can be seen on the websites of ESRI (2004) and Intergraph (2004), for example. Many researchers have described approaches for designing and developing asset management systems based on GIS. GIS provide cadastral and orthographic information of roads. Benefits and Limitations of GIS A well-designed asset management system with a comprehensive database can provide Information for the lifecycle of an asset, that is, coverage of the asset’s design, construction, repair, reconstruction or replacement may be tracked. In fact, an asset management system can provide several benefits including the provision of data to predict asset performance, keep track of estimated and actual costs for various assets, assist in the management of maintenance activities, generate reports on maintenance activities, assist in maximizing existing budgets and the preparation of future budgets; and provide appropriate information in the case of disasters. 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, 2001; Lang, 1999; O’Looney, 2000). GIS on its own is not sufficient to provide all the tools and support necessary to create an effective asset management system (Lemer, 1998). Additional software tools need to be integrated to create an effective system. This 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. 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. Decision information needs: - The major decisions that are required in managing outgoing sustainability of road system are many and varied. Specific information will be required form time to time, to support the taking of road investment decisions. The required information will support investment decisions involving –
Methodology: Data collection:
In order to model the mentioned factors and achieve the desired result, a step-by-step procedure as given below is adopted:
  Figure.2 Methodology flowchart STUDY AREA: The area chosen for this study was Ghole road in Shivaji Nagar, Pune. It falls at a latitude of 18º32’00”N and a longitude of 73º52’00”E. It is the central area in pune. It characterizes the important landmarks such as educational institutes, multiplexes and a market place. It is most important and most usable road by puneites. The total length road of this area is 25 km. Out of which only 8 km of road is in good condition and 15 km road is in bad condition, which require regular maintenance. 7 km require reconstruction. The average travel speed in this area is 40km/hrs. And the time taken for inspection is 10 hrs. USE OF THE SPATIAL DATA The output of the rating process is useful in two ways. The spatial data could be summarized for each segment and reviewed against the interim framework to either determine an appropriate treatment or confirm the treatment that had already been defined for the segment. The spatial data offered the additional benefit of geographic referencing, allowing a quick, easily comprehended view of the existing condition. As shown in Figure 1 below, road distresses are represented by symbols, color, and color intensity. Blue dots represent small dips, generally “bird baths” in the gutters and blue triangles are larger dips, generally in the driving lanes or even curb to curb, with darker blue indicating greater severity. Purple crosses identify swales proportionally by colour intensity and symbol size. Lightning bolts symbolize areas of alligator cracking with red indicating depressed cracking. The symbology does not vary relative to the estimated area of cracking. Pop out counts are taken on every road segment at 100 meter intervals and are symbolized by squares that are color coded to correlate to the thresholds. All of these distresses can be present on a single road segment as shown in Figure below  Figure. 3 Spatial Representation of All Road Distresses. For program development using the new condition data, the advantages were also readily evident. The on-going refinements to multi-year planned preservation programs could be first judged against the spatial representation of the road segment, then double-checked by site visits as necessary. A quick visual check can often confirm the treatment before the actual treatment criteria of the Interim Framework is applied. While the construction season was still underway, priorities can be adjusted and preparatory work for the major treatments in the following year still carried out in advance. Not every segment justified a site visit to confirm treatment. Some treatments were easy to confirm through ArcMap.  Above Picture showing different types of road depending upon their condition different colors are used to represent these roads Conclusion: - The major problem I find in this project is collection of road data, the data provided by the Pune municipal cooperation is not sufficient for the road asset management to run effectively. By getting the required information of road, this project may help department in planning, budgeting, and repairing. This Asset management, help Pune city to develop long term financial forecast of road asset maintenance as a part of process to adopt continuous improvement programme for the management of these assets. As this system provides complete life coverage starting from planning until replacement and is very useful for future road forecasting. Up to 10 to 40 years analysis can be done through this asset management. And it tells the inspector how much time it will take to inspect particular road. Expansion and modification can be done more effectively in this road asset management. Using GIS in road asset management give more accurate result if we relate it with some other road asset management software’s. References
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