AN INTEGRATED FRAMEWORK FOR GIS-BASED CIVIL INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

The increasing demands to sustain acceptable performance levels of civil infrastructure systems combined with declining maintenance budget present significant challenges to infrastructure management agencies. More efficient and cost-effective techniques need to be developed to enable better management of our infrastructure assets. Many infrastructure management software tools have been developed to address the increasing complexity of infrastructure systems. However, most of these tools were developed for stand-alone use, and thus lack an integrated and comprehensive view to the infrastructure management process and the ability to interoperate with other tools. This paper presents an integrated component-based framework that would enable the implementation of knowledge-intensive GIS-based infrastructure management systems. The framework defines four-tier architecture: the GIS interface tier, the applications tier, the infrastructure management components tier, and the data/knowledge repository tier. The GIS interface provides a single access point to various applications and framework components, and enables data access through spatial representation of the infrastructure. The applications tier includes a set of function-specific software tools. The infrastructure management components tier implements a set of reusable components that provide common domain specific services. The data/knowledge repository tier maintains a store for infrastructure data and a knowledge base where infrastructure management knowledge can be captured, represented, shared, and reused. Several issues related to information modeling and integration are discussed. A prototype that supports management of sanitary and storm water sewer systems is also presented.