GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS AS A PLATFORM FOR HIGHWAY PAVEMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Although existing highway pavement management systems (HPMSs) have so far served their intended specific purposes, they still have limitations. Many of these limitations come from the rigid mode of use of these systems, inefficient coordination between subelements of the system, and the lack of relevant information. Adaptation of geographic information systems (GISs) into this area, however, can help tackle many of these limitations. This is particularly true because of the realistic representation of real-world entities, the organized data structure, and the powerful analysis and presentation capabilities provided by GISs. A prototype HPMS is coupled with a GIS containing a land base of a selected study region. The resulting system is composed of (a) a spatial data base, (b) an attribute data base, (c) a general and a specific analysis module, and (d) an output generation module. Possible applications of such a system are then investigated. Several outputs representing different analysis stages and techniques mainly related to maintenance decision making are also presented. It is shown how this system provides a flexible tool for interactive analysis of policy tradeoffs, clear display of results, and coordination between related activities. The system can also improve data availability by spatially relating relevant information and facilitating data exchange between different administrative offices.