Geographic Information Systems for Transportation

Title: Geographic Information Systems for Transportation – Data Model for Road Infrastructure Maintenance in Uganda
Authors: M.L. Kayondo,G. Bax,S.S.T-Togboa
Keywords: Data Model, Dynamic Segmentation, Geographical Information Systems for Transportation (GIS-T), Road Maintenance
Issue Date: August 2011
Abstract: A lot of data is involved in the planning and management of road maintenanceoperations. Sincemajority of these operations are based on location, a great deal ofthis data is spatial in nature.In Uganda, much of this data is stored as text document files, excel data sheets and video logs. Some organisations have nevertheless managed to store these data in Microsoft access databases linked to GIS systems. Even though the structuring of road maintenance data is not uniform, this data is shared by several organisations and often is required as archives for future use. Successful data sharing requires a common schema that is flexible to handle the needs of diverse participants. It is therefore apparentto have a data model that can boost data exchange between these organisations. Basing on document review and analysis of existing road datasets, this paper proposes a data model for road maintenance in Uganda. As foundation to a feasible data model recommendation, the road network numbering & referencing system in Uganda is discussed and a review of the nature of road maintenance data is made. In addition, areview of the fundamental GIS data models in transportation highlighting their major characteristics, strengths and weaknesses is made. Dynamic segmentation as an extension to the traditional arc-node data model is recommended for Uganda. As cited in the paper, several researchers have found this data model successful in dealing with transport planning analysis. Due to the multifaceted and varying aspects of road maintenance data, this modelallows for the analysis of precise and high value spatial resolution segments within the GIS. The location of multiple events can be stored with linearly referenced attributes without duplication with route geometry. More importantly, it allows for the sharing of network infrastructure with several applications for which transport data may be required.
Presented at: The first Conference on Advances in Geomatics Research- 2011

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