Using GIS as a Data Integrator for Highways Management

Introduction



We are experiencing, throughout the developed world, a period of 

unconstrained traffic growth.  As a result of this trend there are 

problems in many areas with severe congestion.  Virtually all the 

major cities have such a problem, and certainly within the UK this 

problem has spread out along the arterial motorway network as the 

tendency to commute longer distances has grown also along with a 

shift in freight transport from railways to the road network.  At the 

same time this traffic increase is causing environmental pressures 

through increased air and noise pollution of which the general public 

is becoming more and more aware.  Perhaps more directly apparent 

is the fears regarding public safety as the number of accidents 

increase.  



At the same time our roads are being damaged and are 

deteriorating at an alarming rate.  The vast majority of the western 

world's road network was constructed in the last 30 years with a 

design life of around 30 years; things are becoming critical.  



The agencies responsible for our roads are not only facing all these 

problems but are also in many parts of the world having financial 

controls placed upon them.  Agencies are now expected to act far 

more like a 'business', providing a service to us the customer.  As a 

result justification is being sought not only for planned expenditure 

but also for past expenditures.



The pressure is therefore on the road agencies to do MORE for 

LESS.   New infrastructure is becoming less of a option in many 

cases because of the cost and the environmental pressures.  Road 

agencies are therefore now looking at ways of more effectively 

managing the existing highway network.



The Integration Challenge



Road agencies now face similar challenges to many other utility 

companies in that they need to simultaneously:

  improve service

  improve management

  improve operational efficiency

  reduce liability

  increase staff confidence and morale

  protect investment

  cost-justify new investment



This is resulting in many agencies going through a process of 

Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) and taking an enterprise-

wide systems view of the organisation.  It is accepted that there 

needs to be an integration of corporate needs with technology, 

people, available resources, and operations.  This is resulting in the 

adoption of modern management information systems.  Within the 

USA the term ITIS (Integrated Transport Information System) is 

commonly used to describe such a concept.  Such systems 

recognise that information is a corporate resource and is valuable.  

Furthermore these systems integrate both systems and data as well 

as providing the necessary decision support and operational tools.



The key to the integration is in data sharing with better access to 

more accurate, and relevant, information required at all levels of the 

organisation.  



Information needs to flow from one level of the organisation to 

another (i.e. a vertical integration) where it is likely that some form 

of summarising will take place as the information flows up to the 

policy makers from the operational departments through the 

management team.  At the same time information needs to be 

integrated within levels of the organisation (horizontal integration) in 

order to maximise its potential and usefulness.  



It is very quickly being realised that information is the organisation's 

most valuable asset and its use should be maximised.  Over the 

years agencies have invested vast sums of money in data collection 

and by ensuring the maximum use of this data a return on this 

investment is realised.



The Role of GIS



It has been recognised for many years that geography is the key to 

data integration within an organisation and as such GIS has been 

hailed as the answer to integration problems.  Not only that but GIS 

has a unique ability to process such data based on the geographical 

context to allow data to be efficiently and effectively summarised for 

vertical integration within an organisation.



However if we look at the way in which GIS has been implemented 

we find that in the vast majority of cases GIS has been used to 

provide and prove end-user applications but not as a data 

integrator.   We see GIS being used as a core for transactional 

systems at an operational level for Bridge Management, Accident 

Analysis, Maintenance Management and even for Data Collection 

for example, but these systems tend to exist on "data islands" with 

the spatial data residing in proprietary databases.  In essence, 

Departmental GIS.  Data sharing does take place but this tends to 

be restricted to the attribute data, with the spatial data only 

available to a GIS from the same family.



Yet, time and time again studies have shown that the maximum 

benefit is accrued if data is shared and if the spatial data is made 

available across Departments.  Moreover it is usual that vast legacy 

data systems tend to exist in such organisations, and by using the 

spatial link to open such systems (which represent the 

organisation's most valuable assets) this will allow the ultimate goal 

of full integration to be achieved.



Spatial data also has value in itself with many existing business 

systems suffering because of a lack of access to spatial data and 

spatial processing.  In the past however the solution to this problem 

has been to re-engineer the business application with a GIS.  This 

has been wholly the wrong approach but has been necessary 

because of the available technology.  In many cases the GIS can 

not be justified because access is only needed to such a small part 

of the spatial processing tools and the large cost of map data, which 

is not needed for the business system, can not be warranted.



Furthermore there has been a tendency also for GIS systems to 

attempt to replace traditional database systems because of this 

need for map display or spatial processing.  Once again this can 

cause problems as many mission-critical transactional business 

systems are better suited to the traditional RDBMS than to the GIS 

database.  Furthermore as part of BPR there is now a tendency for 

organisations to look for 'best-fit' open solutions rather than to build 

applications 'from scratch'.  One tends to find that such systems do 

already exist in the open RDBMS market-place for most business 

needs.



It must be recognised that a very large number of potential users of 

spatial data and spatial processing tools do not require any form of 

display of the spatial data to undertake their normal tasks.  Until 

now the GIS technology has tended  to force map displays upon the 

user although this is a trend that needs to change for spatial data 

and spatial processing to really assume its importance in modern 

information management systems.



The challenge for GIS is to provide the integration, through 

geography, of an organisations data, and at the same time provide 

spatial data and processing tools to all potential users regardless of  

their application needs and without the need for the provision of a 

'GIS workstation' on every desk.  GIS must recognise that systems 

as well as data need to be integrated in modern management 

information systems.





Technology Enablers



In order for GIS to move into the mainstream of information 

technology and act as the data integrator it needs to be able to fully 

integrate with other systems.  To do this there are certain criteria it 

has to meet.



Firstly GIS must fully embrace the concept of open systems.  Its 

spatial data must be available to other systems within the 

organisation and it must be able to integrate with existing legacy 

systems.



If GIS is to interact with other systems in a real-time environment 

then the referential integrity problems associated with multi-user 

access to data have also to be addressed.  Database vendors have 

spent many years ensuring integrity is maintained and measure 

performance against the ACID test.  This means that whenever 

changes to the database occur then they must be Atomic (either all 

changes succeed or none do), Consistent (the database goes from 

one consistent state to another), Isolated (no other transaction or 

user sees the changes until they are successfully committed), and 

Durable (successfully committed changes are permanent). 



To allow access to spatial data and spatial processing from users 

who have no wish to see maps or who want a specialised business 

-orientated GUI some form of open application programming 

interface (API) is required.  This will allow existing business systems 

to be modified to incorporate spatial processing without the need to 

re-engineer in a GIS.



The trend in the IT world towards client-server technology is 

particularly relevant for GIS and integration issues.  The use of 

client-server technology allows access to the vast pools of spatial 

data without huge upgrades to end-user stations, and with spatial 

processing taking place on server technology the network traffic is 

minimised as only questions and answers are being transported.  

As already mentioned, in many cases users do not need to see 

maps.



It is also important that standards are adopted by both the general 

IT and GIS communities.  This will obviously simplify the whole 

integration process.



Esri GIS and Highways Management Systems



Esri GIS is particularly well-suited for integration with highways 

management systems and has had a long and successful 

relationship with road authorities across the world.



The dynamic segmentation data model extension and processing 

tools introduced in ArcInfo at Rev 6 are especially strong and 

well-suited to highways data.  These tools were based on work 

done for a highways authority in the UK by Esri(UK) and so were 

driven by sound business needs.  It is not the purpose of this paper 

to discuss in detail dynamic segmentation, but it is crucial to 

integration with highways management systems as data stored in 

these systems are, for the most part, stored in terms of offset 

values relative to road sections.



The original work carried out in the UK aimed at integrating 

ArcInfo with an Oracle-based maintenance system called RMMS 

(Routine Maintenance Management System) which was marketed 

by Oracle (UK).  This product has subsequently been significantly 

enhanced and now forms just one part of a total suite of highways 

management software developed and marketed by Exor 

Corporation.  The complete product set includes modules for 

network and inventory management, document management, 

bridge and structures management, accident analysis, complaints, 

schemes or construction project management, pavement 

management, as well as the routine maintenance management.  

These modules are all based in the Oracle RDBMS and provide a 

total integrated highways management system.  However the link to 

GIS and to spatial data and processing is seen as essential and 

links to ArcInfo have been established at many sites across the 

world.



Esri have made significant steps recently towards providing the 

environment for total integration with such highways management 

systems to allow highways authorities to achieve a totally integrated 

management information system.



The release of ArcView2 and the move towards integrated desktop 

GIS started this process and the adoption of the dynamic 

segmentation extensions which will be fully implemented in 

ArcView3 when line offsets are supported will complete this 

process. 



By far the most important announcement is that of the Spatial Data 

Engine (SDE) based on Oracle technology.  This effectively opens 

the spatial data to the organisation and allows for client-server 

implementations with an open API to enable pick 'n' mix client GUI's 

based on business needs. 



Such advances in the technology will be of enormous advantage to 

highways authorities who will be able to move from the current 

transactional systems based on data islands to fully integrated 

solutions where data is shared and its use maximised.  Perhaps 

more importantly it will allow existing business systems to be 

enhanced to embrace spatial processing without massive re-writes.



Conclusions



Highways authorities are facing huge challenges that are forcing 

them to look at the way business systems are organised and how 

data is used.  The authorities need to take a wider-view than in the 

past and move away from departmental based systems.  Data is 

recognised as being the most valuable corporate resource that 

needs to be protected and used as fully as possible.



Esri has a strong relationship with highways applications progress 

with ArcView and SDE will allow GIS to move into mainstream IT, 

embrace the open systems approach based on RDBMS, and fulfil 

its potential as the data integrator.  GIS need no longer be just a 

specialised application tool but can provide extra power to existing 

business systems.  As a result the idea of Integrated Transport 

Information Systems is now fully achievable and the integration of 

Esri GIS and RDBMS business systems will allow road authorities 

to provide efficient, economic and effective management of 

highways network.