URBAN ROAD INFORMATION AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (RIMS) USING GEOSPATIAL TOOLS

Abstract

With the development of any road network, the problems associated with the usage of roads arise. Some of the major problems are proper planning and maintenance of road network, including bridges, traffic jams, planning of new parking places and minimize the accidents. Transportation authorities are always challenged by increasing demands for better services under the constrained budgets. Better management systems are urgently needed to support more effective decision making. For improvement of efficiency of the road network with minimum amount and least effort, a proper management of road network is essentially required. This can be achieved through the development of a computer-based Road Information and Management System (RIMS). Essentially, the RIMS consists of a framework, including both information processing and use of human resources for an integrated management of the road network, including determination and optimization of economically warranted projects, programmes, strategies and budgets, both for development and maintenance. The main purpose of RIMS is to assist the authorities in providing a safe and economical road infrastructure at minimum cost. The goal of RIMS is to plan, identify, quantify and priorities the needs of a road network. An Integrated Road Management System is required for properly coordinating, evaluating and maintaining the infrastructure systems. Integration of RIMS with a Geographical Information System (GIS) enhances the effectiveness and efficiency of a RIMS manifold due to enormous capabilities of GIS software to analyse the spatial and non-spatial data together. Remote sensing techniques can be used for detailed mapping of roads, rails, water features (e.g. rivers, canals, ponds, lakes and drains etc.), bridges, culverts and public utilities (e.g. parks and tourist spots etc.), as this information is required as input to GIS. Further, high resolution satellite images can provide very detailed information regarding width of road and geometry of roads, space available for road widening, best location for vehicle parking and planning & alignment of new roads. Global Positioning System (GPS) can provide locations of various utilities as required by RIMS, such as bridges or culverts, bus or taxi or tempo stands, parks, police stations, fire stations, government offices, and tourist spots etc. In GIS, a based query system may also be developed. Thus, a GIS based RIMS is ii very helpful to decision makers, planners, engineers, administrators, managers and contractors due to its data storage, analysis and decision making capabilities. The objectives of the study include (i) to create a GIS database of relevant parameters using input from GPS and high resolution satellite images, (i) to develop and integrate various components i.e., RIS, BMS, TIS and AIS, (iii) to develop a suitable query system for the above components and (iv) to develop of a web enabled system for RIMS in order to develop a well integrated and structured GIS based RIMS. Present research work is focused towards the development of a methodology for a RIMS for an urban area, which would be capable of providing the decision making related to maintenance requirements of roads and bridges in order to minimising road accidents and traffic jams, development of new public facilities, such as petrol pumps, fire stations, trauma centres, police stations, fly over bridges/ underpasses etc. The intended customers for the RIMS will include Public Works Department (PWD), public transport system management officials and bus operators, tourist/ traveller seeking information about the features or shortest path, police department, state planning commission and city administration. To develop a RIMS for fast developing city having complex road network and urban habitation, the city of Dehradun has been taken for the study. There has been a rapid development activity in Dehradun after it became the capital of the state Uttarakhand in November 2001. The study area falls within the jurisdiction of Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) as envisaged in the master plan 2005-2025. It lies between 30° 13΄ 00" N to 30° 29΄ 00" N Latitudes and 77° 52΄ 00" E to 78° 10΄ 00" E Longitudes. The total area covered is approximately 35,867 ha which includes Dehradun Urban Agglomeration Area (9,699 ha) and 172 rural villages (26,168ha). The spatial data used include Survey of India (SOI) Toposheets 53F-15, 53F-16, 53J-3 & 53J-4, Dehradun guide map, IRS Cartosat -1 data, dated January 24, 2008 and November 20, 2008 respectively, IKONOS data from Google Earth and MDDA Master Plan 2005-2005. The associated non-spatial / attribute data used include road divider and footpath, road top surface, road one way or two way for road layer, bridges/causeways width, length, types of railing, structure, spans, presence of road divider & shoulder and maintenance requirements for bridge layer. Address or locations of the hotels, road intersections, government offices, iii schools and colleges, professional institutes, tourist place, hospitals, police stations, fire stations, traffic density and pedestrian traffic on important roads or road intersections, religious places, railway crossings, railway stations, petrol pumps, bridges, city bus routes and cinema hall were also collected. Intensive field visits were carried out from November 18-27, 2010, December 13-16, 2010 and January 15-17, 2011 to collect these data as well as mark their locations through GPS survey. For developing a well structured methodology for the urban RIMS, the followed are collection of relevant data/maps/ satellite images, design of the database (spatial and non-spatial), georeferencing of SOI toposheets with various satellite data, generation of thematic layers and creation of database, field visit for data collection and verification, updation of data with the help of field visits, IRS Cartosat -1 and IKONOS image, development of various components of RIMS i.e., Road Information System (RIS), Bridge Management System (BMS), Accident Information System (AIS) and Traffic Information system (TIS) in GIS environment, spatial analysis of road network, path finding, identifying infrastructure, query etc. and development of web enabled system using Sharpmap as open source GIS software. Geodatabase has been created for the modules RIS, BMS, AIS and TIS. Query formation and network and buffer analysis have been designed to extract desirable information from each module. The RIS module is capable to provide information of roads, such as road name, type, width, divider, footpath, one way/two way road surface either in single or in combination. Moreover, the module provides information on location & address of police station and sub-police station, fire stations, hospitals, government offices, hotels, petrol pumps, cinema halls, professional institutes and tourist spots etc. Network analysis was carried out to identify shortest route, get the walking/driving directions to reach a particular point, to get nearest public utility, like petrol pump, hospital and hotel etc. It also computes minimum time required to reach a facility from source to destination. Buffer analysis helps in finding out the new locations of the utilities. The BMS is capable to provide information on several parameters of bridges either singly or in combination. These parameters are mostly collected from field visits, and include bridge type, road name, river name, road type, road width span length, number of spans, total iv length, divider, shoulders, railing type, bridge top surface, structure type, photo etc. Moreover, with the help of network analysis, alternate route can be found if a particular bridge is under maintenance. The module has the photographs of bridges attached along with the attribute data. By displaying the photos and attributes, the condition of bridges may be assessed for maintenance requirement. The AIS module provides accident information, like vehicle involved in accidents, jurisdiction of police station, casualties, injured, date & time of accident and hospital information, like name, phone, name of doctors and their specializations. Under AIS module, vulnerable spots on the basis of frequency of accidents are classified as most critical, critical and less critical. In this study, the accident data from 2002 to 2006 was available and used for analysis. To get the vulnerable points, a buffer of 100 m of all accidents spots has been generated. At any location, if 4-5 buffers intersect, then those locations are designated as most critical locations. When 2-3 buffers intersect these are designated as critical locations, and the remaining locations are designated as less critical. These most critical locations are found at the intersection of Rajpur road with East Canal road and on East Canal road at the intersection of Cross road and Amrit Kaur road. The buffers of four years of accidents have intersection points on Rajpur road. Moreover, in case of an accident, network analysis would help to find the shortest route to the hospitals. With the help of TIS module, analysis was carried out to find out the critical crossings having frequent traffic jam, pedestrian effect on traffic flow, assessment of new bypass route, alternate route during a road closure or traffic diversion for religious or political procession etc. It also helps to decide a route during tourist season so that routine traffic does not affect. To identify the crossings having frequent traffic jams as an important parameter, road traffic capacity is to be considered. This information is available from IRC-106-1990 Code. In the analysis, first of all a search for all crossings is made from the database, where traffic data are available. Thereafter, it computes the ratio between traffic density and road traffic capacity. Those crossings where ratio is more than one are selected. In this study area, twelve such crossings have been identified, which include Ghantaghar, Darshan Lal intersection, Saharanpur intersection, Prince intersection and Rispana tri-junction etc. This type of analysis helps in identifying the major cause of traffic jam at a given intersection. Traffic jam at v Ghantaghar is due to the narrow width of Chakrata road. Subsequently, the jam spreads upto Darshan Lal intersection. During the field visit, this fact was also verified that if a traffic jam starts from Ghantaghar, it spreads to Darshanlal intersection. The remedial measure to alleviate traffic jam at Ghantaghar is to provide a one way over bridge connecting Gandhi Road to Rajpur road. Pedestrians may also play an important role in the overall management of traffic. Analysis reveals that pedestrian bridges are required at Chakrata road near Krishna palace, Tehsil chowk and Ghantaghar. This will reduce the obstruction caused by the pedestrian. Dehradun is the gateway to Mussoorie, a popular hill station. Tourists/ traffic coming from Haridwar, Saharanpur or Poanta Sahib cities have to go through Dehradun to reach Mussoorie. In order to reduce the traffic congestion it is advisable to have a bye pass. This module is able to support such options. A web enabled system was also developed using open source Sharpmap software to integrate all the modules. Web GIS based query system accommodates all the layers required for the modules and various queries related to each component at single platform. In Web GIS based query system, a web page for every module has been created, which consists of all the layers and attributes considered in this study. The system also has the capability to make queries. It may be concluded that the components of the RIMS have the capabilities to identify the shortest route, determine the minimum distance for a utility in RIS, attach photographs in attribute table, sort bridges by their characteristics in BMS, determine critical points, find the hospital in near vicinity of accident in AIS, identify the locations prone to traffic jam, locate pedestrian over-bridges and bye-pass road in TIS along with general queries. The best feature of this study is that road name has been used to create the exhaustive database. The urban RIMS has multi-information presentation in the form of spatial maps and graphs. Use of ancillary information, such as photograph of bridges, can assist in visual inspection for planning maintenance schedules for bridges. Similarly, it provides capability to identify critical accidents locations, provision to pedestrian over bridges for efficient traffic management, alternate routes in case of a special event, such as procession or outbreak of a fire, alignments of bye-pass etc. The urban RIMS is expected be an excellent tool for administrators and planners for road based project formulation and maintenance.