WEBGIS FOR ASSET MANAGEMENT

Abstract

This study focusses on developing a WebGIS system to support distributed asset management. Asset management is an economic approach adopted by organizations to help planning and decision making. It is an organized infrastructure management system which aims to improve the usability and functionality of the assets. The aim of this study is to maximize the potential of asset management and find an optimal way to integrate it with geographic information system (GIS) while leveraging the capabilities of web. The main objective of the proposed work is to create geodatabase of assets owned by the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) Limited as well as create a WebGIS application for visualization, analysis and querying of data. The final product contains three main functional modules. The site map is presented both in AutoCAD and GIS format. A query system is developed and a three-dimensional walk-through model of the corporate office is also created. These modules are integrated in a user-friendly and secure interface. The Web GIS development cycle is described in terms of four major activities i.e., requirement analysis, system and software design, application development and Web GIS use and maintenance. The application development is further divided into several stages to provide successful implementation. A fully functioning web portal and a geodatabase of assets is realised upon completion which is intended to provide an asset management transparency for public. In addition, it also provides an analysis capability for supporting decision making in the organization.