WEB GIS BASED ADVANCED PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM USING MAPSERVER AND ANT ALGORITHM

Abstract

Road transport is vital to economic development, trade and social integration, which rely on the conveyance of both people and goods. Global competition has made the existence of efficient transport and logistics systems in delivery chain an absolute imperative. Transport demand in India has been growing rapidly. Motor vehicle population has recorded significant growth over the years. The growth of vehicular traffic on roads has been far greater than the growth of the highways; as a result the main arteries face capacity saturation. Between 1951 and 2011 the vehicle population grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 11 per cent. Personalized mode (constituting mainly two wheelers and cars) account for more than four-fifth of the motor vehicles in the country compared to their share of little over three-fifth in 1951. In contrast to personalized mode, the share of buses in total registered vehicles has declined from 11.1% in 1951 to 1.1 as in 2011. This proliferation in the personalized mode of transport has imposed a negative externalities on the society in the form of traffic congestion, carbon emissions/pollution, inefficient use of fuel, scarce road space, etc. and also with increased population, the urban transportation systems in India have come under heavy strain. Lack of better information system for travelers, lack of demand based bus route optimization and less mass transportation facilities have resulted in heavy shift of commuter patronage to private and intermediate transport. This leads to an imbalance in the modal spilt and consequently, a huge increase in number of intermediate and private vehicle ownership. Existing public bus transport system. in India suffers from poor condition of buses with low service quality, inconvenient and uncomfortable travel, non - user friendly systems, poor ergonomics, lack of facilities for disabled persons, fuel inefficient operations and absence of ITS enabled technologies. To make the Welfare to Work Initiative a success, efficient transit systems with good community coverage is a necessity. Intelligent Transport System (ITS) technologies can help transit systems to increase efficiency and improve system coverage (i.e., better and more services) and to make them to a stage of Advanced Public Transport Systems (APTS). The applications of ITS technologies to Advanced Public Transport Systems (APTS) are specific to improving the efficiency and user-friendliness of public transport services. They include improved information systems to disseminate timetables, fare and ride-sharing information more conveniently to users through the internet and other media; automated fare collection systems, vehicle locator systems for improved fleet management, increased security, and communicating to passengers the arrival time of the next bus. APTS technologies are a collection of technologies that increase the efficiency and safety of public transportation systems and offer users greater access to information on system operations. The implementation of APTS technologies is transforming the way public transportation systems operate, and changing the nature of the transportation services that can be offered by public transportation systems. Although many developments have been made in the world in field of APTS but in developing countries like India, due to lack of funds, implementation of APTS technologies are still in development stage. Hence, the need of research that proposes a methodology for a Web GIS based Advanced Public Transport System providing ITS solutions for the running buses, Public Transport Management officials and the travelers of a public transport system in developing country like India is felt. This research work focuses towards the development of a methodology for Web GIS based Advanced Public Transport System (APTS), capable of disseminating the functionalities of Advanced Traveler Information System (ATIS) to the public transport travelers, functionalities of Ticketing System to the bus operators and functionality of Ant Administrative System (AAS) to the public transport management officials in a structurally designed web based Geographical Information System (GIS) through internet. The functionalities of the system provide the capability to the public transport user to access, analyze and query the spatial (Raster and Vector), non spatial and real time vehicle locational data in a Web GIS based environment. The methodology involves the development of three modules of the Web GIS based APTS i.e. (i) Ticketing System for ticketing operation functionality through internet and its integration with Global Positioning System (G.P.S.) for acquiring real time bus position data, (ii) Advanced Traveler Information System (ATIS) for providing the spatial data query facility in the form of Web GIS and Vehicle Location System (AVLS), capable of displaying the real time bus positions over a spatial map through internet and (iii) Ant Administrative System (ASS) as a III web based decision support system for optimal bus route design using Ant System Algorithm. Ticketing system module developed as ' a part of the Web GIS based APTS provides the functionalities to the bus operators as a web based ticketing system through internet, which can update the ticketing data online, on the central database. The system is also designed to integrate a wireless Bluetooth Global Positioning System (G.P.S.) with it, which can log the real-time bus position data in onboard system's hard disk, at a regular interval. The logics and process function, developed behind the ticketing system, use this data to update the central database with this vehicle location data and seat availability data in real-time. This real-time dynamic data updated at the central database is used for displaying the real-time positions of the buses on the spatial map of the study area in AVLS system of ATIS web page. ATIS system module of the Web GIS based APTS system provides the capabilities to the users to access, query and to perform GIS application (such as Zoom In, Zoom Out, Pan etc.) over a developed spatial data of the study area through web browsers and without installing any GIS software on their computers. The ATIS system also provides the functionalities to find out the shortest route between the two selected origin and destination points using Ant System Algorithm in a Web GIS environment. The system also displays the real-time position of the running buses over a spatial map under the AVLS system. Ant Administrative System (AAS) which is a web based decision support system is designed as third module of Web GIS based APTS for the public transport management officials. The system provides the capabilities in designing the optimal bus routes in the network using Ant System Algorithm through a well designed web based Graphical User Interface (GUI). The all three modules of the Web GIS based APTS works as a system in whole and are designed by selecting a suitable Logical Architecture for the system, which depicts the processes and information flow between processes that are needed to meet the functional requirements of the whole system. The three tier logical architecture selected for the Web GIS based APTS has three tiers (i) Presentation Tier, (ii) Application Tier and (iii) Data Tier. Presentation Tier includes various clients from internet, with their accessing tools, which may be diversiform web browser. Application Tier is composed with a web server. (Internet Information Service 7 or IIS7) and a web map server (UMN MapServer). The IIS7 deals with requests from clients encapsulated with HTTP and the UMN MapServer act as a bridge between the web server and the database, it converts web requests into spatial querying operations and sends querying results back to the web server in map images, which are served by the web server to the clients through their browser in the Presentation Tier. And Data Tier is responsible for storing and managing the data and dealing data requests from the upper tiers. This proposed logical architecture for Web GIS based APTS decides that the interface is divided into panels to access each of the functions of the system: maps, tools, layers, legends overview, Ant Algorithm based analysis, and SQL queries. Using open source software UMN MapServer in Application Tier and internet bases logical architecture, the implementation cost can be minimized and can be best suited for the developing countries, which generally face economical and resources constraints. For the development of the system, based upon the methodology, area of city Chandigarh is selected as the study area and the data related to the city such as topographical sheets, maps, point feature information useful for traveler's query development, information about roads, information about sectors, public bus transport of the city, bus operation, bus routes, bus schedules and running frequency, types of bus routes, no of depots, locations and information about the bus queue shelters etc. were collected by the survey, through internet and other media. The collected information is used in the development of the spatial data (ESRI format files) of the study area in both raster and vector layers with all their associated attribute tables containing the related and suitable information about the features digitized in the vector layer. These spatial data image files. in ESRI file format is developed using the Georeferencing and Digitization in the software ERDAS IMAGINE and ArcGIS 9.3. Apart from the spatial information, the information collected and which can be used by the designed logics and functionalities of the system modules is stored in the database tables at the central database using the SQL Server Management Studio Express of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 software. These database tables are integrated with the logics in designing the various functionalities of the web GIS based APTS system and their module. iv Ant System Algorithm is used as a network analysis algorithm in the system and logics for shortest route design between the two selected bus queue shelter points (as Origin and Destination) of the road network of the study area is developed using the object oriented C# programming language and integrated with the GUI of the developed Web GIS system in a GIS environment. A Node-Link topology is adopted for the development of these algorithms and are tested using the C#.NET capabilities of the software Microsoft Visual Studio 2008. Apart from the shortest route fmding, the Ant System algorithm is also used in the development of a methodology using the C# program for the optimal bus route design in the decision support known as Ant Administrative System (AAS). As the whole system is a web based system and work on the logical architecture based upon the internet and web GIS, the web pages providing the various functionalities of the system modules are designed in the C# ASP.NET frame work of the Microsoft Visual Studio NET 2008. The integration of UMN map server used as a web map server with ASP.NET web pages plays an important role in providing the spatial maps against the user's query through internet. Various C# map scripts with the event based codes of the developed pages are scripted for the use of UNM MapServer in the dynamic out of the map image generation required for the various functionalities of the system. MapServer when invoked reads Map file that contains this information to draw the first map image on the web. Therefore a specified syntax written in the form of Map file is also developed for the development of Web GIS based Advanced Traveler Information System (ATIS) with UMN MapServer and contains the information about the location of the developed spatial data (Vector or Raster) and about their types, size extent and how they have to be displayed and labeled in the first drawn map. Apart from these software as mentioned above other softwares such as Trimble GPS Studio (Version 1.01.7) to connect GlobalSat BT308 Bluetooth G.P.S receiver, ASHS II, Google Earth and Internet Information Service Manager (IIS 7) have been used in the development of the Web GIS based APTS System. Development of the Web GIS based APTS system using the methodology for a study area and its implementation over the intranet of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee and testing of web based Automatic Vehicle Location System (AVLS) with its prototype developed for the IIT Roorkee validates the methodology developed for the Web GIS based Advanced Public Transport. The proposed Logical Architecture of the system, selected data and its implementation, formulated database design, development guidelines, and Web GIS based APTS system combines to form an integrated methodology, which is geographically transferable, and can be used for the development of web based APTS for the developing countries. VI