Application of GIS in Civil Engineering

CONTENTS:-

1. WHAT IS GIS? 1

2. NEED OF GIS 1

3. COMPONENTS OF GIS 1

4. GIS DATA MODELS 3

5. ADVANTAGE OF GIS 4-5

6. GIS APPLICATION 6-9

7. GIS FOR CIVIL ENGINEERS 10-21

8. CONCLUSION 22

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Application of GIS in Civil Engineering

What is GIS?

GIS is a” powerful set of tools for collecting, storing, retrieving at will, transforming and
displaying spatial data from the real world for a particular set of purposes.”

Need of GIS?

Many professionals, such as foresters, urban planners, and geologists, have recognized
the importance of spatial dimensions in organizing & analyzing information. Whether a
discipline is concerned with the very practical aspects of business, or is concerned with
purely academic research, geographic information system can introduce a perspective,
which can provide valuable insights as

 70% of the information has geographic location as its denominator making spatial
analysis an essential tool.
 Ability to assimilate divergent sources of data both spatial and non-spatial
(attribute data).
 Visualization Impact
 Analytical Capability
 Sharing of Information

Components of GIS

GIS constitutes of five key components:

 Hardware
 Software
 Data
 People
 Method

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Application of GIS in Civil Engineering

Hardware

Hardware is the computer system on which a GIS operates. Today, GIS software runs on a
wide range of hardware types, from centralized computer servers to desktop computers
used in stand-alone or networked configurations.

Software

GIS software provides the functions and tools needed to store, analyze, and display
geographic information example: GIS software’s in use are MapInfo, ARC/Info,
AutoCAD Map, etc.

Data

Perhaps the most important component of a GIS is the data. Geographic data and
related tabular data can be collected in-house, compiled to custom specifications and
requirements, or occasionally purchased from a commercial data provider. A GIS can
integrate spatial data with other existing data resources, often stored in a corporate
DBMS. The integration of spatial data (often proprietary to the GIS software), and tabular
data stored in a DBMS is a key functionality afforded by GIS.

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Application of GIS in Civil Engineering

People

GIS technology is of limited value without the people who manage the system and
develop plans for applying it to real world problems. GIS users range from technical
specialists who design and maintain the system to those who use it to help them perform
their everyday work. The identification of GIS specialists versus end users is often critical
to the proper implementation of GIS technology.

Methods

A successful GIS operates according to a well-designed implementation plan and business

rules, which are the models and operating practices unique to each organization. As in all
organizations dealing with sophisticated technology, new tools can only be used
effectively if they are properly integrated into the entire business strategy and operation.
To do this properly requires not only the necessary investments in hardware and software,
but also in the retraining and/or hiring of personnel to utilize the new technology in the
proper organizational context.

GIS Data Models

A GIS stores information about the world as a collection of thematic layers that
can be linked together by geography. This simple but extremely powerful and versatile
concept has proven invaluable for solving many real-world problems from tracking
delivery vehicles, to recording details of planning applications, to modeling global
atmospheric circulation. The thematic layer approach allows us to organize the
complexity of the real world into a simple representation to help facilitate our
understanding of natural relationships.

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Application of GIS in Civil Engineering

area is divided into cells identified by row and column. This data structure is commonly
called raster. While the term raster implies a regularly spaced grid other tessellated data

Advantages of GIS

The Geographic Information System has been an effective tool for implementation and
monitoring of municipal infrastructure. The use of GIS has been in vogue primarily due
to the advantage mentioned below:
 Planning of project
 Make better decisions
 Visual Analysis
 Improve Organizational Integration

Planning Of Project

Advantage of GIS is often found in detailed planning of project having a large spatial
component, where analysis of the problem is a pre requisite at the start of the project.
Thematic maps generation is possible on one or more than one base maps, example: the
generation of a land use map on the basis of a soil composition, vegetation and
topography. The unique combination of certain features facilitates the creation of such

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Application of GIS in Civil Engineering

thematic maps. With the various modules within GIS it is possible to calculate surface,
length, width and distance.

Making Decisions

The adage "better information leads to better decisions" is as true for GIS as it is for other
information systems. A GIS, however, is not an automated decision making system but a
tool to query, analyze, and map data in support of the decision making process. GIS
technology has been used to assist in tasks such as presenting information at planning
inquiries, helping resolve territorial disputes and to minimize visual intrusion.

Visual Analysis

Digital Terrain Modeling (DTM) is an important utility of GIS. Using DTM/3D

modeling, landscape can be better visualized, leading to a better understanding of certain
relations in the landscape. Many relevant calculations, such as (potential) lakes and water
volumes, soil erosion volume (Example: landslides), quantities of earth to be moved
(channels, dams, roads, embankments, land leveling) and hydrological modeling becomes
easier. Not only in the previously mentioned fields but also in the social sciences GIS can
prove extremely useful. Besides the process of formulating scenarios for an
Environmental Impact Assessment, GIS can be a valuable tool for sociologists to analyze
administrative data such as population distribution, market localization and other related
features.

Improving Organizational Integration

Many organizations that have implemented a GIS have found that one of its main benefits
is improved management of their own organization and resources. Because GIS has the
ability to link data sets together by geography, it facilitates interdepartmental information
sharing and communication. By creating a shared database one department can benefit
from the work of another--data can be collected once and used many times.
As communication increases among individuals and departments, redundancy is reduced,

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productivity is enhanced, and overall organizational efficiency is improved. Thus, in a

utility company the customer and infrastructure databases can be integrated so that when
there is planned maintenance.

Application in CIVIL Engineering

 Environmental management
 Transportation management
 Water Resource management
 Business and Services management
 Automated City and rural area road network map
 Applications in Urban infrastructure, waste management and comprehensive
planning
 Disaster management
 Agriculture / Forest management
 Topographical surveying

Water Resource Management

Water resource agencies use to map the full extent of their water resources and link them
to a database defining each element including reservoirs, pipe segments, services, and
system appurtenances. GIS provides water resource planners and engineers with an
intelligent database so job planning, equipment inventory, and flow analysis become an
automated procedure integrated into one system. Planners and engineers can link their
current network modeling system to the GIS, tie it to the attribute data, and map the
results.

Transportation management

The use of GIS for transportation applications is widespread. Typical applications include
highway maintenance, traffic modelling, accident analysis, and route planning and
environmental assessment of road schemes. The applications of GIS to transportation can
be viewed as involving either (i) Data retrieval; (ii) Data integrator; or (iii) Data analysis

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Application of GIS in Civil Engineering

Potential applications for GIS in transportation planning include the following:

 Pavement management system.
 Bridge management.
 Maintenance management.
 Safety management.
 Transportation system management (TSM)
 Travel demand forecasting
 Corridor preservation and right-of-way
 Construction management
 Overweight/oversize vehicles permit routing.
 Accident analysis

Pavement Management

Pavement Management System (PMS) contains three primary components: data

collection, analysis and updation. The components under data collection include:
Inventory: Physical pavement feature including the numbers of lanes, length, width,
surface type, functional classification and shoulder information.

History: Project data and type of construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation and

preventive maintenance

Condition Survey: roughness on ride, pavement surface friction, rutting and distress

Traffic: volume, vehicle type and load data; and

The components under analysis include:

Condition Analysis: ride, distress, rutting and surface friction

Performance Analysis: pavement performance analysis and an estimate of remaining

service life

Investment Analysis: an estimate of network and project level investment strategies.

These include single and multiyear period analysis and should consider life cycle cost
evaluation

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Application of GIS in Civil Engineering

Engineering Analysis: evaluation of design construction, rehabilitation, material, mix

design and maintenance.

GIS is a logical approach for managing this programme, whereby analysis of pavement
section descriptions and pavement deficiencies collected in pavement condition surveys
could be maintained by location. Also the distribution of maintenance and resurfacing
funds may be made on the basis of lane kilometers in a geographic area and
corresponding pavement condition ratings.

Traffic Engineering

Congestion management programmes can be most suitably developed in a GIS

environment. GIS based congestion management systems can start with the highway base
maps and attribute databases used for long range transportation planning in urban areas.
These regional base maps will provide the framework for identifying and monitoring
congestion from a regional perspective. Additional more detailed base maps and
databases can be developed to manage congestion in real time in critical corridors.

Safety Management

The analysis of accident data coupled with roadway features and characteristics, traffic
volumes, bridge inventory and other data and the geographical presentation of this
information in GIS environments will be very useful to develop safety management
system. Inventory files such as traffic signals, narrow bridges and railroad crossings could
be analyzed more efficiently using GIS.

Bridge Maintenance

A major benefits derived from GIS use will be in obtaining bridge information through
general query capability. Example includes bridge condition surveys, sufficiency ratings,
functionally deficient bridges, posted capacity distribution, clearness etc. Through
relational database, bridge maintenance engineers could access important information like
average daily traffic, as well as system and functional classification from planning and
research maps.

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Application of GIS in Civil Engineering

Urban planning

Urban planning is basically resource generation, resource development and resource

management exercise. The efficiency of urban settlements largely depends upon how well
they are planned, how economically they are developed and how efficiently they are
managed.

With the rapid growth in population throughout the world, it is crucial to have a well-
concerted plan for urban expansion. Satellite or Airborne images give Urban planners
synoptic views of large areas which allow them to lay plans for urban expansion
effectively

Activities Are Recommended For Urban Planning

 Preparation of existing land-use map.

 Study of urban sprawl over a given time period to understand the underlying
driving forces.
 Assessment of land use conversion in different parts to help understanding of the
impact of the policies pursued.
 Land suitability analysis based on physical, environmental and accessibility
parameters to guide the selection process for opening the land for urban
development.
 Accessibility analysis for proposed major development project like airport, growth
centre and stadium.
 Evaluation of public suggestions and objections on the draft planning proposals.
 Publication of maps at various scales with relevant details.

Stages of urban planning

Urban areas face critical environmental problems which are manifested at the time of
crises. To avoid such occurrences the first requirement is quantification and "resource
potentiality", its availability and consumption in the urban areas which requires a
comprehensive urban information system (UIS) to be developed to cater to the
developmental needs of the growing urban areas.

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Application of GIS in Civil Engineering

 Thematic map preparation from satellite data using visual interpretation

techniques.
 Generation of spatial framework in GIS environment for perspective and
development plans.
 Integration of thematic maps using GIS techniques for urban sprawl analysis and
urban land use change analysis.
 Area required for urbanisation will be determined on the basis of population
projection of the city and its growth centers.
 Calculation of land requirements for urban development based on the carrying
capacity of the region.
 Projection urban land use suitability analysis.
 Urban environmental sensitivity analysis based upon both physical as well as air
quality parameters.
 Determination of composite functionality index to setup various amenities such as
educational, medical, recreational etc.

Planning for utilities like water supply, sewerage and storm water drain within the
framework of Development Plan is an equally important task. Augmentation of their
capacities in relation to the projected population and economic activities in different
urban pockets is a major responsibility of the urban local body. This gives rise to design
challenge that can be adequately addressed by GIS functions.

Solid waste management in urban areas is emerging as a major issue. Identifying new
dumping sites, evaluating the residual potential of the existing sites, formulation of waste
collection and transportation strategies are some of the critical components of this task
and GIS can substantially assist in these activities

Environmental Studies

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Application of GIS in Civil Engineering

Introduction

In the process of human evolution the issues confronting today are safe guarding the
natural environment and maintaining good quality of life. While taking up developmental
activities, the assimilative capacities of the environmental components i.e., air; water and
land to various pollution are rarely considered. The developmental activities being
haphazard and erratic are leading to over use, congestion, incompatible land use and poor
living conditions. Hence the problems of environmental pollution are becoming a heated
topic of high-risk environment.

GIS can play a vital role for analysis and in formulating the quick mitigation plans for
high risk environments. GIS is one of the key tools in the environmental data framework
for data validation, digital data transfer standards, data retrieval/dissemination and
analysis. It can serve as the ultimate communication of environmental information to the
public and policy makers since it is the technical basis for the multimedia approach in
environmental decision-making. GIS technology allows all types of users to access the
environmental information in its proper spatial context.

GIS helps in Planning and Managing the environmental hazards and risks. In order to
plan and monitor the environmental problems, the assessment of hazards and risks
becomes the foundation for planning decisions and for mitigation activities. GIS supports
activities in environmental assessment, monitoring, and mitigation and can also be used
for generating Environmental models.

Applicable Areas:
 Wild Land Analysis
 Emergency Services like Fire Prevention
 Hazard Mitigation and Future planning
 Air pollution & control
 Disaster Management
 Forest Fires Management
 Managing Natural Resources
 Waste Water Management
 Oil Spills and its remedial actions

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 Sea Water - Fresh water interface Studies

 Coal Mine Fires

Apart from data analysis in laboratories GIS can also help the environmental data analysts
in the field, the GIS tool is flexible enough to work in the field to give the exact location
of devastation and amount of devastation. Some of the examples in field where GIS is
applicable are.
 Using GIS in the field, an environmental inspector can rapidly map waste storage
sites; describe the volume, content, and state of waste containers.
 Retrieve previous inspection records to compare with the existing environmental
conditions.
 View environmental data in relation to adjacent geographic features such as
waterways, neighborhoods, or other sensitive areas such as high-risk zones for
landslides, water pollution etc.
 Integrated with a global positioning receiver, a field crew can use GIS to
accurately ground truth satellite imagery in oil spill mapping and its affects on
surrounding ecosystem

CONCLUSION

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Application of GIS in Civil Engineering

“GIS has proven to be a valuable tool to assist in decision making & Management of
attributes that need to be analyzed spatially “ (With regard to space).
Environmental problems can also be solved by using GIS method efficiently.

Reference:
www.gisdevelopment.net
Principles of Geographical Information System by Peter A. Burrough and Rachael
A.Mcdonnell

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