DEVELOPMENT OF PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE DATABASE

USING GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM IN UTHM

Nur Aisyah binti Mohd Zaidi, Sr. Sukor bin Sarif
Department of Infrastructure and Geomatic Engineering, University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Johor

Corresponding E-mail : aaisyahh94@gmail.com, abshukorsarif898@gmail.com

Abstract
Pavement should be regarded as an important university asset. Like any other assets, pavement inside of a
university must be routinely maintained to keep them always in a serviceable condition. As it is impossible to
make and use a pavement that expects no maintenance, pavement maintenance is important in order to secure
the pavement in its original build condition, protect user safety, and provide efficient, comfortable driving along
the way. The main objective of this case study is to develop a database regarding pavement maintenance so that
maintenance activities can be executed in an organised manner. Nowadays, pavement agencies prefer to choose
the geographic information system as a method to conduct pavement maintenance where it is created to work
with data referenced by geographic coordinates. It is a computerised database management system for the
capture, storage, retrieval, analysis and display of spatial data into a database system with a specialised
capability for handling spatially referenced data. Distress coordinates were obtained manually at the site using
GPS Hand Held Device and the digitize coordinates along with other distress information is exported into GIS
software which is ArcMAP 10. The distress location will be displayed in the software according to its
coordinate. Attribute data helps in improving the distress information. Result of analysis is shown in inquiry
form. There are two types of inquiry which is attribute inquiry from visual and visual inquiry from attributes.
Overall, GIS is very useful in pavement maintenance management as it provide interactive visual and attributes
information that is useful for carrying out any regarding pavement maintenance.

Keywords: Pavement Maintenance, Geographical Information System, Database

1.0 Introduction

This study was focusing on developing pavement maintenance database in UTHM using
Geographic Information System (GIS) as well as to rate the pavement condition by conducting
Pavement Condition Index (PCI) survey and to identify the pavement maintenance needed by the road
within UTHM from the results of PCI survey.
The study was limited to UTHM’s main road that had been paved with asphalt only. Data
collected will be in the form of spatial and attribute data. Spatial data is information about the
locations and shapes of geographic features and the relationships between them, usually stored as
coordinates and topology. Spatial data include maps and plan views of study location which is UTHM
and the coordinates of the study area and coordinates of distress within the study area. Attribute data
is tabular or textual data describing the geographic characteristics of features. Attribute data includes
the size of the study area, pavement condition, pavement length and width, pavement distress
coordinate, pavement name, and types of pavement maintenance needed. This study utilise ArcGIS
software to develop pavement maintenance database as well as to analyse the data collected. ArcGIS
is GIS for working with maps and geographic information and GIS is a system that managed
geographic information, analysed mapped information and the displayed map [1].

2.0 Literature Review

The study is mainly about pavement maintenance and GIS software that is being utilised to
analyse the pavement distress information collected during pavement condition survey.
2.1 Pavement Maintenance

Pavement maintenance is the fifth sub-topic of Pavement Management System (PMS).

Pavement maintenance can be defined as methods and techniques used to revive or maintain a
particular level of service and to lengthen pavement life by slowing its deterioration rate [2].
Pavement maintenance could be determined from the Level of Service (LOS) of a pavement after
conducting pavement condition survey by analysing the pavement distress obtained from data
collection. Figure 1 shows the Pavement Condition Index (PCI) rating scale and the corresponding
Level of Service and Maintenance Activity.

Figure 1: Pavement Condition Index (PCI) rating scale and the corresponding
Level of Service and Maintenance Activity
Source: (Daniel, et al., 2013)

There are four types of pavement maintenance, which are, corrective maintenance, routine
maintenance, preventive maintenance and catastrophic maintenance. Corrective maintenance includes
activities that are performed to address specific deficiencies that negatively impact the safe, efficient
operations of the facility and the future integrity of the pavement section. Routine maintenance
includes work that is planned and performed on a routine basis to maintain and preserve the condition
of the highway system or to respond to specific conditions and events that restore the highway system
to an adequate level of service. Preventive maintenance includes a planned strategy of cost-effective
treatments to an existing roadway system and its appurtenances that preserves the system, retards
future deterioration, and maintains or improves the functional condition of the system. Catastrophic
Maintenance includes work activities generally necessary to return a roadway facility back to a
minimum level of service while a permanent restoration is being designed and scheduled [3].

2.2 Geographic Information System

A GIS can be defined as a system of computer hardware, software, personnel, organizations,

and business processes designed to support the capture, management, manipulation, analysis,
modelling, and display of spatially referenced data for solving complex planning and management
problems. A comprehensive GIS includes procedures for conducting the following activities [4]:
i. Data input, either from maps, aerial photographs, satellite images, surveys, or other sources
ii. Data storage, retrieval, and querying
iii. Data transformation, analysis, and modelling
iv. Output generation, including maps, reports, and plans.
GIS consists of seven main components which is data, hardware, software, procedure,
application, human resource and information delivery. These components are important to create a
successful and effective system [5].
 The main advantage of using GIS is increased effectiveness and management productivity of an
organization including its source. By using GIS, sets of data could be combined and this could help
private agencies and government to share the established information.GIS could make an automatic
decision, as it is a tool that has been programmed to receive questions, analyse and produce maps in
the process of making a decision in order to solve a problem. GIS also can produce an accurate map
within a short time. GIS application will reduce cost, time and also give out effective output. Maps
and information produced is clear and good and give benefit to its users. It will help users solve
problems in a fast and effective manner.

3.0 Methodology

To develop pavement maintenance database, several steps must be conducted. First is data
collection of distress coordinate to be input into the database. Second is conducting the pavement
condition survey to obtain PCI rating of each road. Lastly, the third step is developing database and
testing the reliability of the database.

3.1 Data Collection

To start developing databases, data are needed. More data means more detail the database that
will be made. Hence, data collections were conducted. The data are divided into two categories which
are spatial data and attribute data.
Spatial data consist of map and plan view of UTHM that shows the area of pavement that needs
maintenance and treatment and data coordinates in the terms of latitude and longitude of the study
area and the distress within the study area. Data coordinates were obtained using a GPS hand-held
device. Attribute data are obtained by several methods. Pavement condition and pavement size (which
consists of length and width) were obtained by field investigation and observation. Pavement
distresses are obtained by using PCI method which was used to determine the pavement maintenance
needed. Pavement name was obtained from plans from PPH.

3.2 Pavement Condition Survey

Materials and methods are explained here.

This case study used the Guide to the Visual Assessment of Flexible Pavement Surface
Condition as reference to conduct pavement condition survey. The guide explained on how to conduct
the survey and how to measure the distress in the pavement as well as the probable cause for the
distress and also probable treatment for the pavement.
Only nine main roads of UTHM were surveyed which is Persiaran Tun Ghazali Shafie,
Persiaran Tun Ismail Ali, Persiaran Tun VT Sambanthan, Persiaran Tun Azizan Zainal Abidin,
Persiaran Tun Dr Awang Hassan, Jalan Lestari, Jalan Kemajuan, Persiaran Tun Tan Siew Sin and
Persiaran Tun Ghafar Baba.
Among the most noticeable distress recorded were patches, potholes, and surface deformation
as well as cracking including alligator cracking, block cracking, edge cracking, longitudinal cracking
and transverse cracking.

3.3 Pavement Condition Index (PCI) Rating

Generally, to obtain PCI rating of a road, only a number of sample units of the roads were be
included in the survey. Some modifications were made for this case study where instead of a number
of sample units, all road sections were surveyed. Table 1 shows the summary of PCI rating of all the
surveyed roads and the recommended maintenance for each road.
 Table 1: Summary of PCI Rating and Recommended Maintenance for Each Road
PCI LEVEL OF MAINTENANCE
ROAD NAME
RATING SERVICES RECOMMENDED
Persiaran Tun Ghazali Shafie 96 A Routine Maintenance
Persiaran Tun Ismail Ali 64 C Rehabilitation
Persiaran Tun Vt Sambanthan 68 C Rehabilitation
Persiaran Tun Azizan Zainal Abidin 88 A Routine Maintenance
Persiaran Tun Dr Awang Hassan 12 F Reconstruction
Jalan Lestari 68 C Rehabilitation
Jalan Kemajuan 34 E Major Rehabilitation
Persiaran Tun Tan Siew Sin 4 F Reconstruction
Persiaran Tun Ghafar Baba 12 F Reconstruction

3.4 Database Development and Database Testing

In development of database, several steps are required. Data obtained from manual data
collection are required to be converted into digital format for an easier data handling. To ensure all
data are in digital format, the process of digitizing data needs to be conducted. Next, exporting data
need to be done so that the GIS software is able to understand the input and eventually able to analyse
the input to produce needed output. After that data analysis could be conducted.
The reliability of this case study database had been proven by comparing width of road in the
GIS software and on-site. The analysis of the difference between the virtual and real width were
compared.

4.0 Design and Development of Database

There will be three levels of database design which is conceptual design, logical design and
physical design.
In the conceptual design, a data model is used to create an abstract database structure in which
the database structure represents the real object realistically. The purpose of conceptual design is to
relates spatial and attribute data in the developed system. The data model during conceptual design
must be free of software specification. This case study used an entity relationship (ER) diagram as its
data model.
Logical design is the implementation of conceptual design into a suitable form that could be
understands by the software used. Logical data model is relationship data model in which all data is
sorted in table forms that consists of row and column.
Physical design explains how data is stored such as pavement name, distress coordinate, length,
width, and severity. Logical data model will be implemented in the data storage structure so that it
could support the determined analysis. Hence, logical data model need to be revised and modified into
a suitable ArcGIS data.

5.0 Results and Analysis

The established database is shown in Figure 2. The database of pavement maintenance analysis
in UTHM that had been established must be able to attain the analysis for a GIS application. For this
purpose, several analysis were conducted. The analysis includes the relationship between spatial and
attribute data, database display toward user, inquiry and spatial analysis. For a database, there will be
three level of analysis.
 Figure 2: Completed Established Database

5.1 First Level Analysis

Data storage basically is built in the form of attribute or spatial or even in visual form. Usually
attribute data comes in table form. Figure 3 shows an example of pothole distress information in
attribute table form. From the attribute table, the selected distress could be viewed in the visual form
which is on the map display. For spatial data, the distress information is displayed in the maps form.
Figure 4 shows the distress information in visual (map) display that contains all distress information.
Note that all the distress points are varied by the color points. These two methods of viewing data
helps user to easily understand the data and information that is needed from the database display.

Figure 3: Example of pothole distress information in attribute table form

 Figure 4: Distress information display in visual or maps form

5.2 Second Level Analysis

Second level analysis provides display that is established using the information from the storage
that can be analysed by the user. The information that will be displayed is the spatial information that
is related to the pavement depending on the various layers. This will help users to view each layer
without mixing with other unrelated layer. The distress data in the ArcMAP 10 is more effective and
organized as it had been differentiated into different layer according to the distress types. The layer
can be simply opened and closed on the map display depending on the needs. Each type of distress is
built on different layer for the purpose of proper pavement maintenance. Each layer will give different
information as shown in Figure 5 so that data management can be conducted on each different layer.
This helps the database became a user-friendly database.

Figure 5: Different layer display

5.3 Third Level Analysis

To ensure the database is reliable and user friendly, two inquiry systems were established. First
is attribute inquiry from visual (refer Figure 6) and second is visual inquiry from attribute. The latter
have two methods to conduct the inquiry (refer Figure 7 and 8). Both inquiry systems have the same
goals in which to help user to obtain accurate information or to find information but the methods use
are completely different.

Figure 6: Attribute inquiry from visual systems

Figure 7: Visual inquiry from attributes systems method 1

 Figure 8: Visual inquiry from attributes systems method 2

6.0 Conclusions

This study final output is the established pavement maintenance database by using GIS. This
database provides an easy method to obtain attribute or spatial data. This could help user to plan for
pavement maintenance in a more systematic and organize way as well as could directly refer to the
distress information display.
For the conclusion, this study had achieved the objective of the study based on the results and
analysis made which is first to develop pavement maintenance database in UTHM using GIS. Second
objective is to identify the pavement maintenance in UTHM campus by conducting pavement
condition index. The second objective is easily achieved by utilizing the database made for the first
objective. And the third objective is to rate the pavement condition from the data collected from
conducting PCI survey is achieved from the results of the second objective.
The ability of GIS to relate attribute and spatial data made it a good choice to present the
geographical information either natural or man-made geography.

References

[1] ESRI. (2004). ArcGIS 9. United States of America.

[2] Mohamady, A., Solyman, M. E. S., & Morsy, R. M. A. (2013). Development of Pavement Maintenance
Management System For Airports in Egypt. Journal of American Science, 1-9.
[3] AASHTO. (2015). Handbook for Pavement Design, Construction and Maintenance. United States of
America: American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
[4] Flintsch, G. W., Dymond, R., & Collura, John. (2004). Pavement Management Applications Using
Geographic Information Systems. United States of America: Transportation Research Board.
[5] Chow, C.K. (2003). Aplikasi Sistem Maklumat Geografi untuk Inventori Jalan Kepala Batas ke Alor Setar,
Kedah. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia: Bachelor Degree's Thesis.