Applications of GIS in Civil Enigneering
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Applications of GIS in Civil Engineering
- Transportation
- Watershed analysis
- Remote sensing
- Wastewater, stormwater and Solid Waste Management
Applications of Geographic Information System in Transportation Engineering
Location-Allocation
- Finding a subset of locations from a set of potential or candidate locations that best serve some existing demand so as minimize some cost
- Locate sites to best serve allocated demand
- Application areas are warehouse location, fast food locations, fire stations, schools
Location-Allocation Inputs
- Customer or demand locations
- Potential site locations and/or existing facilities
- Street network or Euclidean distance
The best sites
- The optimal allocation of demand locations to those sites
- Lots of statistical and summary information about that particular allocation
Synergy between spatial data and analysis
- Imagine you are a national retailer
- You need warehouses to supply your outlets
- You do not wish the warehouses to be more than 1000 km from any outlet
Other Transportation Applications
Planning & locating new roadway corridors
- Transportation – Emergency Operations
- Transportation maps are critical
- Disaster response plans can be developed
- Outside computer models used for advance warnings
- Land use maps enhance emergency operations
Watershed Characterization
- Relate physical characteristics to water quality & quantity
- Data – land use & land cover, geology, soils, hydrography & topography – related to hydrological properties
Applications
- Estimate the magnitude of high-flow events, the probability of low-flow events
- Determine flood zones
- Identify high-potential erosion areas. For example, BASINS, HEC-RAS, MIKE11 models integrated with GIS
Slope Stability Analysis
- Derive physical characteristics, area, perimeter, flow path length, maximum width, average closing angle, watershed topology, soil * data
- Derive watershed characteristics, watershed boundaries, drainage network, slope & aspect maps
Remote Sensing
- Image backdrop
- Source of information on: land use/land cover, vegetation type, distribution, condition, surface waters, river networks
- Geomorphology
- Monitor change.
Applications of GIS to various Engineering Fields
GIS can be applied in any situation where spatially referenced data requires modelling, analysis and management. Some examples are:
Facilities management: Organizations such as those dealing with gas, water, electricity or sewerage are responsible for vast amounts of pipelines, cables, tunnels, buildings and land, all of which require monitoring, maintenance and management in order to give an efficient and effective service to customers.
Highways maintenance: This situation is very similar to the above but deals with roads, motorways, bridges, road furniture, etc., all of which is spatially referenced and requires maintenance and management. Three-dimensional ground models can be used for design and environmental impact studies.
Housing associations: These organizations are responsible for the building, maintenance, leasing, renting or sale of houses on a massive scale. Not only is the geographic distribution of the properties required, but full details of the properties are also vital. To assist in operational management and strategic planning such information as rent arrears and the geographic clustering; housing types;properties sold, leased or rented; conditions/repairs; population trends; development sites; bad debt hot spots – the list is endless. Thus paper-based land terriers are replaced, there is high-quality visual representation of spatial data, improved productivity and more efficient management tools.
Indeed, wherever the relationship and interaction of various spatially referenced data is required, GIS provides a powerful analytical tool.
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