Development of Bridges Maintenance Management System based on Geographic Information System Techniques (Case study: AlMuthanna \ Iraq)

Abstract

A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computerized database management system for accumulating, storage, retrieval, analysis, and display spatial data. In general, GIS contains two broad categories of information, geo-referenced spatial data and attribute data. Geo-referenced spatial data define objects that have an orientation and relationship in two or three-dimensional space, while attribute data is qualitative data that can be counted for recording and analysis. The main aim of this research is to reveal the role of GIS technology in the enhancement of bridge maintenance management system components such as the output results, and make it more interpretable through dynamic colour coding and more sophisticated visualization techniques than the conventional tabular data format.

To achieve the main objective of this research, two study areas have been chosen: the old construction bridge (Al-Qadisiyah bridge) and the newly constructed bridge (Barboty bridge). Both of them are in Al-Muthanna city \ Iraq. The data collection process was achieved in two stages: the first stage is providing a georeferenced satellite image for each study area for the purpose of producing a two-dimensional map. The second stage includes the field surveying process by total station and level instruments. GIS have been used to create a comprehensive database (Geodatabase) for both study areas. Geostatistical analysis was carried out in which the settlement areas of both study areas were defined by producing a colour image. The statistical tables for these analyses showed that the highest decline in the elevation reached at Al-Qadisiyah bridge to 19 mm in the middle of the bridge which is coloured as a red area. On the other hand, it was found that the highest decline in the elevation of the Barboty bridge is 16 mm in the last part of steel space which is also coloured as a red area.