The Use of GIS Systems in Civil Engineering Practice - Essay Example

Running header: The use of GIS systems in Civil Engineering practice Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: The use of GIS systems in Civil Engineering practice Introduction Geographical information system (GIS) is any system which is used in capturing, storing, analyzing, managing and presenting data that are linked to a specific location. GIS involves merging together of database and cartography technology. GIS technology provides means of creating, analyzing, managing and even visualizing data that are associated with development and management of infrastructure. Central GIS database can be used to conduct spatial analysis, data overlay and solution and systems integration. GSI plays a vital role in civil engineering organizations by supporting of infrastructure management phases. GIS systems are mainly used in land surveying, photogrammetric, geography, remote sensing, emergency management, geography, localized search engines, and navigation. GIS is a technology that is used in improving mapping and surveying in civil engineering sector. Many firms are adopting the modern GIS software in management of spatial information. This is mainly to make it more efficient as well as enhancing capabilities of map making. In simple terms, GSI is any information system which integrates edits, analyzers, edits, and displaying any information regarding geographical issues. GIS applications are tools which allow those who use them be in a position of creating user created searches, analyze spatial information, edit maps and data and represent operations results. GIS technology can as well be used in resource management, archeology, scientific investigations, criminology, urban planning, and geographical history. In the event of disasters, GIS can be used by emergence planners in calculating emergency time for response or logistics. Geographical Information system is also used to find wetlands that need to be protected from any pollution. GIS can as well be used to site a new business location by a company. This takes advantage of any under-served market that has been there previously. History of GIS History of geographical-method development started all the way in 1854 by John Snow. He depicted an outbreak of cholera in London using points to represent individual cases locations. John Snow’s study of cholera distribution led to source of cholera being known. This was from Broad Street pump that was contaminated. Although topography basic elements existed before, John Snow’s map was remarkable. He used cartographical methods to depict and analyze geographical clusters that were dependent for the first time. Photolithography development started in the early 20th century when maps were separated into layers. Nuclear weapon research led to Development of computer hardware in 1960s. This eventually led to general purpose computer applications on mapping in 1960s. Development of first true operational GIS started in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada in year 1962. This development was done by federal Forestry and Rural Development department. Dr. Roger Tomlinson led to this development which was referred as “Canada Geographic Information System” (CGSI). It was used to store, manipulate, and analyze data collected for Land Inventory in Canada. This was to determine the capability of land in rural Canada. This is by mapping information on agriculture, wildlife, forestry, land use, soils, recreation, and land use at 1:50,000 scale. To permit analysis, there was an addition of a rating classification factor. CGIS was the first system in the world which improved applications of mapping by providing measurement, overlay, and scanning or digitizing capabilities. It helped to support national coordinate system whereby the continent was spanned. Lines were coded as arcs with true embedded topology where it stored location and attribute information in different files. This has made Tomlinson to be known and even become a father of GIS. This is in particular for his overlays use in the promotion of convergent geographical data spatial analysis. CGSI lasted up to 1990’s where it built biggest database digital land resource in Canada. In early 1980’s, M&S computing or Intergraph, CARIS (Computer Aided Resource Information System), and ESRI (Environmental Systems Research institute) came out as GIS software commercial vendors. It successfully incorporated several CGIS features where second and first generation approaches were incorporated in organizing into database structure with the attribute data. Two parallel public domain systems begun in 1970s and early 1980s. Map Overlay and Statistical System (MOSS) was a project that started in 1977, in Fort Collins, Colorado. This project was under the sponsorship of U.S. Wildlife and Fish Service and Western Energy and Land Use team (WELUT). In 1982, GRASS GIS was begun by U.S. Army Corps of Engineering Research Laboratory in Illinois. This was U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; their main goal was to meet environmental planning and land management software development. In 1980s and 1990s, CGS growth went ahead to be used on UNIX workstations as well as personal computers. Recently, there is the rise on the use of GSI data over the Internet as well as transfer standards and data format. Application of GIS in Civil Engineers GIS allows civil engineers to share and manage data which in turn enables easier understanding of visualizations and reports. These can be communicated analyzed easily to others. This data can be associated to projects and their broader geographical context. It helps the governments and organizations in working together towards developing strategies for sustainable developments. This is a clear indication of how GIS is playing a leading role in the sector of civil engineering. Civil engineers use GSI software because it is supports several data formats that are used in infrastructure life cycle. It allows engineers provide to various agencies data in the required format while at the same time maintaining the integrity of core data. GIS enables civil engineers to manage, share, reuse and analyze data when built on database rather than on the individual project file. This eventually saves resources and time. An information system that is centralized and based on GIS software provides civil engineers with a framework on IT. This enables deployment and maintenance of data as well as their application across every aspect of project life cycle infrastructure. Infrastructure project life cycle involves data collection as well as management, planning and design, construction, maintenance and operations management, and spatial analysis. In civil engineering fields, GIS is of enormous importance. Analysis capabilities and spatial information have been used in assisting modeling, planning, designing and even civil engineering activities and projects implementation. There are numerous GIS applications and tools geared towards civil engineering. GIS is used in many civil engineering fields as a tool to design, analyze, and implement efficient and effective solutions. Functionalities of GIS have been used to assist in selection, analysis, prioritization as well as civil engineering projects implementation. Several applications of GIS have been developed in hydraulics, transportation, hydrology, surveying, geotechnical and other civil engineering fields. This is mainly to facilitate analysis, design, management, modeling and decision making activities and processes in engineering. In civil engineering, GSI is used in the transportation system analysis, highway design, travel demand forecasting, water resource management, hydraulic/hydrologic modeling and analysis, infrastructure and utilities management, and environmental monitoring. Other applications include development and implementation of suitable solutions to environmental issues, site selection and preparation, and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and GIS technologies integration for mapping, surveying and other civil engineering fields. In order to get appropriate applications and reliable results without waste of money and time, there must be three balanced approach that need to be used. They include GI science: Cartography, Geography, spatial analysis, and statistics. GIS technology is another approach that involves databases, IT framework, and database management. The last approach is an application of GIS in civil engineering like regionalization, errors and errors propagation, GIS integrated modeling, and GIS data modeling for engineering. GIS is used to simulate a flood event by modeling where it is used to assist in analysis, design and even implementation. It is one of the practices used in management of engineering floodplain. The application can engage delineation of the areas inundated, temporal and spatial predication of flooding changes, and assessment and evaluation of post and pre-flood planning. GIS is also used in civil engineering measures or projects implementation to protect property and lives. It is also used to alleviate economic, social and environmental effects of any flooding that may be involved. The application requires functionalities of GIS like network analyses, spatial overlay, and spatial analysis. It may also include GIS functionalities automation as well as modeling integration with GIS for post-processing of output or pre-processing input data. It also involves visualization through the use of custom code, file or database structure development for input and data storage, retrieval and several other processes. In addition, the application needs digital elevation data in various forms like TIN or raster with certain scale and resolution. These are to be used with rainfall related and basin related data through suitable spatial and temporal scales. GIS integration, hydraulic and hydrologic modeling requires data modeling, GIS data resolution, and data transfer techniques knowledge. GIS data uses such as decision-making management and real-time modeling may need different storage schemes, procedures to be applied, and data modeling schemes. GIS application examples in civil engineering can be given as assessment and integrated modeling and environmental monitoring. In such a position, the use requires field data collection to assist in monitoring parameters one is interested with. In civil engineering, data quality is a prime concern in civil engineering. Therefore, it is necessary to take into consideration precision and data accuracy seriously when using data in engineering projects. The relative precision and accuracy of GIS database are taken as data quality measures. GIS is a powerful framework for distribution and use of assets monitoring. It also assists in monitoring of age and condition of capital assets as well as infrastructure. It also helps in maintenance management, integration and analysis of large geographical information in order to ensure success. It may involve design drawing from CAD solutions, air photography, mapping, population information, environmental models, geological investigations, and population models. Environmental monitoring projects usually use GIS to integrate, collect, manage as well as visualizing geographic information. Projects of civil engineering involve the analysis, management and geographical information integration to ensure success. Transportation projects in civil engineering make use of GIS in bringing together data in decision making enhancement. GIS uses its technology to ensure that transportation problems are resolved. GIS is of paramount importance towards resolving issues related to transportation especially in key cities where jam issues are of greatest concern. GIS technology is used to locate and know the exact location where the problem needs to be addressed. The areas where there are bottle necks and need to be eliminated are usually resolved quickly. Civil engineers and water resource planners use GSI to assist them in planning and managing water resources. GIS provides intelligent database to engineers for planning the job, flow analysis and equipment inventory which become part of automated procedure that is integrated into one system. GIS provides a way through which water resources are well managed. It also helps to analyze and produce reliable layouts to ensure efficient and effective water supply and distribution. GIS incorporates and analyzes several types of images and information for the analysis of water sites. Modern technologies of GIS use digital information where several digitized creation of data techniques is used. Data creation method commonly used is digitization. This is where a map in the form of hard copy or even survey plan is transferred into a medium that is digital. This is mainly through the use of CAD or computer aided design program as well as geo-referencing capabilities. Ortho-rectified imagery is widely available both from aerial and satellite sources. Therefore, it is making heads-up digitizing to be the main way through which geographical data is extracted. Heads-up digitizing involves the trace of geographical data directly on the top of aerial imagery. This is better compared to the traditional method of tracing geographical data on a separate digitizing tablet or heads-down digitizing. Application and operation of GIS has five main elements: acquisition of data; preprocessing of data; management of data; analysis and manipulation of data and generation of product. Acquisition of data is the process by which data required for application is identified and gathered. Environmental data to be collected and gathered is usually available in various forms like tabular and maps as well as digital formats. After gathering of data, the data are pre-processed. This mainly involves the procedures that change dataset into an appropriate format for input to the GSI. Key step in preprocessing includes data format conversion like printed records and maps digitization. It also includes recording that information into the database of the computer. Preprocessing also includes data generalization and reduction, map projection, interpolation, and error detection. In most cases, data sets are manipulated before and even after entering them into the computer. This is usually done in such a way that they are referenced to a geodetic coordinate that is most common like orientation, scale, and universal Transverse Mercator (UTM). Another central element to GIS is data management. The GIS software for management of database usually provides users with ways to define database contents, delete old data, and insert new data, database contents identification, and database contents modification. It is possible to modify database contents as required by the analysis. Data manipulation operations used is in some cases similar to those used during preprocessing. It is possible to have several analyses within a GSI; among them are mathematical layers combinations, Boolean operations and using the GIS as a database with external programs. GIS has the ability to perform sensitivity or the so called what-if analyses. GIS structure contains software for displaying graphs, maps, and tubular information on a range of output media. This is extremely important as it enables the user to maximize results presentation effects. Storage of all layers in a format that is common and based on a spatial distribution, input values maps, intermediate results, and products that are final. It is possible to generate them at the same orientation and scale for simplicity of analysis (Said, Yupo and American Society of Civil Engineers-Geographical Information Systems Committee, 2000). GIS is of two types whereby they depend on data storage method. They may be vector-based or raster-based systems. Raster-based systems use the method whereby the region of interest is usually divided into pixels or grid cells. Each pixel or cell has a single value for every layer in the database. For example, if a cell has a value of 6 in land cover layer, this means that it is grassland. Value of 3 in soil type layer represents silt clay-loam. Value of 4 in the surface slope layer of the land represent 10 to 12 percent slope. Raster-based GSI are usually suitable to input digital data that are remotely sensed. This is mainly because these data are normally raster-based if recorded in a satellite or airplane. Imagine Inc.’s ERDAS software is the commonly used case of this GIS type. In vector-based systems, lines, polygons, or points are stored as entities. An open land region is well described by vectors that constitute its boundaries. A stream is described by its course that is usually linear. This database is best suited to input that is analogue like topographic sheets. ESRI Inc.’s ARC/INFO Software is one example of vector-based GIS. Raster data type is any kind of digital image that is represented in grids. The most commonly used image in raster data is an aerial photo. The main purpose behind this is to give or display a highly detailed image on the map or with the main purposes of digitization. Other sets of raster data will have information regarding elevation. Raster data types have columns and rows of cells with every cell storing only a single value. They are three necessary components of GSI system. They include software (data displays and layering commercial programs, it also integrates selected data into models that are predictive) and hardware (computer). The second component is input data from digitized survey or aerial photography, satellite remote sensing, land use studies, among others. Human resource is the third component that is represented by knowledgeable and trained persons in relation to software, hardware, modeling and data. Various kinds of data in the form of a map can be entered into a Geographical Information System. GIS also converts digital information existing and not yet in a map form into form it can use or recognize. For instance, satellite images that are digital and generated via remote sensing can be analyzed. This is to enable them produce a map-like layer of information that is digital and concerning vegetable covers. GIS expresses geographical features as vectors by taking into consideration features to be geometrical in shape. Lines or poly-lines are used for linear features like railroads, trails, roads, and rivers. Polygons are used to represent features like buildings, city boundaries, park boundaries, and lakes. GSI has provided a complete solution that incorporates data, software services, and engineering. It has provided and developed geospatial solutions in all areas of civil engineering domain. GIS provides service to surveying agencies, geological mapping companies, geo-technical consulting companies, mineral exploration and mining companies. GIS has remarkable capability in providing services towards hydrographic and flood modeling. This include rainfall modeling, rainfall to runoff modeling, catchments delineation, river network and hydrographic, and flood modeling for calculations of flood depths. Conclusion Civil engineering system that is based on GIS technology make activities more efficient all the way from the collection of field data to management of the project. A civil engineer is connected to all clients, inventory, maintenance data, network, and construction site by a single relational data. GSI is an intelligent platform for civil engineering Informational Technology. This becomes of great importance as complex projects continue to arise and to be used. The interaction of international multidisciplinary task need introduction of efficient and effective management of data. It as well requires sharing solutions hence use of GIS techniques. GSI is being used by civil engineers in every facet of civil engineering application whether in field, desktop or any other place. Data is usually collected from various and different sources and file formats where it is then integrated into a single platform of application to assist in supporting complex work flows of civil engineering. GIS improves the flow of work in logistics, design and analysis, and in project management. GIS also provides sharing of data, capability of analysis, accurate data and modeling. GIS has changed the way civil engineering projects are being handled and implemented. It has been made easier and even more effective. Civil engineers use GIS in tracking regional indicators and urban indicators and even forecast the communities future needs. References Said, E., Yupo, C., & American Society of Civil Engineers-Geographical Information Systems Committee. (2000). Urban planning and development applications of GIS. California: ASCE Publications. Read More