Integrated Infrastructure Management Systems: Small Urban Area’s Experience

Abstract

Earlier management systems were typically developed to manage individual components of the transportation system. More recently, these systems have been evolving into integrated infrastructure management systems (IIMSs) that simultaneously consider the needs of the different components of the entire transportation system. This paper describes the preliminary experience of a small urban area, located in northwestern Vermont, with the development of a framework for an IIMS. The framework, which is designed to manage the needs of six different components of the transportation system, is based on the use of available off-the-shelf tools whenever possible, and the use of geographic information systems (GIS) software to serve as an integration platform, as well as a visual interface. Within this framework, budget allocation among the competing needs of the different transportation components is determined using a mathematical programming approach. The paper concludes with a case study that describes how the developed framework is applied to the city of South Burlington, Vermont. Important lessons learned from this case study are also summarized.