Site layout of construction temporary facilities using an enhanced-geographic information system (GIS)

Abstract

This paper focuses on developing an automated site layout system for temporary construction facilities. The site layout of temporary facilities (TF) is an important preplanning task that can either enhance or adversely affect construction productivity. An efficient TF layout can significantly reduce construction conflicts and improve project efficiency. In this research, the system, ArcSite, was developed to assist the project manager in identifying suitable areas to locate TFs. ArcSite is comprised of a Geographic Information system (GIS) integrated with a database management system (DBMS). The system includes the knowledge specific to construction site layout, TF databases, Arc/Info databases, and GIS geoprocessing system. In the development of the system, industry rules of thumb and the state of the art in layout modeling were reviewed and compiled in a systematic form. ArcSite uses the concept of Searching by Elimination to generate the potential sites for each TF. A heuristic algorithm was developed to model the process of human decision-making and to identify the spatial relationships between the different data layers which represent the site geographies. Through both qualitative and quantitative modeling of facility relationships, an objective function for calculating the Proximity Index (PI) was used to determine the optimal site of each TF. The primary features of the system are as follows: (1) integrate construction schedule and design information to layout TFs for both short term and long term usage, (2) allow for the use of the permanent facility (PF) as the TF and reallocation of space over time, (3) automatically generate potential sites for each TF, (4) identify optimal site, and (5) locate the TF within the optimal site. ArcSite improves site planning efficiency by integrating spatial and thematic information into a single environment. Also, compared with current methods, ArcSite significantly improves the computational effort and increases the data accuracy and consistency. Therefore, this study achieves the goal of developing an automated information system to enhance the TF layout design.