Integrating Geospatial Technologies into the Property Management Process of the Transportation Right-Of-Way

Property Management, one functional area within Right-of-Way offices in state transportation agencies, is responsible for managing the property acquired for highway projects. These activities are data and document intensive and efficiency for performing them would be improved through the implementation of an information management system. Because of the geospatial nature of many of these activities, geographic information systems (GIS) would increase the effectiveness of this system. A literature review and survey were conducted to understand the current state of practice for the use of GIS and information management systems in Property Management. There is no identified comprehensive system that covers all Property Management activities. An initial step in developing a geospatially-enabled enterprise-level information management system, a logical model was developed. This included developing the business process diagram, business process models, and use case models based on the principles of systems engineering using the Computer Aided Software (CASE) Enterprise Architecture. Activities that would benefit from a geospatial component have been identified and included in the models. The developed models have been validated by working with PennDOT staff. The resulting model serves as a standard template for state transportation agencies and helps conceptualize the advantages of integration and interaction with other systems, and geospatial enablement prior to investment in an information management system.