Location definition for road asset management systems: case of Sarawak Public Works Department

Sarawak Public Works Department will be expected, in the near future, to change the way their road assets are designed, constructed and managed. Currently, there is a need to identify how road asset information is being collected, stored and retrieved. Location definition is an attribute that provides a simple framework for the identification of current technical requirements to exchange information within the relevant road asset management system. The balance of this paper presents an overview of the current road asset management systems and their location definition. The findings are results of the analysis of asset management systems and standards as well as the verbal engagement with PWD Sarawak experts in this field. The findings suggest that emerging systems and processes are moving from solely linear referenced models towards incorporating geospatial location data at different dimensional levels. Given this evolution, in this paper, road asset management systems are classified into three location definition categories considering their location referencing methods and their levels of dimensional detail. However, further research is required within PWD Sarawak to identify required location referencing in order to improve automation of the information exchange between the emerging BIM models, geospatial systems and the automated data collection tools.