Unit V Application of GIS

GIS Application in Natural Resource Management

In natural resource management, remote sensing and GIS is mainly used in the mapping process. These
technologies can be used to develop a variety of maps. Examples include:

1. Land cover maps

2. Vegetation maps
3. Soil maps
4. Geology maps
However, before these maps are developed, there are a variety of data that need to be collected and
analysed. Most of this data is collected with the help of remote sensing technology. Data can be
collected using either ground photographs, aerial photographs or satellite photographs of the area of
study.

The choice of the photograph usually depends on the topography of the area of study and the aim of
the study. For instance, aerial photographs (vertical or oblique) are always useful when spatial data
need to be collected in the same area of study within intervals (hours, days, seasons, years etc). This
form of data collection shows the variations of the area of study within different periods of time.

Satellite photographs can also be used to collect relevant data for the study. These types of photographs
are however superior to aerial photographs in the sense that they have higher spectral, spatial,
radiometric and temporal resolutions. Thus, satellite images are more detailed hence a lot of data can
be generated from them. However, for remote sensing data to be effective, it needs to be incorporated
together with topographical maps that show the variation of climate, soils, and other factors.

The visual and digital data that has been collected is usually analyzed to generate a pre-field map.
Various components and elements of the data is analyzed. Elements such as tone, texture, pattern,
association, size and shape are essential in the analysis process. These elements bring about a detailed
view of the area of study. The pre-field map that has been generated together with the results from the
analysis of the various elements is used to determine the characteristics of different elements and
themes found on the ground.

Ground verification of the collected data is a critical process. To ensure that it is carried out in the most
effective and efficient manner, the study area is usually divided into quadrants or transects. This is done
to ensure that the interpreted elements of the satellite data conform to the ground characteristics. The
data that is collected on the ground is geo-referenced with the help of a GPS to ensure that its
corresponding location can be accurately identified in the images that were collected earlier.
Additionally, field points identified in the images are visited to verify information regarding the state
of the vegetation, geomorphology, topography, soils, and so on. With the use of the pre-field map that
was generated, information from ground verification procedure and any other secondary source that
might have been used, the final map is usually prepared. The scale of the map is also variable depending
on the nature and extent of the study and the goals that it aims to achieve.

Case Study GIS Application in Natural Resource Management

LAND DEGRADATION
As per World Resources Institute (1984) land degradation is the deterioration of soil, severely reduced
productivity of desirable plants and declining diversity of flora and fauna because of the activities of
both people and livestock. The study published in 1994 as a report titled, 'Land degradation in South
Asia', defined land degradation as 'the temporary or permanent lowering of the productive capacity of
land.' Remotely sensed data from satellites are being operationally used to derive information on
degraded lands and monitor them periodically in time and space domain using multi temporal data in
India.

The general approach for mapping and generating land degradation database will be as follows:
• Remote sensing multi-spectral data, preferably Resourcesat LISS-III or compatible resolutions,
covering Kharif (Aug –Nov), Rabi (Jan- Mar), Zaid (April- May) seasons will be used to address
spatial and temporal variability in land degradation. In the absence of cloud free data or quality
affected data, the use of multisensor data may be contemplated.
• Development of classification scheme and interpretation cues for multi-temporal data sets.
• Georeferencing of multi temporal IRS LISS III datasets to standard spatial reference framework.
• On-screen visual interpretation of different land degradation classes on satellite data FCC
following standard visual interpretation techniques adopting the finalized classification scheme
and interpretation cues.
• Statistically sound sample points / grids will be identified for various land degradation classes
from interpreted map for ground truth collection and for accuracy assessment.
• Field work has to be carried out by the interpreter including soil sample collection along with
site details.
• During the field work the relationship between image elements and tentatively identified land
degradation classes will be established that are delineated during preliminary interpretation. The
sample points will be readjusted depending upon the variability in the field and sufficient points
will be collected for finalization of maps and accuracy assessment.
• The preliminarily interpreted land degradation map will be finalised in light of ground truth data
and soil sample analysis (wherever done) to arrive at the final map. Existing legacy data on
forests, wastelands, degraded lands, biodiversity, land use / land cover etc. can be made use of
for better delineation of land degradation classes.
 • The minimum mapping polygon size of 3 mm x 3 mm on 1:50,000 scale equivalent to 2.25 ha
area, would be followed while delineating the degraded lands from satellite data.
• Quality check has to be performed randomly and thematic maps are to be assessed for thematic
as well as location accuracies.
• Digital geo-database would be developed to address retrieval and storage of different data inputs
and outputs. Meta data elements have to be designed for those area relevant to different types
of input data.
• The land degradation databases thus developed can be used along with various other thematic
data sets like land cover, digital elevation model, climatic data sets for developing suitable
reclamation plans.
GIS Application in Vehicle Tracking System
A vehicle tracking system is an electronic device installed in a vehicle to enable the owner or a third
party to track the vehicle's location. Most modern vehicle tracking systems use Global Positioning
System (GPS) modules for accurate location of the vehicle. Many systems also combine a
communications component such as cellular or satellite transmitters to communicate the vehicle’s
location to a remote user. Vehicle information can be viewed on electronic maps via the Internet or
specialized software.
The GPS satellite system is maintained by the US Department of Defense. It is available at no cost to
civilians. This makes this technology very inexpensive.
Several types of Vehicle Tracking devices exist. Typically they are classified as "Passive" and "Active".
"Passive" devices store GPS location, speed, heading and sometimes a trigger event such as key on/off,
door open/closed. Once the vehicle returns to a predetermined point, the device is removed and the data
downloaded to a computer for evaluation. Passive systems include auto download type that transfer
data via wireless download.
"Active" devices also collect the same information but usually transmit the data in real-time via cellular
or satellite networks to a computer or data center for evaluation.
Many modern vehicle tracking devices combine both active and passive tracking abilities: when cellular
network is available and a tracking device is connected it transmits data to a server; when network is
not available the device stores data in internal memory and will transmit stored data to the server later
when the network becomes available again.
There is a popular misperception that GPS is a "tracking" technology and therefore that it can be easily
misused by public agencies and private companies to monitor people's whereabouts.

Vehicle tracking systems are commonly used by fleet operators for fleet management functions such
as routing, dispatch, on-board information and security. Other applications include monitoring driving
behavior, such as an employer of an employee, or a parent with a teen driver. Vehicle tracking systems
are also popular in consumer vehicles as a theft prevention and retrieval device. Police can simply
follow the signal emitted by the tracking system and locate the stolen vehicle. When used as a security
system, a Vehicle Tracking System may serve as either an addition to or replacement for a traditional
Car alarm. The existence of vehicle tracking device then can be used to reduce the insurance cost,
because the loss-risk of the vehicle drops significantly.
Vehicle tracking systems are an integrated part of the “layered approach” to vehicle protection,
recommended by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) to prevent motor vehicle theft. This
approach recommends four layers of security based on the risk factors pertaining to a specific vehicle.
Vehicle Tracking Systems are one such layer, and are described by the NICB as “very effective” in
helping police recover stolen vehicles.
Some vehicle tracking systems integrate several security systems, for example by sending an automatic
alert to a phone or email if an alarm is triggered or the vehicle is moved without authorization.
Vehicle tracking can be used in the following scenarios:

• Stolen Vehicle Recovery: Both consumer and commercial vehicles can be outfitted with RF or GPS
units to allow police to do tracking and recovery. In the case of LoJack, the police can activate the
tracking unit in the vehicle directly and follow tracking signals.

• Fleet Management: When managing a fleet of vehicles, knowing the real-time location of all drivers
allows management to meet customer needs more efficiently. Whether it is delivery, service or
other multi-vehicle enterprises, drivers now only need a mobile phone with telephony or Internet
connection to be inexpensively tracked by and dispatched efficiently.

• Asset Tracking: Companies needing to track valuable assets for insurance or other monitoring
purposes can now plot the real-time asset location on a map and closely monitor movement and
operating status.

• Field Service Management: Companies with a field service workforce for services such as repair
or maintenance, must be able to plan field workers’ time, schedule subsequent customer visits and
be able to operate these departments efficiently. Vehicle tracking allows companies to quickly
locate a field engineer and dispatch the closest one to meet a new customer request or provide site
arrival information.

• Field Sales: Mobile sales professionals can access real-time locations. For example, in unfamiliar
areas, they can locate themselves as well as customers and prospects, get driving directions and add
nearby last-minute appointments to itineraries. Benefits include increased productivity, reduced
driving time and increased time spent with customers and prospects.

• Trailer Tracking: Haulage and Logistics companies often operate lorries with detachable load
carrying units. The part of the vehicle that drives the load is know as the cab and the load carrying
 unit is known as the trailer. There are different types of trailer used for different applications, e.g.,
flat bed, refrigerated, curtain sider, box container.

• Law enforcement or surveillance: A tracker may be hidden on a vehicle to follow the vehicle's
movements without the driver's knowledge.

• Homeland Security: A tracking device can be used to monitor and control vehicles to improve
Homeland Security. This may be in the form of tracking all vehicles in a country, or tracking
specific cargoes to ensure safe transit to their destination.

• Transit Tracking: This is the temporary tracking of assets or cargoes from one point to another.
Users will ensure that the assets do not stop on route or do a U-Turn in order to ensure the security
of the assets.
Application of GIS in Businesses

• A GIS can be used to completely transform business processes at your company.

• The data that you pull from a GIS can be used to visualize, create, analyze, and ultimately build
a better product for customers.

• A great example of a GIS is Google Maps.

• Google Maps uses cartographic data that provides users with driving directions, points of
interest, restaurant locations and much more.

• Google Maps also provides exterior photographs of locations from the street.
 • It uses digital data to analyze traffic patterns and how busy a store or restaurant is at a certain
time.

• It transforms this data into spreadsheets that show how traffic flows based on time, location
and even demographics.

• The culmination of all this data produces an incredibly effective tool that can be used in a
variety of business processes such as logistics routing, customer marketing, facilities
management and many more.

How to use GIS

• After learning about how GIS is utilized by google, you might be starting to think about ways
that GIS can be used at your business.

• The picture below, illustrates the variety of ways GIS can be applied in the business world and
as you can tell they're more than just a few ways that GIS can help improve business
processes

How does GIS benefit businesses

1. GIS mapping and customer segmentation
• One of the most effective ways that a GIS can be use is GIS mapping in the form of heat
maps, category maps, and cluster maps.

• GIS mapping collects information on customer habits and applies it to a map to display
buying patterns.

• For example, a retail company offering loyalty cards can collect addresses, phone numbers, or
job locations to assess where a person is most likely to shop.

• This information, applied to a GIS map, helps companies understand where their customers
are coming from (and where they’re going).

• This data offers insights into where businesses should market and expand in order to increase
revenue.

• Company customer databases can also extract customer data based on demographics and
socioeconomic background.

• If users of a certain demographic are more likely to purchase certain items, then companies
can make sure they supply those items in the areas where those demographics are prevalent.

• Similarly, companies use GIS data to analyze if products are priced appropriately in
accordance with the socioeconomic background of their store neighborhoods.
 • As shown in the map above, GIS shows the relative income of different neighborhoods with
red being the lowest income neighborhoods and blue being the highest.

• GIS mapping can provide an endless amount of data that can be applied to your company’s
business intelligence. You can segment your GIS map based on proximity to schools (more
stores for children), proximity to airports (more stores for tourists) and any other segments
that can help your business thrive.

2. Logistics and supply chain

• Effective logistics are critical to a company’s success. Studies show that companies using
sophisticated supply chain methods achieve profit levels 12 times greater than those with less
sophisticated solutions.

• Companies use advanced GIS mapping to improve logistics, optimize delivery routes and
accelerate shipping times.

• GIS lets companies shift routes based on vehicle capabilities, street construction and customer
time windows.

• It can even adjust routes based on weather conditions or other delays.

• But that is not all GIS can do. It also helps companies with market analysis, network planning,
sales service delivery and asset tracking.

• By using GIS market data, businesses can put supply facilities in the best locations for
delivery.
 • This data displays how companies can reach the most clients, or which locations have the best
potential for a high revenue.

• Businesses can also integrate the GIS with executive dashboards in order to visualize their key
performance indicators.

• If companies aim to increase revenue in certain geographic locations, GIS provide visual data
so they can track their progress.

3. Asset management

• GIS mapping can improve company asset management by providing key visual data on
operations.

• A study showed that 80 percent of maintenance time is spent fixing issues instead of
preventing them.

• With GIS mapping, companies can predict when assets need to be replaced, how to effectively
use them, and how to reduce the cost of managing them.

• GIS mapping can also provide users with a map of company assets.

• For example, a construction company that owns numerous physical assets such as machinery
equipment can map where certain assets are in the field and mark down when they were
installed.

• Mapping shows the aging of equipment and indicates where maintenance checks are needed.
 • Public works, energy companies, and utilities management also use GIS for asset
management.

• The above image is an example of how the city of Largo, Florida, uses GIS to manage storm
water inventory.

• The map shows where drainage pipes are, which ones need inspections, and which parts of the
city need more water drainage.

• This helps the city identify infrastructure issues and learn how engineers can prevent future
problems.

• One of the best features of GIS is real-time asset monitoring.

• This enables the GIS to update assets immediately if they are damaged (and then again when
they are repaired).

• GIS software can also integrate with CAD software so engineers can visualize the status of
physical assets and fix them with 3D modeling.

This helps public works companies save money by identifying exactly what they need for repairs.

GIS, like many other industries, has found its way in business as well. There are various
aspects of the business and corporate world where GIS has found meaning. Below are some
of the applications of this very interesting invention in the field of business.

1. Banking: Being market driven banks need to provide customer centric services around
planning of resources and marketing. GIS plays an important role providing planning,
organizing and decision making.

2. Assets Management: GIS helps organizations to locate and store information about their
assets. Operations and maintenance staff can also deploy their enterprise and mobile
workforce.

3. Dairy Industry: Geographic Information Systems are used in the distribution of products,
production rate, location of shops and their selling rate. These can also be monitored by
using a GIS system.

4. Tourism: Tourists can get all the information they need on a click, measuring distance,
finding hotels, restaurants and even navigate to their respective links. This Information plays
a vital role to tourists in planning their travel from one place to another.

5. Business: GIS is used for managing business information based on its location. GIS can
keep track of where customers are located, site business, target marketing campaigns, and
optimize sales territories and model retail spending patterns.

6. Market Share: Examining branch locations, competitor locations and demographic

characteristics to identify areas worthy of expansion or determine market share in Maptitude.

7. ATM Machine: Filling in market and service gaps by understanding where customers,
facilities, and competitors are with address locating, database management and query tools.

8. World Bank Economic Statistics: Slicing and dicing raw financial data from the World
Bank.

9. Merger and Acquisitions: Profiling and finding opportunities to gain and build where
customers are with market profiling

10. Supply and Demand: Identifying under-served areas and analyzing your competitor’s
market.
11. Community Reinvestment Act (CRA): Fulfilling the obligations to loan in areas with particular
attention to low- and moderate-income households – using GIS to understand spatial demographics.

12. Mobile Banking: Capturing locations where existing mobile transaction occur and assisting in
mobile security infrastructure.
13. Internet of Things: Improving efficiency, accuracy and economic benefit through a network of
physical objects such as devices, vehicles, buildings and other items—embedded with electronics,
software, sensors, and network connectivity that enables these objects to collect and exchange
information with one another.

14. Market Share Analysis: Optimizing the locations of facilities so the allocated demand is
maximized in the presence of competitors using tools like location-allocation in ArcGIS.

15. Integrated Freight Network Model: Integrating highly detailed information about shipping
costs, transfer costs, traffic volumes and network interconnectivity properties in a GIS-based
platform. (Integrated Freight Network Model)

Fleet Management using GIS

By augmentation of the Global Positioning System (GPS) with other satellite or land-based navigation
monitoring methods, we can acquire precise positioning of any point where a receiver or an antenna
can be planted. This precise positioning data can be made meaningful and can be put to various uses
through integration with Geographic Information Systems (GIS), which have various forms of data
organized as layers of information. The GIS can integrate the various data layers and present the same
from different perspectives.Fleet management addresses the problem of managing fleets of trailers,
containers, boxcars, taxi-cabs, locomotives, business jets and other modes of public transport. Such
operations of management of a fleet of vehicles require solutions to various problems like dynamic
assignment, trip allocation, dynamic routing, responding to real-time customer demands and dispatch
instructions, automatic vehicle location (AVL), trip and freight reporting and monitoring driver and
vehicle characteristics to attain efficient and optimized performance with available resources. Owing
to the tough competition among transportation companies, fleet management problems with their
implications of logistics and optimization are vital issues to be attended to for achieving the best
possible performance and maximum profits. GPS-GIS integrated systems provide vital data in a graphic
form that is easily comprehendible by the drivers, customers, fleet operators and fleet owners. The data
that is provided by these systems is then fed to the logistics and optimization software that various fleet
operators use to manage their operations.

GPS Augmentations
Various methods have been explored as augmentations to GPS signals to derive continuous precise
positioning on GIS-based maps, which is vital for fleet management applications. A few have been
discussed below.

(1) Differential GPS: This method is used to minimize errors in positioning by mutual comparison of
current data and previously known data for a base station and applying the corresponding correction to
the rover station. This correction can be applied in the following 2 ways:

• The ‘Block Shift Technique’ uses the computed coordinates at any time and compares them
with the known coordinates of the base station. The error, which is in terms of a correction
in coordinates, is applied to the rover. This method requires essentially that the two positions
be found using the same set of satellites.
• The ‘Range Correction Technique’ uses the instantaneous and known base station
coordinates to compute the error in all pseudo-ranges. Since, this correction is computed for
all pseudo-ranges, this method gives the flexibility to the rover receiver to use whichever
satellites it wants to compute the corrected coordinates.

(2) Beacons and Antennae: These are used along routes where GPS signals are hard to receive or are
faced with multi-path problems due to tall buildings, canopy or terrain conditions. These instruments
detect the presence of the vehicle along the road and relay information to the control station to help
track the vehicle even during loss of GPS signals. They can also be placed inside long tunnels where
tracking becomes very difficult and loss of signals for a long time cannot be afforded.

(3) GLONASS and Galileo Integration: The GLONASS is a system similar to the GPS and was
established by the USSR (now the Russian Federation). The Galileo is a similar system being developed
by the European Union. The integration of GPS with these systems is favorable because they
complement each other and can provide good accuracy on integration. Other benefits are multiple
frequency allocations, better geometry and large number of available satellites and hence greater
reliability of data.

(4) Pseudolites: These are ground-based pseudo-satellites that transmit GPS-like signals and can be
used as substitutes for space-borne satellites when their signals are hard to track. They are normally
located on high buildings or hills from where they can track vehicles just like a normal satellite would
do in absence of obstructions and are also free of ionospheric and tropospheric errors that are faced by
GPS signals. The pseudolites then transmit signals to the control station to allow continuous tracking
of vehicles even in difficult terrain like deep open-cut pits and mines and downtown urban canyons.

Types of fleets and associated problems

(1) Public transport and Utility fleets: Public transport includes bus services, trains, trams and private
fleets of hotels, airlines and educational institutions. Utility fleets cover fire brigades, police vehicles,
ambulances and other fleets that are on standby in case of emergency or disasters. It is extremely
necessary for fleet operators to track their vehicles in unforeseen cases of accidents, thefts or hijackings.
For any public transport organization, scheduling and planning of routes and ensuring that the vehicles
run as per schedule is vital. Failure in management of fleets that make large number of repetitive trips
in larger cities cause the system to become unpopular among the masses and results in a shift in traffic
towards personal modes of transport. In conventional systems, tracking used to be done by posting
traffic controllers and time-keepers along the route. This does not provide complete coverage and also
is error-prone due to human dependability. The paperwork too is very cumbersome to handle and
analyze. A good example of implementation of GPS-GIS systems in India is the case of the Bangalore
Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), which installed indigenous GPS units on all buses of a
depot. The readings were downloaded every three days and reports were drafted with emphasis on
missed trips, short trips and punctuality problems.

GPS-GIS integrated systems provide the operators with location, speed, distance traveled in a certain
time and time taken to complete trips, which can be used for automatic billing to make payments in
case of hired private vehicles and for assessment of performance of the fleet to ensure public comfort.
In case of utility fleets, when a customer calls the control center for service, the operator can easily see
the availability of the vehicles near the customer’s area on a map. The individual drivers have different
colour codes showing their status of job which is used by the operator to assign the new job immediately
through an electronic message via the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) network
without the need of waiting for the driver to establish verbal contact. The GPS-GIS system also
monitors idling vehicles and precise destination locations for devising shortest paths for total coverage.

(2) Commercial Fleets: The freight transportation industry is facing severe competition with a large
number of organizations venturing into the lucrative goods transport and logistics sector with increasing
economic growth. Businesses are flourishing and the supply of raw materials to the manufacturing
plants and the finished goods to the consumers in limited time with minimum requirement of storage
at warehouses is becoming a vital challenge. Fleet owners must have real-time information about the
location and status of all their vehicles for dynamic scheduling and planning of trips that originate as a
result of dynamic consumer requests.

Logistics and supply chains

Requests from customers of commercial fleets arrive randomly over time and require service within a
short interval of time. Since, it may take upto several days to move transportation equipment over long
distances, it is not advisable to wait until a customer request is known before starting to move the
equipment. Among the randomness of transit times and equipment failures, it is necessary to wisely
move equipment to serve demands before they are known.

Truckload motor carriers in specific have to take care of carrier requests and place dynamic orders for
delivery and pick-up. The equipment and cargo to be carried must be decided and the protocol planned.
If a cargo needs to be taken through a long distance, it may go through the hands of several drivers and
may have to take breaks at warehouses on its journey to the destination. After a driver completes his
segment of the trip, it is the fleet manager’s duty to get him another task that will carry him back home
or ask him to wait till a demand is created in that area. These complex components of commercial fleet
management – supply and demand management and logistics (strategic movement, storage of materials,
parts and finished goods on supply chains through stages of procurement, work-in progress and final
distribution) require real-time visual positioning of all vehicles that can be very effectively done by a
GPS-GIS system. The fleet operator can use data from such systems for optimizing his operations by
visual monitoring and dynamic routing of his fleet.

Disaster relief and recovery operations

One of the most important applications of fleet management is in immediate dispatch of relief to
disaster-struck areas. GPS-GIS systems can be used to plan evacuation routes and to design centers for
emergency operations. During the relief process, these systems help rescue operations in areas where
the communication networks have been destroyed. A case worth discussing is the erratic traffic
condition immediately following a landslide or an earthquake. The Laboratory of Geodesy at the School
of Engineering of the Aristotle University, Thessaloniki at Greece has developed a system of fleet
management working with real-time DGPS. The objective after an earthquake is to make an assessment
of traffic conditions for easy and quick movement of relief vehicles to the site of disaster. The
constraints are loss of earlier uniform accepted data of normal traffic conditions on various routes,
which go invalid after disruptions due to the earthquake or landslide. The system developed at the
Aristotle University assumed utility vehicles like fire engines, ambulances and other emergency
vehicles to be at different locations in the area and by monitoring their real-time positions after the
disaster, a real-time database of the current traffic conditions is built and is used to guide relief vehicles
through the least congested routes providing shorter access times using the GIS database.

The effectiveness and success of the GPS-GIS integrated systems for fleet management is evident from
the cleaning-up operation taken up at ‘Ground Zero’ after the World Trade Center disaster on the 11th
of September 2001. After the devastation, the city of New York was faced with the overwhelming task
of removing more than 1.8 million tons of debris from the site. The continuing search for human
remains and processing the debris as evidence further complicated the clean-up effort. A GPS-GIS
solution was sought for the management problem due to the extensive scope of the project with costs
that threatened to overwhelm existing resources. Criticom International Corporation of Minneapolis,
Minnesota used a broadband communications network, a camera monitoring and time-lapse recording
system, a GPS-based vehicle tracking system and Internet services to access various GIS databases for
achieving the task. Debris hauling was started under a paper-ticket system, which was quickly replaced
by installation of GPS receivers on 235 trucks that were used to carry the debris to various locations.
The tamper-proof GPS receivers were designed to send alarms to the control center in case of signal
loss, trailer disconnection, tampering, deviation from pre-determined routes and ensured safety and
prompt delivery and dispatch. The real-time information from the receivers was used to develop an
electronic system that had features of record-keeping, tracking-data storage and billing and other details
about each truck, the driver, the debris type carried and destination. The GIS-based maps on the
computer screen at the control station displayed real-time positioning that made it possible to plan
intervals at which trucks were ready to load, dump and return for reloading. This prevented long
queuing of trucks at the site and helped prevent traffic bottlenecks there. The data of truck-time spent
in queues, total travel time and loading time stored in the GIS database could be used to substantiate
claims and resolve disputes and helped to improve the efficiency of the operation. The GPS-GIS system
had an important feature called ‘geofencing’ that prevented deviations from the given dispatch routes.
The system used the exact defined routes and location of tunnels in the GIS to sense the proximity of a
tunnel and automatically lowered tracking levels for the period when the particular truck was near and
in the tunnel to prevent loss of signal.

This was the first time GPS technology was used in a disaster recovery setting and it gave remarkable
results. The integration with GIS provided enhanced security and efficient management of operations
by more than tripling the number of loads per truck per shift over the initial paper-ticket system. The
removal project that was estimated at $ 7 billion by city officials was achieved in just $ 750 million.
The task was completed in an amazing duration of just 8 months and the audit data and other
information were kept online for the trucking companies even after the system was closed.

Proposed work
It is planned to install GPS receivers on the battery-driven, eco-friendly internal vehicles in the IIT
Bombay campus to be able to monitor their performance and provide locational information to all
users. A major problem encountered was the canopy and multi-path complication due to buildings on
either side of the route on which the vehicles ply and the heavy leaf coverage. A pilot test was
conducted to check on the availability of signals in the navigation mode using the simplest procedure.
Trimble GeoExplorer3 hand-held receivers were used to map the campus roads by collecting data
walking at a steady pace. No differential correction was applied to check for results in the worst
possible case. The results obtained were surprisingly quite well suited for our purpose. The GPS data
was downloaded and processed using the Trimble Pathfinder Office 2.8 software that plotted the
roads and the few select points that were mapped in static mode (Figure 1).
Figure 1: GPS data plotted by the Pathfinder Office 2.8 processing software.
The dilution parameters were downloaded for all the static points and a statistical analysis of the
Positional (PDOP), Vertical (VDOP), Horizontal (HDOP) and Time (TDOP) dilution of precision
values showed least correlation between PDOP and HDOP. Hence, the parameters of PDOP and
Horizontal Accuracy (in meters) for all the points on the route of the internal vehicles were
considered for monitoring. The GPS data was exported from the Pathfinder Office to ArcView GIS
version 3.1 as a shape file and a database file. The vehicle-plying route was plotted as one theme and
the other roads as another one. The static points with attributes have also been shown in the figures
that follow. The PDOP (Figure 2) and horizontal accuracy parameters (Figure 3) were plotted for
each point on the route using a colour gradation method in the ArcView GIS. As is clear from the 2
figures, the blue and pink coloured region (denoting PDOP 6.3 to 13.1 and Horizontal Accuracy 7.33
to 16.8 meters) is the critical region as confirmed by both the figures. The remaining areas have
PDOP range 2 to 6.3 and Horizontal accuracy 5.7 to 7.3 m, which is acceptable for our purpose of
tracking the vehicle positions.
Figure 2: PDOP variation along the route.

Figure 3: Horizontal Accuracy variation along the route.

The pilot experiment cleared the way for the actual experiment of monitoring the vehicle fleet
performance. Experiments for the same are being conducted and results are expected by the end of
January. After successful installation of the GPS receivers, it is proposed to develop an interface where
the users in the IIT Bombay campus can view the position of the vehicles on a web-based GIS map
through the LAN. The canopy problem will be solved by ‘snapping’ the instantaneous position of the
vehicles shown by the GPS receivers to the accurate GIS map of the roads on which they ply.