Web GIS-Based Decision Support System for Urban Storm Water Infrastructure Management: A Case of Nifas Silk Lafto Sub-City, Addis Ababa

No Thumbnail Available

Date

2022-06

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Addis Ababa University

Abstract

Urban drainage infrastructures’ life-cycle management and associated complex decision making processes require exploitations of the benefits of advanced digital-technologies and/or spatial decision support systems. But, actually how this hypothetical concept can be materialized in line with varying ground contexts and other related factors do require investigation and scientific reasoning. And thus, the purpose of this study is to model an urban storm water drainage infrastructure maintenance management scheme through a Web GIS-Based Decision Support System (WGBDSS) taking the case of Nifas Silk Lafto sub-city of Addis Ababa. In this theme, the study explores the synergy between WGBDSS and drainage infrastructure maintenance management core issues through integration of drainage infrastructures’ physical condition assessment, current drainage management practice of study area, hydrologic analysis, web technology, Multi-Criteria Decision Aids (MCDA) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method for analysing and organizing complex decisions based on objective standards of judgment. Web GIS-based decision support tools that exploit multi-criteria matrices for optimization algorithms of structured query language (SQL) were also utilized. In addition, starting from data collection to final output production of the overall study, freely available softwares and open source resources have been exploited. Besides, ArcGIS, PostgreSQL, PostGIS, Survey Master and Kobo toolbox mobile applications, Global mapper, and surveying equipment like Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS-RTK; for drainage routes’ locational information collection) were utilized in data processing, analysing, and presentation. On top of this ApacheTomcat, Open layer, GeoServer, map store were also used to publish the geospatial database and related outputs on developed portal of the Web GIS platform. Moreover, slope analysis, the runoff flow direction, flow accumulation, watershed delineation and flood vulnerable area identification, and the like hydrologic analysis were thoroughly performed and respective maps were also produced using desktop ArcMap application. The findings of basic and advanced physical condition assessment of drainage networks of the study area revealed that 80% of urban drainage routes out of the total networks demand repair type of intervention, 8% of drainage structures call for upgrading type of intervention, another 8% require for replacement and the rest 4% demand for planned type of maintenance. Eventually, the final result of this study implies that decision making through ranking competing and complex problematic drainage networks for maintenance prioritization purpose need a paradigm shift from the conventional drainage infrastructure life-cycle management approach (i.e. more of “fix when failed”) to WGBDSS.

Description

Keywords

Decision making, Decision Support Systems (DSS), Drainage Infrastructure, Maintenance Management

Citation