| Infrastructure is continuing to deteriorate as budgets for the agencies charged with maintaining the facilities are shrinking. These two trends make it essential that agencies use their resources effectively. While much attention has been focused on the preservation and improvement decision making supported by infrastructure management systems, research into what data is needed to support these decisions has been scarce. Because data collection is expensive and time consuming, the data that are collected should provide the most useful information possible. Integrating data from various sources is one way to obtain more information from the data collected. The research described in this document has developed a framework in which to consider questions of this sort.; An investigation of the state of the practice for bridge inspection provides the context for developing a data requirements model, identifying the decisions being made and the data required to support them. The modeling tools used include data flow diagrams and influence diagrams. Examples of both types of diagrams illustrate how the framework can be used. In addition, discussion with practitioners has motivated exploration of how such a framework could improve bridge management in an agency setting. |
