Methodologies for automating the collection and processing of GPS-GIS information for transportation systems

All transportation departments have large amounts of data and information that are needed for planning and operation of their systems. This information can be textual, graphical or spatial in nature. Spatial information is generally in the form of maps and these maps are increasingly being stored and processed as digital GIS files that can be linked to other types of information generally referred to as attribute information.; In the NYSDOT database, there are many kinds of features for which information must be maintained. For example, there are about 22,500 bridges within the New York State road systems. The current spatial location for these bridges may not have the level of accuracy that would be desired by today's standards and that can be achieved with new spatial measuring techniques. Although the updating of bridge locations and the location of other features can be done using new techniques such as GPS, if this is done manually it presents a forbidding task. The main objective of this study is to find a way to automatically collect feature location data using GPS equipment and to automate the transfer of this information into archival databases.; Among the objectives of this dissertation are: how to automatically download information from the DOT database; how to collect field data following a uniform procedure; how to convert the surveying results into Arc/View shape files and how to update the DOT feature location map information using field data.; The end goal is to develop feasible methodologies to automate updating of mapping information using GPS by creating a systems design for the process and to create the scripts and programming needed to make this system work. This has been accomplished and is demonstrated in a sample program. Details of the Automated Acquisition System are described in this dissertation.