Research Trends and Results

Development of a road management support systemusing road infrastructure map information
IBOSHI Yuki, Researcher
IMAI Ryuichi, Researcher (Dr. Eng.)KIMURA Atsushi, Guest Research Engineer
TAJIMA Satoshi, Guest Research Engineer
SHIGETAKA Koichi, HeadInformation Technology Division, Research Center for Advanced Information Technology(Key words) Road infrastructure map information, road management support system
1. Introduction
Road management spans many categories of work,
including administrative counseling, road inspections,and pavement management. Various kinds ofinformation are handled to perform each category ofwork, but much of this information is related to maps.
Road infrastructure map information consists of large
scale (1/1,000 or higher) road maps that represent 30
road structures such as traffic lanes with graphics, andthey are prepared using road work completion
diagrams. If there were mechanisms able to linkvarious kinds of information used for roadmanagement and perform superimposition display onroad infrastructure map information, it would permit
spatial searching, statistical processing, analysis etc.
and would be counted on to contribute to more
efficient and more advanced work.
The NILIM has developed a prototype of a roadmanagement support system using road infrastructure
map information (called “Road Web Map”) which has
been trial operated by a road manager.
2. Outline of the Road Web Map
A characteristic of the Road Web Map is that it
shares various categories of information about roadmanagement using road infrastructure map
information as a sharing infrastructure (see Fig. 1).
Figure 2 is an image of the functions of the RoadWeb Map. The infrastructure for each type of work
includes map searching and other sharing functions
and a user’s management function. Individualfunctions specialized for each work type are added tothis infrastructure.
3. State of development
In the past fiscal year, through repeated discussions
with road managers, the functions which the roadinfrastructure web map must provide were abstracted,
and the required function conditions were defined. We
asked private companies that develop and build
systems related to GIS applications or roadmanagement work for their opinions concerning

required function conditions and summarized theresults in the Required Function Conditions
Definitions1).
This fiscal year, the prototype of the common
functions and the individual function, administrative
counseling function were developed based on theRequired Function Conditions Definitions. And theChiba National Highway Office of the Kanto Regional
Development Bureau performed a trial of theprototype, and organized the operability of the RoadWeb Map and the effectiveness and usefulness of andproblems with each function.
4. Conclusion
In the future, we are eager to improve the RoadWeb Map based on challenges clarified by the trial
operation, and at the same time, add other individualfunctions and perform development to begin actual
operation at the National Road Offices.
Figure 1. Overall Image of the Road Web Map

Figure 2. Image of Functions of a Road Web Map

Research Trends and Results[Sources]1) R. Imai, Y. Sasaki: Initiatives for more efficientroad management using large scale road maps, Civil
Engineering Journal, No. 54-3, pp. 45-46, 2012