Geographic Information System for Railway Managementwseas.us/e-library/conferences/2010/Faro/VIS/VIS-24.pdf · 2010. 12. 9. · Railway organizations make use of GIS and advanced

Geographic Information System for Railway Management

Hazem M. El-Bakry

Faculty of Computer Science & Information Systems,

Mansoura University, EGYPT

E-mail: [email protected]

Wael A. Awad

Faculty of Science, Port Said, Suez

Canal University, EGYPT

Abstract Safety and security and considered a critical issue in railways. Applying geographic information system

(GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) in the railway becomes very important. Web-based GIS makes

it easy to exchange information and create better public communication through the Web site. It helps to

plan for a trip by checking train times, stations and different lines between stations. This is done through

the Web site of the railway organization, which contains maps and databases. Therefore, in this paper, the

presented research work concentrates on using GIS to retrieve any data related to railway. This is done in

real-time at anywhere. Furthermore, it is easy to access information and check its validity through the

Internet. In addition to maintaining infrastructure network information, railway organizations are trying to

use GIS for decision support operations. Because advanced technology provides interoperability support, it

can be used to create a comprehensive railway information system that supports all critical business

processes. Railway organizations make use of GIS and advanced technology to perfectly monitor safety and security.

Because they are responsible for ensuring the safety and security of railway passengers, railway managers

need for rapid response information systems to avoid incidents. The main objective of this research work is

to create an efficient railway GIS that makes trains go automatic without human intervention to avoid

human mistakes that may cause a lot of accidents.

Keywords— GIS, Railway Information System, Information Visualization, Disaster Management.

I. Introduction Railway has long been considered as the safest

transportation media. Recognizing the need to

improve the efficiency of the transportation

systems. The statistics show a huge number of

accidents are due to human errors. Therefore,

having a systematic way for railway operation

management and reduction of human intervention

or controlling activities and performances could

play a significant role in reducing the number and

impact of accidents .

Geographic information systems have emerged in

the last decade as an essential tool for urban and

resource planning and management. Their capacity

to store, retrieve, analyze, model and map large

areas with huge volumes of spatial data has led to

an extraordinary proliferation of applications [1-

25].

GIS allows the creation of maps through

automated mapping, data capture and surveying

analysis tool. It can be used to find out what's

occurring within a set distance of a feature.

Finally, creating maps include precise details

about train crossing and train transfers After

creating maps by GIS, then link these maps to

railways Database.

GIS benefits organizations of all sizes and in

almost every industry. There is a growing interest

in and awareness of the economic and strategic

value of GIS, in part because of more standards-

based technology and greater awareness of the

benefits demonstrated by GIS users. The number

of GIS enterprise solutions and IT strategies that

include GIS are growing rapidly. The benefits of

GIS generally fall into five basic categories

[11,31,36,37,38,40,41,42,43]:

1. Cost savings resulting from greater efficiency.

2. Better decision making.

3. Improved communication.

4. Better geographic information record keeping.

5. Managing geographically.

General purpose GIS performs seven tasks [1-25]:

1. Input of data

2. Map making

3. Manipulation of data

4. File management

5. Query and analysis

6. Visualization of results

ADVANCES in VISUALIZATION, IMAGING and SIMULATION

ISSN: 1792-6130 149 ISBN: 978-960-474-246-2

These are the steps of GIS Project [59,79]:

1. Identification of Project Objectives

2. Creation of Project Database

3. Data Analysis

4. Presentation of the Results

II. Data Collection In this Section, data collection is split into data

capture (map scanning) and data store (input of

attribute data).

This paper describes the data sources, techniques,

and workflow involved in GIS data collection.

Data collection is a time consuming. Data capture

includes establishing user requirements, garnering

resources. Preparation involves obtaining data,

redrafting poor-quality map sources, editing

scanned map images, removing noise. Documents

are scanned to reduce wear and tear, improve

access, provide integrated database storage, and to

index them geographically.

Data capture:

The process by which data are received from the

real-world (primary source), or from a secondary

source such as a paper map, and fed to GIS

software. Capturing data from primary source is

usually done by using GPS or remote sensing.

While performing this from secondary source is

usually done by scanning and digitizing. The

processes of data collection are also variously

referred to as data capture, data automation, data

conversion, data transfer, data translation, and

digitizing [1-82].

In this research work, data are collected from

paper map. We get this paper map from the base

station located in Tanta, EGYPT. Paper map

consists of stations and base lines between stations

as shown in Fig. 1. There is also a book contains

data for time table of trains, their types and lines

between stations.

Data store

A geodatabase is a database designed to store,

query, and manipulate geographic information and

spatial data. It is a specialized type of spatial

database. There are two types of data:

1. Spatial data

� Scanning paper map to convert it to raster

image.

� Digitizing the map using Arc GIS.

Converting spatial feature on the map into a digital

formats (points, lines)

We have two (layers) shape files as shown in Fig.

2.

Stations: the shape file is represented in point

feature type and show stations on the map.

Base lines: The shape file is created in line feature

type and shows railway lines between two stations

are clarified in Fig. 3. Final digitized map is

shown in Fig. 4.

2. Attribute data Here, database is created by using Arc catalog.

Database creation basically depends on the quality

and quantity of data available from data capture

step. Database tables are:

1. Base lines

2. Stations

3. Train _date

4. Trains

The relationship between database tables is

described in Fig. 5. The base line table is shown in

Fig. 6. The data view is listed in Fig. 7. The

primary key of this table is "OBJECTID". The

attribute "SHAPE" contains data captured from

digitizing process (line feature). "SHAPE_Length"

is the length of line. "ID" is the line ID. "Name" is

the line name. The design view of trains table is

shown in Fig. 8. The data view of trains table is

listed in Fig. 9. The primary key is "Train_NO".

This table contain train types that are stored in the

database. It contains 684 records corresponding to

the total number of trains. The design view of

train_dates table is implemented in Fig. 10. Here,

a composed primary key ("Train_No" and

"Station_Name") is used. The data view of

train_dates tables is shown in Fig. 11. This table

consists of four columns (train_No, Station_Name,

Arrival/Going, Notes). It contains train dates with

more than 6000 records that are stored in the

database.

III. Analysis and Development

Here, AspMap for .net is used to show the

designed map of the railway. AspMap is a set of

server-side mapping controls and components that

let maps be added to the Web applications.

AspMap can be accessed directly by ASP.NET,

VB.NET, C# and other .NET supported

environments.

Advantages of AspMap:

AspMap allows to calculate point-to-point, multi-

point routes and incorporate turn-by-turn driving

directions to the Web applications. AspMap's

routing features include [75,76]:

1. Generation of a route between two or more

points based on their coordinates.

2. Determination of the shortest routes.

3. Evaluation of the quickest routes based on

distance and speed.


ISSN: 1792-6130 150 ISBN: 978-960-474-246-2

4. The calculated route can be plotted on a map as

a map layer.

5. Routes are calculated with the use of dynamic

segmentation (the ability to construct a route from

any selected point along a road segment).

6. Gives access to additional information about

road segments and streets, such as the turn angle,

distance, time, compass direction, street name,

road attributes, start and end coordinates of road

segments and streets.

AspMap includes the Road Network Builder

utility so we can build road networks from vector

format maps such as industry standard TAB files

and Shape files. Road Network Builder allows to

specify:

1. Road speed for different road classes or road

segments.

2. One-way and closed roads.

AspMap tools have been used in this research

work:

Zoom in tool

Control button allows users to zoom in by either

clicking on a map or drawing a rectangle. Zoom in

to a station is shown in Fig. 12. When we click at

zoom in tool and then click in any point in the

map, this point is zoomed in or we may also make

rectangle on a range in the map this range will be

zoomed as illustrated in Fig. 13. The result is

shown in Fig. 14. Zoom in tool has the properties

shown in Fig. 15.

zoom out:

Control button allows users to zoom out by

clicking on the map. When we select this tool and

then click at the map at any point, the map will be

zoomed out to a reduced scale so the map will be

smaller and smaller each time we click. The

essential map is shown in Fig. 16. As shown the map in its general view, when we choose zoom out

tool and click in the map, the map will be as

shown in Fig. 17. The result of Info window tool

applying to “Algmalya” station is illustrated in

Fig. 18.

Zoom to station tool

To select station from drop down list, this is a

query to retrieve all train dates of selected station.

The code of zoom to a station tool is shown in

appendix “A”. An example for choosing zoom to a

station is shown in Fig. 19. The result is shown in

Fig. 20.

Hot spot tool

So fast query tool that cache station names within

the map. Map caching is an effective way to make

mapping application run faster. When we create a

cache, AspMap draws the entire map at different

scales and stores copies of the map images as tiles

on the server. An example for hot spot at a station

is shown in Fig. 21.

IV. Conclusion

A comprehensive geographic information system

for railway has been presented. It has been proved

that such system is successful in a number of

issues like determination of the best path to get the

accident location and perform emergency services.

This research work has achieved the following:

1. Capture data from its resources such as the

paper map & catalogue data.

2. Storing attribute data in tables (scan the map

and then digitized it ) and create databases.

3. Give the opportunity to recognize any stations

in the country on the map.

4. Manage data to show all dates, notes

(going/arrival) and types of trains.

5. Find the shortest way between any two new

stations.

6. Avoid incidents between trains.

7. Management of disasters and crises.

References

[1] Goodchild, Michael F., (2010). Twenty years of

progress: GIS Science in 2010. JOURNAL OF

SPATIAL INFORMATION SCIENCE Number 1 pp.

3–20 doi:10.5311/JOSIS.2010.1.2. July 27, 2010.

[2] Chang, K. T. (2008). Introduction to Geographical

Information Systems. New York: McGraw Hill.

p. 184.

[3] Wilson, J.P.; Fotheringham, A.S. (2007), The

Handbook of Geographic Information Science,

Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 3–12.

[4] Longley, Paul A.; Goodchild, Michael F.; Maguire,

David W.; Rhind (2005), Geographic Information

Systems and Science (2nd ed.), Chichester: Wiley,

ISBN 047087001X

[5] Ionita, A. (2006): Developing an Enterprise GIS.

Electronic document:

[6] Heywood, I., Cornelius, S., & Carver, S. (2006). An

Introduction to Geographical Information Systems

(3rd ed.). Essex, England: Prentice Hall.

[7] Perry, Matthew; Hakimpour, Farshad; Sheth, Amit

(2006). "Analyzing Theme, Space and Time: an

Ontology-based Approach" (PDF). Proc. ACM

International Symposium on Geographic Information

Systems. pp. 147–154.

http://knoesis.wright.edu/library/download/ACM-

GIS_06_Perry.pdf

[8] Sipes, J.L. (2005): Spatial Technologies: Software

Strategy: Options for the Enterprise. Electronic

document.

[9] Longley, P. A., Goodchild, M. F., McGuire, D. J.,

and Rhind, D. W. (2005). Analysis of errors of


ISSN: 1792-6130 151 ISBN: 978-960-474-246-2

derived slope and aspect related to DEM data

properties. West Sussex, England: John Wiley and

Sons. 328.

[19] Zhou, Q. and Liu, X. (2003). "Analysis of errors of

derived slope and aspect related to DEM data

properties". Computers and Geosciences 30: 269–378.

[11] ESRI (2003): Enterprise GIS for Municipal

Government. ESRI White Paper. Electronic document.

[12] Fonseca, Frederico; Sheth, Amit (2002). "The

Geospatial Semantic Web" (PDF). UCGIS White

Paper.

http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/f/u/fuf1/Fonseca-

Sheth.pdf

[13] Fonseca, Frederico; Egenhofer, Max (1999).

"Ontology-Driven Geographic Information Systems".

Proc. ACM International Symposium on Geographic

Information Systems. pp. 14–19

[14] Goodchild, Michael F. (1990), "Spatial information

sciencePDF", Proceedings, Fourth International

Symposium on Spatial Data Handling (Zurich,

Switzerland): 3–12

[15] Goodchild, Michael F. (1992), "Geographical

information science", International Journal of

Geographical Information Systems 6 (1): 31–45

[16] Tim Foresman 1997 The History of GIS

(Geographic Information Systems): Perspectives from

the Pioneers. (Prentice Hall Series in Geographic

Information Science) Prentice Hall PTR; 1st edition

(November 10, 1997), 416 p.

[17] Clarke, K. C., 1986. Advances in Geographic

Information Systems, Computers, Environment and

Urban Systems, Vol. 10, pp. 175-184.

[18] Coppock, J. T., and D. W. Rhind, (1991). The

history of GIS. Geographical Information Systems:

principles and applications. Ed. David J. Maguire,

Michael F. Goodchild and David W. Rhind. Essex:

Longman Scientific & Technical, 1991. 1: 21-43."The

history of GIS.".

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=138208276

34229141183&hl=en&as_sdt=10000000000000.

Retrieved 2010-09-17.

[19] Cowen 1988 "GIS VERSUS CAD VERSUS

DBMS: WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES ?"

PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING &

REMOTE SENSING Vol. 54, No.11, November

1988, pp. 1551-1555.

http://funk.on.br/esantos/doutorado/GEO/igce/DBMS.

pdf last retrieved 9/17/2010.

[20] Gao, Shan. Paynter, John. & David Sundaram,

(2004) "Flexible Support for Spatial Decision-

Making" Proc. of the 37th Hawaii International

Conference on System Sciences 5-8 pp. 10

[21] Geospatial Analysis - a comprehensive guide. 2nd

edition © 2006-2008 de Smith, Goodchild, Longley

[22] Chang, K. T. (1989). "A comparison of techniques

for calculating gradient and aspect from a gridded

digital elevation model". Bulleted list item

International Journal of Geographical Information

Science 3 (4): 323–334.

[23] Jones, K.H. (1998). "A comparison of algorithms

used to compute hill slope as a property of the DEM".

Computers and Geosciences 24 (4): 315–323.

doi:10.1016/S0098-3004(98)00032-6.

[24] Hunter G. J. and Goodchild M. F. (1997).

"Modeling the uncertainty of slope and aspect

estimates derived from spatial databases".

Geographical Analysis 29 (1): 35–49.

doi:10.1111/j.1538-4632.1997.tb00944.x.

http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/~good/papers/261.pdf

[25] Kent, A.J. 2005. "Aesthetics: A Lost Cause in

Cartographic Theory?" The Cartographic Journal

42(2) pp. 182–188

[26] Slocum, T. (2003). Thematic Cartography and

Geographic Visualization. Upper Saddle River, New

Jersey: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-130-35123-7.

[27] Kraak, Menno-Jan and Ormeling, Ferjan (2002).

Cartography: Visualization of Spatial Data. Prentice

Hall. ISBN 0-130-88890-7.

[28] MacEachren, A.M. (1994). Some Truth with Maps:

A Primer on Symbolization & Design. University

Park: The Pennsylvania State University.

[29] Bender, B. (1999). Subverting the Western Gaze:

mapping alternative worlds. The Archaeology and

Anthropology of Landscape: Shaping your

landscape (eds) P.J. Ucko & R. Layton. London:

Routledge.

[30] Monmonier, Mark (1993). Mapping It Out.

Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN.

[31] ESRI. 2004. ESRI Cartography: Capabilities and

Trends. Redlands, CA. White Paper

[32] Jeer, S. 1997. Traditional Color Coding for Land

Uses. American Planning Association. pp. 4–5

[33] Imus, D. and Dunlavey, P. 2002. Back to the

Drawing Board: Cartography vs the Digital

Workflow. MT. Hood, Oregon.

[34] Olson, Judy M. 1975. Experience and the

improvement of cartographic communication.

Cartographic Journal 12, no. 2:94-108

[35] Peterson, Michael P. (1995). Interactive and

Animated Cartography. Upper Saddle River, New

Jersey: Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0130791047.

[36] Esri - Company's history

[37] "GIS software training from Esri in India". NIIT

Technology News.

http://www.prdomain.com/companies/N/NIIT/newsrel

eases/20055521656.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-03.

[38] "COTS GIS: The Value of a Commercial

Geographic Information System". www.esri.com.

http://www.esri.com/library/whitepapers/pdfs/cots-

gis.pdf. Retrieved 2010-01-30.

[39] "GIS Software Applications". gislounge.com.

http://gislounge.com/gis-software-applications/.


[40] "GIS in Our World". Esri Website: Company Facts.

http://www.esri.com/company/about/facts.html.


[41] Matteo Luccio (2007-06-22). "Esri International

User Conference". GIS Monitor Newsletter. GIS

Monitor.

http://www.gismonitor.com/news/newsletter/archive/a

rchives.php?issue=20070622. Retrieved 2008-01-09.

[42] http://apb.directionsmag.com/archives/7575-Esri-

Transitioning-Pronunciation-of-its-Name.html


ISSN: 1792-6130 152 ISBN: 978-960-474-246-2

[43] Guy McCarthy; George Watson (2006-06-30).

"Esri verifies company targeted by subpoena". The

San Bernardino Sun.

http://www.sbsun.com/onlineextras/ci_3996395.

Retrieved May 25, 2009.

[44]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_information_sy

stem

[45] http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/G/GIS.html

[46]

http://www.gisdevelopment.net/tutorials/tuman006pf.ht

m

[47] http://searchsqlserver.techtarget.com/definition/GIS

[48]

http://www.agt.bme.hu/public_e/funcint/funcint.html

[49]

http://www.ika.ethz.ch/schneider/Publications/Schneide

rOttawa99.pdf

[50] http://gisandscience.com/2009/09/14/top-five-

benefits-of-gis/

[51] http://maic.jmu.edu/sic/gis/components.htm

[52] http://www.sfu.ca/rdl/GIS/tour/comp_gis.html

[53] http://www.mapsofworld.com/gis/components.html

[54] http://gis.nic.in/gisprimer/functions.html

[55]

http://maps.unomaha.edu/Peterson/gis/notes/GISAnal2.

html

[56] http://healthcybermap.org/HGeo/pg2_3.htm

[57]

http://mapzone.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/mapzone/giszone/

english/gisfocus/page3.htm

[58]

http://ittraining.iu.edu/workshops/schedule_by_group.as

px?group=15

[59] http://www-

sul.stanford.edu/depts/gis/project_design.html

http://www.gis.com/content/data-types-and-models

[60] http://www.gis.com/content/gis-data

[61] http://bgis.sanbi.org/gis-primer/page_14.htm

[62] http://en.mimi.hu/gis/data_model.html

[63] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_model_(GIS)

[64] http://bgis.sanbi.org/gis-primer/page_13.htm

[65] http://www.gis.com/content/data-types-and-models

[66] http://bgis.sanbi.org/GIS-primer/page_15.htm

[67]

http://www.spatialanalysisonline.com/output/html/Spati

alDataModelsandMethods.html

[68]

http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/giscc/units/u045/u045.html

[69] http://www-groups.dcs.st-

and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Topology_in_mathematic

s.html

[70]

https://engineering.purdue.edu/~engelb/ncgia96/engel.ht

ml

[71] http://www.dcsme.ae/

[72] http://www.dcsa.com.au/09apr/index.php

[73] http://www.datacapture.co.uk/

[74] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operational_data_store

[75] http://www.vdstech.com/aspmap.htm

[76]

http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Programming/Act

iveX/AspMap.html

[77] http://www.opengeospatial.org/ogc/members

[78]

http://www.cdrgroup.co.uk/index.htm?sales_mi_prod

_planaccess.htm

[79] http://www.fgdc.gov/standards/projects/FGDC-

standards-projects/accuracy/part3/chapter3.

[80] https://njgin.state.nj.us/NJ_NJGINExplorer/IW.jsp.

[81] http://nationalmap.gov/gio/standards.

[82] http://gis.ednet.ns.ca/gis_uses_in_US.htm

Appendix “A”

The Code of Zoom to a Station

protected void

statesList_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender,

System.EventArgs e)

{

AspMap.Recordset state;

int selectedValue = Convert.ToInt32(

statesList.SelectedValue);

state =

Map1["Stations"].SearchExpression("ID = " +

selectedValue );

if (!state.EOF)

{

Map1.Extent = state.RecordExtent;

sqlselect = "SELECT Train_Dates.*

FROM Station INNER JOIN Train_Dates ON

Station.Name = Train_Dates.Station_Name

WHERE (((Station.ID)=" +

statesList.SelectedValue + "));";

oledbConnectString =

"PROVIDER=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;DATA

Source=" + MapPath("Layers/GIS2.mdb");

da = new OleDbDataAdapter(sqlselect,

oledbConnectString);

DataTable TrainDates = new DataTable();

da.Fill(TrainDates);

GridView1.DataSource = TrainDates;

GridView1.DataBind();

da.Dispose();

// highlight the state using yellow color

Map1["Stations"].Renderer.Field = "ID";

AspMap.Feature selectedState =

Map1["Stations"].Renderer.Add();

selectedState.Value = selectedValue;

selectedState.Symbol.FillColor =

Color.Green;

selectedState.Symbol.Size = 15;

selectedState.Symbol.LineColor =

Color.Black;


ISSN: 1792-6130 153 ISBN: 978-960-474-246-2

} }

Fig.1: Paper map shows stations and base lines between them.

Fig. 2: Localization of Stations on the map.


ISSN: 1792-6130 154 ISBN: 978-960-474-246-2

Fig. 3: Railway lines between stations.

Fig. 4: Final digitized map.


ISSN: 1792-6130 155 ISBN: 978-960-474-246-2

Fig. 5: Relationship between database tables.

Fig. 6: Base line table.

Fig. 7: Data view of base line table.


ISSN: 1792-6130 156 ISBN: 978-960-474-246-2

Fig. 8: Design view of trains table.

Fig.9: Data view of trains table.

Fig. 10: Design view of train_dates table.


ISSN: 1792-6130 157 ISBN: 978-960-474-246-2

Fig. 11: Data view of train_dates table.

Fig. 12: Zoom in to a station.


ISSN: 1792-6130 158 ISBN: 978-960-474-246-2

Fig. 13: Illustartion of zoom in property.

Fig. 14: The result of zoom in.


ISSN: 1792-6130 159 ISBN: 978-960-474-246-2

Fig. 15: Zoom in Tool.

Fig. 16: The essential map.


ISSN: 1792-6130 160 ISBN: 978-960-474-246-2

Fig. 17: The result of zoom out.

Fig. 18: The result of Info window tool at “Algmalya” station.


ISSN: 1792-6130 161 ISBN: 978-960-474-246-2

Fig. 19: A request for zooming to “Alferdan” station.

Fig. 20: The result of zooming to “Alferdan” station.


ISSN: 1792-6130 162 ISBN: 978-960-474-246-2

Fig. 21: Hot Spot at “Alsabria” station.


ISSN: 1792-6130 163 ISBN: 978-960-474-246-2