Transportation agencies are responsible for maintaining and improving physical assets to ensure safe, efficient, and reliable travel. Planning and coordinating investments within and across different classes of assets is a complex endeavour involving multiple functional areas within the agency. A geographic information system (GIS) provides a powerful set of capabilities to bring information together in a spatial context, enabling effective and coordinated decision making. While GIS is now an integral part of the information landscape in most transportation agencies, applications of GIS for managing assets are still at an early stage of maturity. This guide identifies opportunities for agencies to manage risks and increase efficiency and effectiveness through integrating GIS into transportation asset management (TAM) practices. It provides a roadmap for agencies to use in assessing these opportunities and in undertaking initiatives to strengthen their capabilities. The guidance presented here can be tailored to organizations with varying asset management programs and GIS environments. (Author/publisher)
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