The fundamental goal of any Pavement Management System (PMS) (like all information management systems) is to find the optimal solution regarding costs, resources, time and returns. The PMS analysis process involves many complex decisions and many different decision levels relating to the factors to be optimized. The decision must be made in the proper context and the different levels of decisions need different information to make the right decisions. A Pavement Management System basically contains a database management system and a set of application programs. The database management system provides a mechanism to implement the data model of the road network to be managed. The application programs perform such tasks application programs perform such tasks as to provide a user interface; accept, validate and transmit data to the database; produce management reports and so on. Without good application programs a PMS would not supply the appropriate support to the decision makers. The application programs turn "data" into "information" and provide managers with the reports they require for: day-to-day operations; strategic planning; overall evaluation of operations, and comparison with past performance. (A)
Abstract