Road Ecology Center

While geographic information systems (GIS), including data collected through global positioning systems (GPS), are not new to the transportation design industry, coordinated utilization of these technologies does not often occur throughout the course of a project. This may result in the duplication of efforts by the design and environmental analysis teams, or may necessitate analysis done by less efficient means, possibly incurring project delays. By integrating GIS into the project development process as early as possible, these issues can often be minimized or eliminated. The following four projects, widely varied in both scope and budget, show how the incorporation of GIS have enhanced projects’ progress at various stages of completion. Implementation of such techniques should become a standard step in project development to ensure the most timely and accurate results possible.