GIS for bridge health monitoring in Hong Kong

GIS can be used to integrate and to manage various sources of spatial and attribute data on bridge health monitoring. In this study, an integrated GIS and Bridge Health Monitoring system is developed for Ting Kau Bridge in Hong Kong. The developed system manages information of a bridge at three levels. At the region level, the GIS combines and offers spatial analysis to various types of information corresponding to the surrounding environment of the bridge, for instances, road network, typhoon, seismic attack and traffic impact. At the bridge level, the GIS maintain topological, graphical and textual information of the bridge. User can retrieve location-related information of the bridge. GIS can also connect to a spectral analysis software which generates damage indices for the bridge. Then, users can examine the distribution of health indicator at different locations of the bridge. The level of sensors provides detail information for on-line monitoring. Different types of sensors are mounted on the critical points of the bridge to collect on-line information of the bridge. Users can examine if there is any abnormal readings found from the sensors on the bridge. The developed GIS is proven to be a potential tool for providing a complete picture of the health status of the bridge at different scales.