Deploying an Interactive GIS System for Facility and Asset Management: Case Study-Ministry of Education, Kuwait

Hamdy Ibrahim El-Gamily^1,2*, Khalid Al-Rasheed³

¹GIS Section, Systems and Software Development Department (SSDD), Science and Technology Sector (STS), Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), Kuwait City, Kuwait.
²National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences (NARSS), Cairo City, Egypt.
³Civil Engineer Department, College of Engineering, Kuwait University, Kuwait City, Kuwait.

DOI: 10.4236/jgis.2015.72016                

Abstract

Geographical Information System (GIS) can be considered the core of the Interactive Facilities Management Environment (iFaME) framework in managing different facilities on the building bases. This study aims at building a comprehensive geodatabase for different elements of infrastructure facilities and services on the building bases for a selected number of schools and developing a GIS-based iFaME interactive application to manage different facilities at the school level in Kuwait. The iFaME is a two-dimensional/three-dimensional (2D/3D) desktop application. It is intended to take planners, decision makers, and maintenance experts inside the building to provide an interactive GIS platform to manage, visualize, query, maintain, and update the database related to school assets and facilities. The Autodesk Revit software was used to produce 3D building information models (BIM) for the selected schools. It provides accurate geometrical representation of the school building elements in an integrated data environment. The iFaME application is integrated with the Revit BIM models and the STAR-APIC Elyx 3D software solution. With the development of the iFaME applications, the facility managers in the MoE could establish greater control over the space allocation and management, asset management, emergency planning, and other areas of facility management. The school managers and maintenance engineers are considered among the most beneficiaries from this application. The school managers will monitor the maintenance activities all the time, while the maintenance engineers will use the application as a container for maintenance orders, and on the same time to document what they accomplished on daily basis. The iFaME application will reduce the maintenance cost of school assets and facilities in addition to increase their efficiency.

Keywords

Elyx 3D, Micro-GIS, Building Information Modeling (BIM), Kuwait

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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