Pavement management system for Lisbon

The City Council of Lisbon, Portugal, decided to build a pavement management system (PMS) for the vast road network under its administration at the beginning of 1999. This paper presents a geographical information system (GIS)-based PMS for Lisbon, developed by a team involving staff from the Lisbon City Council and the University of Coimbra. The system consists of three basic modules: a road network database, a quality evaluation tool and a decision-aid tool. The paper also describes the process leading to the creation of the PMS and the activities developed during the first and second years of its implementation. This period was mainly taken up with the preparation of a GIS for the road network, preparation of the quality evaluation tool and launching of the decision-aid tool. The final part of the paper discusses the main difficulties encountered so far and presents the developments planned for the near future.