ARCSITE - ENHANCED GIS FOR CONSTRUCTION SITE LAYOUT

This study develops an automated site layout system for construction t emporary facilities (TFs). The system, ArcSite, including a geographic information system (GIS) integrated with database management systems (DBMSs) is a new tool to assist designers in identifying suitable area s to locate TFs. ArcSite consists of knowledge specific to constructio n site layout, TF databases, Arc/Info databases, and algorithms for in tegrating and automating TF layout design. The system proposes a metho d, the knowledge acquisition form, to systematically acquire and inter pret experts' knowledge and experience in site planning. Using the con cept of searching by elimination, the system develops a heuristic appr oach to model the process of human decision-making and generate the po tential sites for each TF. Through both qualitative and quantitative m odeling of facility relationships, an objective function called proxim ity index is developed to determine the optimal site of each TF ArcSit e demonstrates that GIS is a promising tool for solving construction l ayout problems and, thus, opens up a new way of thinking in the manage ment of spatial information for construction planning and design.