Ba Tri is a rural district of Ben Tre Province in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. Due to the special terrain, three sides facing the river and one side facing the sea; therefore, the development of road system is constrained. When the local roads are connected to the national highway system more than ten years ago, the local roads of Ba Tri district were developed based on local government investment. In addition to the construction of new roads, the maintenance of old road surfaces is also important. However, the budget shortage for pavement maintenance becomes a challenge for road management agencies. In order to maintain roads in optimum condition with the limited budget, a priority ranking process is necessary in current situation. This study presents the combination of pavement maintenance prioritization with geographic information systems (GIS). The process of study began from the survey and data collection in 81 pavement sections of Ba Tri district. With MicroPAVER software support, the pavement database was developed using Excel. Then the database was integrated with GIS. That is where it is capable to store, manage, analyze, calculate and display all types of geographic data for road maintenance works. The final result of this study was the maintenance priority index suitable for local conditions, which is calculated by the multi-criteria decision analysis method. The independence and the interplay of priority components was determined by correlation analysis and sensitivity analysis. By using this system, decision makers of local government can plan and prioritization the road maintenance in a better way, as well as utilize the allocated budget more efficiently and effectively.
Ba Tri is a rural district of Ben Tre Province in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. Due to the special terrain, three sides facing the river and one side facing the sea; therefore, the development of road system is constrained. When the local roads are connected to the national highway system more than ten years ago, the local roads of Ba Tri district were developed based on local government investment. In addition to the construction of new roads, the maintenance of old road surfaces is also important. However, the budget shortage for pavement maintenance becomes a challenge for road management agencies. In order to maintain roads in optimum condition with the limited budget, a priority ranking process is necessary in current situation. This study presents the combination of pavement maintenance prioritization with geographic information systems (GIS). The process of study began from the survey and data collection in 81 pavement sections of Ba Tri district. With MicroPAVER software support, the pavement database was developed using Excel. Then the database was integrated with GIS. That is where it is capable to store, manage, analyze, calculate and display all types of geographic data for road maintenance works. The final result of this study was the maintenance priority index suitable for local conditions, which is calculated by the multi-criteria decision analysis method. The independence and the interplay of priority components was determined by correlation analysis and sensitivity analysis. By using this system, decision makers of local government can plan and prioritization the road maintenance in a better way, as well as utilize the allocated budget more efficiently and effectively.