Using smartphone and GIS to measure International Roughness Index (IRI) in Gaza Strip-Palestine Road Network (Deir Balah as case study)

Abstract

Road network inventory has gain significant importance in last few years especially after wars and natural disasters which make the urgent need for quick and economical ways to do an inventory of roads. The current methods used to create road networks inventories involve high costs and require many instruments and detailed planning. The availability of low cost sensors in Smartphones and the rapid increase in the rate of smartphone users make the necessary to develop systems which are able to road inventories using smartphone. Several smartphone application have been proposed towards addressing this problem such as Roadroid, Road Recorder and other. This study presents a new method for road network inventories based on the use of the latest generation of smartphones that provides a low cost, efficient and adaptable option for the inventory of different types of roads, using GIS software to enhance the road network inventory and using AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) method to compare between several methods used in the road network inventory and determine the most efficient and less expensive for use in the Gaza Strip.The results indicate that the ease of data inventory using smartphone with less time period compared with other methods used in road network inventory. The new method is low cost and gives a good datea quality with available resources because most of people have a smartphone today.