Authors: M. Pollino, A. Danzi, A. B. Della Rocca, L. Rossi (ENEA) Presented at Esri Europe, Middle East, and Africa User Conference (EMEA UC) Rome, 26th - 28th October 2010

1. Esri EMEA UC October 26-28, 2010 Rome
Support to railway
monitoring and
maintenance using GIS
M. Pollino, A. Danzi,
A. B. Della Rocca, L. Rossi
ENEA

2. ENEA: Italian National agency for new technologies,
Energy and sustainable economic development
Esri EMEA UC October 26-28, 2010 Rome
• The Agency’s activities are targeted to research, innovation
technology and advanced services in the fields of energy,
environment and new technologies (http://wwww.enea.it).
• ENEA performs R&S activities and provides agency services in
support to public administrations, public and private
enterprises, and citizens.
• In this general framework, works the “Earth Observations and
Analyses” Lab (UTMEA-TER, http://utmea.enea.it). Key activities
include:
− Earth Observation (Aerial and Satellite Remote Sensing): applications to
environmental studies and land analysis (Classification, Land Cover/Land Use,
Land monitoring and planning, Landscape metrics and indices).
− GIS: applications to territorial and environmental issues (Land analysis and
management, Urban planning, Decision support systems).

3. Summary
Esri EMEA UC October 26-28, 2010 Rome
• The constant and continuous monitoring of
structure and infrastructure of railways and their
maintenance is one of the most relevant problems
in transportation.
• In this framework, a specific GIS has been designed
and developed to support monitoring and
maintenance activities.
• The GIS has been developed within the SIMMI
Project (“Integrated system for monitoring and
maintenance of railways infrastructures”, co-funded
by Italian Ministry of Research).
• The developed GIS represents an useful tool to
manage and integrate numerous information
necessary to plan the maintenance, organize the
operations and support their efficient scheduling.

4. The study area
The GIS has been designed and developed to support the monitoring and
maintenance activities of Circumvesuviana Railway, a local public
transportation company working in the Campania Region of Italy.
Esri EMEA UC October 26-28, 2010 Rome

5. GIS main goals
1. Collect various geographic datasets to create a Geodatabase and to provide a
numeric and up-to-date reconstruction of Circumvesuviana along with the areas
interested by the route.
2. Analyze the interactions between the railroad and the neighboring territory.
3. Analyze the relationships between the failures checked along the track (typology
and density) with the natural characteristics of the areas interested (morphology,
hydrography, geology, etc...).
Esri EMEA UC October 26-28, 2010 Rome

6. Levels of analysis - 1
1:25.000
“Overview Level”:
• 1:25000
Cartography
• Basic Layers
(Administrative
Boundaries,
Hydrology, Urban
areas, Road
network,
Railroads, etc…)
• Thematic Maps
(Land use,
Geomorphology,
Geological and
hydro-geological
data, etc.)
Esri EMEA UC October 26-28, 2010 Rome

7. Levels of analysis - 2
1:5.000
“Detailed Level”:
• 1:5000 Cartography;
• Digital Terrain Model
(DTM), 5 m spatial
resolution;
• QuikBird images (res.
0.60 m);
• Thematic maps;
• Inspection Reports of
the railroad (six-
monthly monitoring
and maintenance);
• Real-time events
coming from
experimental sensors
displaced along the
rail route (Diagnostic
system).
Esri EMEA UC October 26-28, 2010 Rome

8. Railway–Territory Interaction
• Analysis of the relationships between the failures checked along the
track (typology and density) with the natural characteristics of the areas
interested (morphology, hydrography, geology, etc...)
Esri EMEA UC October 26-28, 2010 Rome

9. Linear referencing
In this case the dynamic
segmentation process
has allowed to use
multiple set of attributes
(about rail geometry and
characteristics, events
checked, territory...) and
to associate them with a
selected portion of the
track.
In this way, by means of
specific GIS procedures,
it has been possible to
analyze the reciprocal
interaction between
territory and railway.
Esri EMEA UC October 26-28, 2010 Rome
Linear referencing is the method of storing geographic locations by using relative
positions along a measured linear feature. It is used to associate multiple sets of
attributes to portions of linear features (i.e. railroad) without requiring that
underlying lines be segmented (split) each time that attribute values change.

10. Monitoring and maintenance activities
Inspection
Reports of the
railroad (six-
monthly carried
out):
check to artifacts
(bridges,
underpasses,
structures, etc…)
and to
technological
infrastructure
(devices, etc…)
Data coming from
Reports has been
processed and
stored into Geo-
database: all the
events reported
are associated to
the respective
portion of the
railroad.
Esri EMEA UC October 26-28, 2010 Rome

11. Monitoring and maintenance activities
BY EVENT BY LOCATION
QUERIES &
SELECTIONS
QUERIES &
SELECTIONS
Esri EMEA UC October 26-28, 2010 Rome

12. Interaction analysis: Territory vs Railway
Case study: Anomalies, damages and/or
failures detected along the railroad and due
to water infiltrations (localization by means of
dynamic segmentation and spatial analysis).
Esri EMEA UC October 26-28, 2010 Rome
Exploiting ArcGIS geoprocessing tools, jointly with statistical analysis, it
has been possible to highlight vulnerable portions of the track, where the
failures are more frequent because of local problems (landslides, water
damages, etc...).

13. Interaction analysis: (urban areas) Railway vs Territory
GIS
implementation of
SCHALL03 noise
mathematical
model (simplified
version)
( ) SDDDDDlLL kKorrkBMkLkskrkkEmkr ++++++⋅++= ,,,,,,,, lg102.19
GIS procedures
have been
implemented to
evaluate noise
pollution during
train transit
(i.e.: support to
efficient
placement of
noise-shields).
Esri EMEA UC October 26-28, 2010 Rome

14. GIS & experimental diagnostic system integration
Collection of
events regarding
devices
anomalies or bad
functionality
GIS receives data
about damages or
anomalies of
devices displaced
along the track
and store them
into Database.
The events could
be real-time
acquired by
specific sensors
(Experimental
diagnostic
system).
WEB-GIS
Esri EMEA UC October 26-28, 2010 Rome

15. Esri EMEA UC October 26-28, 2010 Rome
M. Pollino, A. Danzi, A. B. Della Rocca, L. Rossi
ENEA - National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and
Sustainable Economic Development
“Earth Observations and Analyses” Lab (UTMEA-TER)
Casaccia Research Centre - Via Anguillarese 301, 00123 Rome (Italy).
maurizio.pollino@enea.it