An application mechanism for a GIS-based maintenance system: The case of KFUPM

Maintenance of available facilities is highly dependent upon the efficient use and manipulation of a huge amount of spatial data. The recent past has observed a world-wide increase in the use of computers to effectively maintain the available facilities. In this context Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have evolved as an efficient tool to improve the efficiency in the daily affairs of maintenance. The current manual technique used in most large establishments to handle spatial data is inefficient, time consuming, difficult to use and quite expensive. The maintenance department is a major area which uses the same manual technique in solving its day-to-day problems. This study is an endeavor to develop an application mechanism for a GIS-based maintenance system based on a study at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.