Jabula Projects Completes Several High Speed Digital Asset Audits
Roads and Infrastructure Audits of Gauteng, NorthWest and Ekhuruleni
By Hardy Jonck

In the last 6 months, Jabula Projects has completed advanced and comprehensive asset surveys of all the provincial roads for Gauteng and North West and major roads in Ekhuruleni.  For each road, Jabula compiles an inventory of all the assets associated with that road, and the condition of each asset.  This information is generally fed to a Pavement Management System and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and also links with other enterprise databases used for asset valuations, maintenance, planning and construction.
Jabula captures detail like the road centreline, lanes, paint markings, shoulder, road signs and their condition, road defects per lane like cracking, pot holes, rutting, edge break and other defects required by engineers and financials.
The data is captured in a 3D GIS environment.  Each road sign, pothole or paint mark is represented as one or more GPS co-ordinates in the GIS Server and Relational Databases with conditional attribute data attached.

The High Speed Digital Audit

High Speed Digital Audit (HSDA) Technology provides many potential benefits to South Africa.  HSDA is a new paradigm for auditing assets and collecting data with huge speed and efficiency benefits over existing methodologies.
The platform can be used to capture video, terrestrial signals and environmental measurements, correlated to the exact UTC time and GPS position.  It is this integration and attention to detail that makes the HSDA efficient and multi-dimensional. One data set can be post processed a number of times to yield different results dependant on the customer requirement. As an example the same data set can be used to capture data on spectrum utilisation, road signs, advertising boards or residential addresses and property valuation.
This HSDA solution is vital in resolving problems posed by the RICA and FICA legislation and has the potential to turn the legislation into a revenue generating opportunity.  The HSDA can provide Government with a rich repository of information that could be used to:

• Give each South African dignity through assigning them a unique and sustainable address;
• Provide all-round video of audited roads that can be used from sales and marketing through to engineering and customer support;
• The video post-production audit facility provides clients with detailed information on assets, their location, condition and other properties which in turn could then be utilised to generate Integrated Development Plans.

The HSDA process entails the following steps:
1) High quality real time data collection with vehicles (or other platforms) equipped with digital video cameras, differential GPS and many other sensors (all carefully calibrated and set up according to specifications derived from the problem-domain);
2) Post production work-flows to audit the collected data for assets and any other entity required by the client;
3) Post production work to classify audited entities according to physical properties, state etc.
4) Publishing and mining of the information for diverse needs, including: address allocation, FICA and RICA verification, sales and marketing, business intelligence, risk management, report generation such as IDP’s and engineering problems solutions, and property valuations.

Address and Asset Auditing

A fully audited management information system, based on a client’s requirements, is produced from the 2 to 6 (or more) video channels, all-round video captured which:  

   
1. Records the location of dwelling units/houses/homesteads, assets and liabilities on or around the path of capture and makes this data available in an open source geographic information system (GIS) which is integrated with aerial and satellite photography and other GIS layers;
 
2. Assesses the condition of the assets and degree of liabilities captured on video.  The conditional assessment is also integrated with the GIS as management information;
 
3. Enables business to close the loop on work orders, work performed and payment to contractors;
 
4. Extends the audit discipline to assets and liabilities to guarantee that the services and/or goods have been delivered as ordered (hence the term audit).
 
 

The process starts with the high-speed visual audit that records high quality all-round video footage integrated with high precision real time differential GPS, International Roughness Index (IRI) and other sensor feeds to produce a multidimensional picture of the environment.  This step is executed in a disciplined way and follows a very specific methodology to guarantee that all assets are surveyed with the minimum costs.

During the next phase, the visual footage and sensor feeds are processed to identify each asset’s location, type and condition. This is done in a highly disciplined environment which guarantees  the quality and accuracy, hence the concept of an audit. Each entity receives a visual stamp that can be reviewed by the client with product delivery. The entities are classified according to the client’s specifications. 


As an example, road management systems require the audit of the road in terms of defects such as potholes, cracks, edge break, rutting and other defects. Each pothole (a liability) is audited for its location and size. Similarly, assets such as signs are located and classified by type and state (faded, bent etc.).  In addition, many other business opportunities exist, for instance, the audit and management of outdoor advertising boards and-tourism applications geared for 2010 and beyond.

The audit can extend to any type of construction project, for instance housing projects and the construction of stadiums for 2010.  Clients will be able to follow the progress of construction without leaving the office.  The progress of small and large scale projects can be audited once a month.   This improves decision making and risk management. 

Audited data is delivered to the customer in an easy to use GIS platform that links video data with other GIS data layers.  Rich reporting form the backbone of the information system allows the client to draw exception reports, budget reports, operational and maintenance reports. As an example, a report could be generated to highlight roads that do not comply with safety standards i.e. roads without the required safety signs.  This is done by analysing the shape (horizontal and vertical dimensions) of the route and correlating that with the signs already installed.  Contractors could then be tasked to fix the problems. A follow-up audit will provide proof of their work having been done to standard.

Over time, the added information allows for change detection, which is valuable in managing the progress on projects, operational improvement initiatives or for record keeping purposes (or litigation).  The archived video and audit information is generally integrated with other existing systems such as corporate GIS systems or asset management systems.

The investment in the visual audit generally produces other products.  For any project the video information linked on a GIS can be used and published online to provide the client, consultant, contractor, government and others with a rich database of locations, routes and potential problem areas and locations suitable for advertising and marketing.

The HSDA system was also used to capture data in the rural parts of the Limpopo province where no data was available. The Limpopo survey was captured in six months and covered 24 000 km with a single survey vehicle.  In urban areas like Tshwane the whole of Soshanguve was surveyed in three weeks.  HSDA surveys are not limited to roads only, but can also include: construction sites, environmental sensitive areas, nature reserves, 4x4 routes, RDP housing sites, mines, hospitals, schools, dumping sites and many more.

Conclusion
HSDA provides the ideal base for Government to convert a significant legislative barrier into a revenue generating opportunity. It offers other industries and Government institutions a real solution to compliance with their, currently insurmountable, legislative challenges. This is possible by

• Providing the private sector such as the banking industry with FICA prescribed information;
• Providing the cellular industry and Government with RICA prescribed data;
• Providing municipalities with a valuation role and asset audit