Property Management, one functional area within Right-of-Way offices in state transportation agencies, is responsible for managing the property acquired for highway projects. These activities are data and document intensive and efficiency for performing them would be improved through the implementation of an information management system. Because of the geospatial nature of many of these activities, geographic information systems (GIS) would increase the effectiveness of this system. A literature review and survey were conducted to understand the current state of practice for the use of GIS and information management systems in Property Management. There is no identified comprehensive system that covers all Property Management activities. An initial step in developing a geospatially-enabled enterprise-level information management system, a logical model was developed. This included developing the business process diagram, business process models, and use case models based on the principles of systems engineering using the Computer Aided Software (CASE) Enterprise Architecture. Activities that would benefit from a geospatial component have been identified and included in the models. The developed models have been validated by working with PennDOT staff. The resulting model serves as a standard template for state transportation agencies and helps conceptualize the advantages of integration and interaction with other systems, and geospatial enablement prior to investment in an information management system. / Master of Science

Right-of-way business processes have been identified as one of the areas where information bottlenecks occur in transportation agencies, not only because of the amount of information involved, but also because of the interdependent nature of these activities. Transportation projects are associated with parcels whose status change during and after the project based on information from right-of-way activities. Geospatially enabled decision making tools enhance data interpretation as well as data retrieval of this information. By using enterprise-level applications, information sharing between the transportation agency, other jurisdictions, and the public becomes more efficient. Being able to quickly visualize the status of parcels in a geospatial environment further enhances the management of resources which, in turn, improves timely project delivery. This thesis presents a conceptual framework for an information management system and its geospatial enablement through a logical model for Geospatial Decision Making Activities (GDMA) in transportation right-of-way offices. The logical model for GDMA, presented in Unified Modeling Language, includes state machine diagram and data flow diagram models for tracking the parcel and capturing the geospatial enablement of right-of-way activities. / Master of Science