Municipal information models and federated software architecture for implementing integrated infrastructure management environments

Infrastructure systems typically comprise complex and highly interdependent networks, and therefore, the need to adopt integrated approaches to infrastructure management is widely recognized. However, successful implementation of such approaches largely depends on the ability to integrate and share disparate data and software resources distributed across different departments and, possibly, organizations. The development of integrated information models and software environments in various infrastructure domains, the key enablers for realizing the desired integration, are currently becoming the focus of many research efforts. This paper describes the development of integrated municipal information models, based on ISO spatial data standards, to support efficient data integration, sharing, and management. It also presents a federated multi-tier reference architecture to facilitate the development and deployment of integrated infrastructure management environments (IIME). Implementation of a prototype IIME that integrates heterogeneous data sources and applications into an open, coherent, and interoperable environment is also discussed. The prototype environment integrated a number of distributed data sources and applications to support several processes typically conducted within municipal sewer and water departments.