Interactive traffic impact assessment study for Kuantan
Transcription
Interactive traffic impact assessment study for Kuantan
[Home] [Session index] [Author index] [Presenter index] 23rd ARRB Conference – Research Partnering with Practitioners, Adelaide Australia, 2008 INTERACTIVE TRAFFIC IMPACT ASSESSMENT STUDY FOR KUANTAN Adnan ZULKIPLE, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Malaysia Riza Atiq Abdullah O.K. RAHMAT, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia Amiruddin ISMAIL, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia Azlina ISMAIL, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Malaysia ABSTRACT Issues of maintaining the transportation system that can cope with the land development has been the main challenge to Local Government Authorities in Malaysia. Realizing this fact, traffic engineers and planners in the country are struggling to come up with the so called interactive traffic impact assessment models or techniques which are conveniently associated with the Geographical Information System (GIS) as the most popular supporting tool for providing data bases and displaying results of the analysis. However, the application of GIS is not as straight forward as in most developed countries since the digitalization of the base map and compilation of the demographic information for the country by a centralised Government Agency are yet to be completed and handily available for the public use. Interim measures to overcome the shortcomings of a complete GIS package have to be sought in keeping up with the needs to develop the interactive traffic analysis and management tools for the Local Authorities. This paper is proposing a procedure to conduct an interactive traffic impact assessment for District of Kuantan with aim to simply the route for future integration with the national GIS framework. INTRODUCTION Kuantan is the state capital of Pahang, the largest state in Peninsular Malaysia. It is situated near Kuantan River mouth and facing the South China Sea. If measuring the distance along the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, it is located roughly halfway between Singapore and Kota Bharu. With over 500,000 people Kuantan is the largest city on the Malaysian east coast (Kuantan 2006). Kota Bahru West Malaysia Pahang Kuala Lumpur Sumatra Island Brunei Kuantan East Malaysia Singapore Borneo Figure 1: Geographical location of the study area – Kuantan Town Kuantan is said to have been established since the 1850s. In its early days it is known as Kampung Teruntum and is situated around the mouth of Sungai Teruntum which is in front of the current general hospital. Primary economic activities had been fishing and small © ARRB Group Ltd and Authors 2008 1 23rd ARRB Conference – Research Partnering with Practitioners, Adelaide Australia, 2008 businesses. Towards the late 19th century, settlement of Chinese miners and traders saw the early establishment of township in Kuantan and also nearby tin mines such as Gambang and Sungai Lembing. Since the shifting of the administrative and commercial centre of Pahang to Kuantan in 1955, Kuantan is known as a tropical getaway with tourism as one of its major economic activities. Trade and commerce largely supports the economy of the town with timber and fishing industries also play vital roles in the local economy. Kuantan is also blessed by a strong presence of petrochemical industries, located about 25 km to the north of the town centre. National Physical Plan 2005 has also identified Kuantan as the future growth centre hub of trades, offices, transportation and tourism in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Kuantan is connected to Kuala Lumpur via the East Coast Expressway and Federal Highway Route 2. The East Coast Expressway is not only linking major towns within the state but also will eventually link Kuantan to other state capitals in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Long distance travelers however still prefer the old trunk road called Federal Highway Route 2 which at present provides the essential link to other important east coast towns in the absent of the full package of the East Coast Expressway. With total length of approximately 176 km within the State of Pahang, the federal route is easily the most preferred route by both the locals and the long distance travelers. At national level it provides the link from Kuantan Port to Kuala Lumpur (the National Capital) and Port Klang (the National Port located about 300 km in the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia). Figure 2 shows the relative location of the East Coast Expressway and Federal Highway Route 2 serving Kuantan. ay ressw t Exp Coas East Completed To Kuala Lumpur East Coast Expressway Under Construction Kuantan Interchange To Major Town in The East Cost Port of Kuantan Gambang Interchange 2 oute ay R ighw ral H Fede Gambang Town Zone Kuantan Town Zone Figure 2: Relative location of the East Coast Expressway and Federal Route 2 The affected Federal Highway Route 2 that becomes the subject of the study is known as Kuantan - Gambang Road that link Kuantan Town to Gambang Town and forms the backbone of Kuantan road network. At present it is an urban arterial of dual 2-lane carriageway similar to the East Coast Expressway in number of lane but a rank lower in the hierarchy of roads in Malaysia. With the operation of the main route, the East Coast Expressway, long distance travellers are supposed to deviate away from using the route. However, there is an unbalanced consideration for through and local traffic since the road continue to cater as the main trunk road for through traffic despite its new role to cater for local and generated traffic demand from new developments along the federal route as shown below. © ARRB Group Ltd and Authors 2008 2 23rd ARRB Conference – Research Partnering with Practitioners, Adelaide Australia, 2008 12 km To/from Kuantan & Terengganu TUDM (Air force & Airport) Taman Seri Mahkota Aman Taman Seri Mahkota Taman Seroku Pusat Sembelih MEC Industrial area 1 Kg Mahkota Pusat Serenti University Malaysia Pahang Kg Seri Fajar MEC Industrial area 2 Gambang Perdana 6 km bridge Toll Expressway Schools zone Interchange Legend: Dual 2-lane carriageway Major routes Minor roads Ingress and egress (with u-turns for right turning) Signalised Intersection Jaya Gading Industrial area Gambang Transport Terminal Taman Seri Mahkota Federal Route 2 Signalised Intersection To/from Town Center Figure 3: Illustration of developments along Kuantan – Gambang Road OBJECTIVE OF THE PAPER This paper will emphasize on the issues of implementing the isolated traffic impact assessment works as per the current practice, explain about the effort to produce a coordinated traffic impact assessment within a study area and outline of the idea of initiating an interactive traffic impact assessment system for the town. GIS for the national road and highway networks in Malaysia have been prepared for application. Useful data and information such as major link characteristics and traffic volume data might be available at input level when conducting local road network study such as traffic impact assessment of a development site. Coordinated effort on converting the results of these studies into GIS format and export the output to the national/regional GIS web portal will induce a sustainable practice in the long run as explain below. REVIEW OF THE PRACTICE OF TRAFFIC IMPACT STUDY IN MALAYSIA Traffic impact assessment (TIA) study has been practiced in Malaysia by the local authority as part of the submission for obtaining the Development Order of a new development since the early 90’s although it has not been made mandatory by the Government. It has been treated as one of the essential study elements during the planning and design stage that the developer needs to comply. However, in most cases, it is required to be carried out in full accordance with the prevailing best practice, in particular in the area under the jurisdiction of the municipal council where the project is situated. The developer has to appoint a reputable traffic and transportation consultant to undertake the study, which include among others the assessment of the existing and future transportation system with and without the proposed development. Draft TIA Guidelines (2005) by Road Engineering Association Malaysia (REAM) proposed that a set of standard criteria and trigger levels to conduct the TIA study be adopted by the authorities as follows: • Additional of 150 vehicle per hour is added from the new development to the road network during the peak hours. • Additional 200 vehicle per hour is added from the new development to the road network during the off peak hours. • The scale of the residential use of the new development is more than 200 dwelling units. © ARRB Group Ltd and Authors 2008 3 23rd ARRB Conference – Research Partnering with Practitioners, Adelaide Australia, 2008 • The scale of the commercial use of the new development is more than 4000 square meter. All the four criteria must be tested, and if any of the criteria reaches the trigger level, then a TIA study shall be required. However, in specific cases TIA shall be required even if the added trip generation may be lesser than the trigger levels. The main goal of the current traffic impact assessment approach is to obtain the approval of the authority on the proposed traffic mitigation and management measures as to counter the impact of the proposed development to the prevailing transportation system. According to Zulkiple, et. al. (2005), the step for obtaining the approval commencing with the appointment of the traffic impact assessment consultant by the developer and ending with the approval of the approving authority of the traffic impact assessment study proposals. Outcomes of the TIA study are supposed to be implemented by the developer with the supervision of the authority. The developer has no problem to comply with any traffic mitigation plans proposed inside the compound of the development area since this will help in the sale of the proposed development units. However, the construction of the access road and the intersection with the main road is normally limited to priority or signalized intersection that is low cost in nature and can sustain short to moderate term traffic demand. It is very rare that the access road and the intersection can sustain long term traffic demand since along the way, other developers might just request to obtain access to the same intersection via the same access road and the service life of the access road and the intersection become shorter. The problem is exaggerated by passing through traffic from new development outside the area of influence of the proposed development which is not accounted for during the TIA study process. As it is happening, the traffic congestion problem become complex and simple solution such as readjusting the traffic signal timing and widening of the intersection are not effective anymore. A more costly solution such as constructing an interchange or constructing additional lane are more effective but is yet to be the best solution. The best solution would be the implementation of a comprehensive public transport system that require a long term planning right from the inception of an isolated development within the town since in the future, the developers are not around and they are also not liable anymore to contribute in any form for the upgrading of the proposed infrastructure. At present, traffic impact assessment procedure in the country is not well established so that the approach to the study is not uniform among the traffic consultants even though for studies conducted within the same study area. Often, the study is tailored to suit the development needs rather than in the first place to ensure the compliance of the proposed development to the prevailing traffic management and transportation system of the study area as specified in the transportation master plan. The lack of a standardized procedure to conduct traffic impact assessment, contributes to the deterioration of prevailing transportation system and the inefficiency of the transportation master plan. Moreover, the proposed traffic mitigation measures of certain developments might not be streamlined with other developments due to lack of systematic coordination by the governing authority despite its spatial homogeneity such as its relative location. Thus, the final destination of having transportation system that contribute to energy-cost-time savings and reduction of the green effect will never be a reality. Under a working group committee set up by REAM to produce guidelines for traffic safety and traffic congestion measures, a draft national traffic impact assessment guideline was prepared as shown in figure 2. The draft guidelines which adopt similar approach as of the prevailing traffic impact assessment procedures will ensure standard practices by all traffic consultants which are one of the vital elements for building up transportation system GIS data base (Zulkiple, et. al. 2004). © ARRB Group Ltd and Authors 2008 4 23rd ARRB Conference – Research Partnering with Practitioners, Adelaide Australia, 2008 Appointment of a registered TIA Consultant Implementation of the TAP & update of the transport master plan Assessment of the existing conditions & proposed development Appointment of the Detail Design Consultant for the proposed plans Scooping of the study and setting up criteria & procedures Submission of the TIA report for the approval of the Authority Study the transport master plan of the planning/approving authorities Update the TIA report to meet the latest changes Traffic generation analysis Submission of draft TIA report to Client/ Planners/ Architects Assessment of: • Accessibility • Circulation & Parking • Pedestrian & Public Transport Proposal for an affordable Transport Action Plans (TAP) and preparation of the TIA report Figure 4: Flowchart of the proposed traffic impact assessment procedures The new guidelines also give more emphasize to the provision of the pedestrian and public transport facilities such that adequate study must be conducted as to ensure the safe and reliable movement of the non-vehicular traffic while providing efficient network for the private vehicle. Current traffic impact assessment practice is often over estimated with the assumption that 100% of generated traffic will be of private vehicle that has to be mitigated at the access to the main road. The split to public transport is used only as basis for the provision of the public transport facilities such as bus stop, pedestrian walkway and pedestrian crossing. Despite considering all possible elements and in the absence of transportation master plan and or linkage to GIS data base, isolated actions may well be implemented which, whilst achieving their immediate objectives, exacerbate other existing problems. DEVELOPMENT OF AN ASSESSMENT MODEL INTERACTIVE TRAFFIC IMPACT General approach to develop the proposed model is outlined in figure 5. Essentially, having a regional traffic model in possession will be a great advantage to the assessor of the TIA of a site development. Therefore, the first step required in standardizing the traffic impact study approach is to develop a regional traffic model that contains the required elements for validation purposes such as permanent traffic census station and well updated socio-economic parameters. Operational parameters of the traffic model such as congestion level, road density and travel speed are other elements to be monitored and updated depending on the scope and needs of the study. If possible generalized elements such as network total time saving and total distance travel should be included to the list of the validation parameters. © ARRB Group Ltd and Authors 2008 5 23rd ARRB Conference – Research Partnering with Practitioners, Adelaide Australia, 2008 Presentation & validation tools Regional traffic model/data base TIA of proposed development site by standardized procedure Site local traffic model (those with multiple access) Store traffic data and road network information in GIS-T format Links & junctions performance and road safety analysis Figure 5: Proposed approach for modelling TIA with GIS capabilities The approach steps of executing the procedures are provided below: 1. Prepare and review study plan to suit budget and the condition of the study area. Compile all submitted TIA reports for all committed developments and categorized them into new, on-going and completed developments. Take note for projects developed in phases. There is also the possibility that too much data is collected. These are both waste of resources and hindrance to an understanding of the problem. The data collected from an adequate survey suppose to contain a lot of information regarding travel behavior. Analyses of these data are very useful for designing the existing facilities such as traffic system management or arrangements of public transport system. Besides, it provides an understanding of the relationship between travel behavior and the environment so that the relationships can be established and synthesized quantitatively using modeling techniques. 2. Locate the site of the proposed development on the regional road network and determine the accessibility of the development to the trunk road. Manual trip forecasting is limited to development with single access. Developments with multiple accesses have to make use of one of the macroscopic traffic models. The zoning and coding system however must be consistent to that of the regional traffic model (the microscopic model). The latest regional traffic model available for the study area is provided by the 2nd Highway Network Development Plan Study for Malaysia by Highway Planning Unit Ministry of Works Malaysia (HNDP, 2005). 3. For the completed development projects, devise a procedure on how to determine the overall occupancy rate and generated trips as compared to those of the TIA reports. This is the main aspect to be resolved because it is the cause of inconsistency for the assumptions of the generated traffic from the particular developments. Trip generation can be considered as a decision to make a journey. It examines the relationship between the number of trips made and certain quantifiable parameters such as trip purpose, household income, vehicle-ownership and land use. Published trip generation rates for all types of land use are updated bi-annually by Highway Planning Unit, Ministry of Works Malaysia (Trip Generation Manual, 2005). © ARRB Group Ltd and Authors 2008 6 23rd ARRB Conference – Research Partnering with Practitioners, Adelaide Australia, 2008 Figure 6: Reported and actual occupancy & generated rates 4. 5. The next stage in TIA is trip distribution-trip assignment-modal split exercises which can be undertaken manually for a simple two way split that is for distributing trips to two directions. If there are more that two directions, the trip distribution-trip assignmentmodal split exercise have to be undertaken through systematic (computerised) modelling techniques such as applying one of those macroscopic or microscopic software depending on the scope of the study. As a completed transport model has been assembled, data consistency checks should be followed. Actual traffic counts at certain location are checked with the volumes from the synthetic model. If there is discrepancy, the mathematical relationship formed earlier has to be adjusted and this process is so call calibration. Then, finally the model can be used to forecast future travel demands. In order to forecast the future travel demands, it is necessary to obtain as much information affecting travel behaviour as possible such as population, employment and income distribution. A transport model that satisfactory explains the present use of the existing transportation system is mandatory guide for future planning any other transportation system. Forecasting normally involves prediction of the future demand for travel, the future availability of transport and use of the available transport. When conducting TIA for certain development, identify and list all affected junctions (existing and new) on the trunk roads. Compare and code them as per regional road network nodes and links ID. The new nodes and links created in the local traffic model can be streamlined with those of the regional traffic model. This procedure will help to reduce nodes and links redundancies while adding new one and of deleting the less important one to and from the regional traffic model. © ARRB Group Ltd and Authors 2008 7 23rd ARRB Conference – Research Partnering with Practitioners, Adelaide Australia, 2008 Figure 7: Include all affected nodes and links in the regional traffic model For every node and link, traffic data and travel pattern characteristics should be obtained from the updated regional traffic volume database. This should include also all necessary traffic safety aspects which can be based on the grouping of the regional road accident data base. Information on the major cause of accidents and the proposed mitigation measures should also be specified by area-wide or route wise basis. The compilation of traffic accident data in GIS system that is presently limited to the federal road can now be expanded to the state and local road network. Published traffic volume counting data at strategic census stations along federal and major state and town routes are updated annually by Highway Planning Unit, Ministry of Works Malaysia (Traffic Volume Malaysia, 2005). Legend Jabor & West & South of Terengganu Kemaman & East & South of Terengganu tC Eas l Route Federa N Dual 2-lane carriageway expressway Dual 2-lane carriageway Federal Route Ex oast Dual 2-lane carriageway State Road Single 1-lane carriageway Federal Route Single 1-lane carriageway State Road Other Minor/Local Roads 3 sw pres N By ew pa ss 6. ay New Interchange State R Jalan oad C4 Sunga i Lem bing Polisas tan e an ng Ku c ha r e t In Telok Cempedak Airport tre TUDM ute 2 To Federal Ro 3 te ou Route 12 Muadzam Shah & Southwest of Pahang lR ra de Fe Federal KL, Maran & North West of Pahang 3) (F R UIAM wn bang Gam ange terch In y wa t Express East Coas UMP ass Byp Ce n Sg. Lembing Port Federal Route 2 Note: Strategic traffic survey stations are located along Federal Route and major State Road Pekan & Southeast of Pahang Kuala Pahang Figure 8: Traffic volume data & information © ARRB Group Ltd and Authors 2008 8 23rd ARRB Conference – Research Partnering with Practitioners, Adelaide Australia, 2008 7. After the completion of traffic forecasting process, the results need to be evaluated. Firstly, the computation process and output must be reconfirmed. It is mainly numerical evaluation to ensure that the model is mathematically correct. Following that, the apparent accuracy of the forecasts should be examined. Other than evaluation of the model itself, operational and economic evaluations also need to be carried out. The purpose of operational evaluation is to check whether a new proposed system or network is able to satisfy the forecast travel patterns whereas, economic evaluation is to study the cost-benefit so that to choose the best network proposal which falls within a given budget constraint, but with maximum benefit to the community by minimizing the cost of travel. This can be done by using traffic analysis software such as HCS, SIDRA or other equivalent procedures. The prevailing Level of Service (LoS) can be set as the benchmarks to determine the “severity” of future developments to the existing road network system. Figure 9: TIA analysis process 8. A graphical dictionary to represent future scenario should be created as visual description of the traffic impacts mitigation measures as shown in figure 10. For every scenario, the end product of the analysis should include the list of proposed innovative and cost effective mitigation measures as to cope with future developments impact. Effort should also be made to develop a common database for every application such that data redundancies and double counting is minimized. This is actually the gist of the GIS application in traffic and transportation studies. In this aspect, the GIS Unit of Road Branch, Public Works Department, Ministry of Works Malaysia has been developing the national road network with GIS capabilities call SUTRA (Abdullah, 2004). © ARRB Group Ltd and Authors 2008 9 23rd ARRB Conference – Research Partnering with Practitioners, Adelaide Australia, 2008 Figure 10: Graphical dictionary of future scenario 9. The relevant data and results of the TIA study should be updated into the custodian GIS portal. From time to time, the custodian should transfer the latest version of the regional traffic model into the main portal for website application. With the Local Authority functioning as the custodian of the GIS system, all new developments can be imposed to be subjected to the proposed TIA procedures. Figure 11: Validation and update of traffic models © ARRB Group Ltd and Authors 2008 10 23rd ARRB Conference – Research Partnering with Practitioners, Adelaide Australia, 2008 GIS IMPLEMENTATION FOR THE NATIONAL ROAD NETWORK IN MALAYSIA The Public Works Department of the Ministry of Works Malaysia (PWD) has been appointed by Malaysia Centre Geospatial Infrastructure (MaCGDI) as one of the prime data custodians as well as the lead agency that is responsible to build up relevant spatial databases and propose the national standard for roads dataset. MaCGDI is an infrastructure setup at the national level to enhance data exchange among data users and makes sure that the required data are collected and conform to national as well as international standards. It is therefore a priority of PWD that complete digital maps of Federal and States Road Network are available particularly for uses of GIS-based and Geo-spatial applications. Transportation infrastructure management for PWD are being accomplished through a GIS based road information and management system that provide for extensive database querying in a user-friendly environment at the departmental level (Abdullah 2006). GIS implementation in PWD started as a research project in 1993 that aim to initiate, implementing and monitoring the usage of GIS technology in the department by the formation of SUTRA, the long term GIS project for PWD. SUTRA has been developed into 5 phases since it inception in 1993. Phase 1 has been a standalone `proto-type' with users from various units and branches contributed for the existing attribute data. The first product was introduced in December 1995. In phase 2 the network base maps are digitized. Data collected in phase 1 was updated and expanded with the collaboration of all units within the department. Personnel form the various branches were trained to develop their knowledge on concept and tools of GIS so that they would be able to handle data and develop applications. In phase 3 the base maps is link to data extension and provide facility for new and from other application to these maps. Everything needed is initially developed on SUTRA desktop before making use of the departmental networking system. In phase 4, the work of data capturing in form of points, lines and polygon using GPS technology was outsourced to several vendors. PWD is responsible on coordinating, verifying the accuracy of the data and to ensure that the collected data meets its requirements. The process of verifying the integrity of the captured data was completed by 2004. Phase 5 (the current stage) is the process of updating and maintenance of the existing data and to capture new features. The Road Information and Management System (RIMS) that is used by Road Branch professional to plan, monitor, update and maintained the road features and related data is being produced at the moment. For the data to be up to-date, the coordinator at respective state must create their own GIS teams which consist of the representative from district level PWD. This team will update the data periodically at the district level. Overall the GIS System development of SUTRA utilises a number of models developed using the software or system packages namely EMME2 for network analysis of road infrastructure, HDM4 for road and traffic volume analysis, BMS for bridge management system, MAAP for accident data analysis, MARRIS for road registration, SKALA for project monitoring system, SEPAKAT for human resource system, SIMS for slope information management system, SMART for slope management and risk tracking system and SPRS for slope priority ranking system. Data integration and updating is managed by the custodians and others who have interest on the GIS system can gain access to display, query and analyse data when formal application is made. Figure 12 indicates the completed routes map in GPS and GIS format. © ARRB Group Ltd and Authors 2008 11 23rd ARRB Conference – Research Partnering with Practitioners, Adelaide Australia, 2008 (a) Initial (GPS based) (b) Final Product Figure 12: Completed road map of Peninsular Malaysia The available road dataset can also be access through Malaysian Centre for Geospatial Data Infrastructure (MaCGDI) website: http://www.macgdi.gov.my and individual need to sign up to become registered users of the MyGDI (Malaysian Geospatial Data Infrastructure) application. THE LAND USE - ROAD DEVELOPMENT DENSITY MODEL FOR KUANTAN Mohamad and Muhammad (2006) has developed an interactive land use – road development density model for Kuantan by combining a set of conventional modelling techniques and an open source simulation application called UrbanSim (2006). In assisting the modelling process, a GIS (Arc View) is used to establish the geospatial database which includes data of various forms and from various sources. The model is regressed by least square fitting method and calibrated to study the level of acceptability. For the future land use plan, the model is then used to predict the road density level and again GIS is applied to import the forecasted data and graphically display the distribution. The results demonstrate that only five out of eighteen independent variables tested show the significant effects on the road density for the town. In the study, the relationship between land use and transportation activities is described graphically as follows: Figure 13: Relationship between land use and transportation activities (Source: Rosenbaum and Koenig 1997) The modelling strategy for this study was based upon empirically solving these two separate but interrelated land use dynamics g(•) and transport dynamic f(•) functions sequentially as shown in figure 14. © ARRB Group Ltd and Authors 2008 12 23rd ARRB Conference – Research Partnering with Practitioners, Adelaide Australia, 2008 Figure 14: Modelling sequence (Source: Mohamad and Muhammad 2006) The methodology of the study involved the following steps: 1. Data modelling with UrbanSim. This is a data intensive activity for collection and analysis of the land use (spatial distribution), household, employment, property and transportation related data. GIS is an integral part of the model as it is used to provide the land use data required for UrbanSim to perform the simulation of urban growth. 2. Geospatial mapping and analysis Basic parameters of a base year data are prepared in the following format for input into UrbanSim model: • A map subdivided into 1 km x 1 km grid. • Total number of households within a grid cell. • Percentage of occupied area for housing within a grid cell. • Percentage of occupied area for roads within a grid cell (the road density). • Distance from the centre of grid cell to the nearest major highways or arterial roads. In preparing the above datasets, a number of analytical functions including map overlay, distance measurement and attribute data manipulation are applied to extract the required information using the GIS. 3. Development of geospatial database A geospatial database is a database that contains objects with locational information. In this study, all hardcopy maps representing themes related to the study are digitized and transformed into ground coordinates. The datasets available include: • Boundary of the study areas • Land use • Road network • Boundary of housing area • Boundary of planning blocks • 1 km x 1 km grid map To complement the map as the basic source document to extract the land uses, aerial photographs and remote sensing images are also used. The processing procedures for these image data are mainly the coordinate transformation and image interpretation. © ARRB Group Ltd and Authors 2008 13 23rd ARRB Conference – Research Partnering with Practitioners, Adelaide Australia, 2008 4. Feature clipping Since UrbanSim requires the entry of the parameters to be made according to grid cell location, all features contained in a particular map layer have to be clipped in a 1 km x 1 km square. This layer is used to clip whatever feature, from which statistical information related to that features within any particular grid cell boundary can be extracted (e.g. the total length of a road network and the percentage of households). 5. Analysis of overall land use pattern The land use pattern can be analysed visually or statistically. Visualization can be made by portraying the types in different colours and referred to the map legend. Statistical analysis on the other hand can be made by selecting records that represent a certain type of land use and computing a particular attribute required such as the total area. Further computations such as conversion of measuring unit and the proportion of area according to the land use types can be made if necessary. 6. Extraction of spatial parameters Spatial analysis tools available in the GIS are used for map overlay and neighbourhood search in term of determining the total number of household within a particular cell or the distance from a particular cell centre to a highway. 7. Development of regression model Using the base year data, a multivariate regression model that define the interaction between the dependent variable, road density, and the independent variables are developed by removing any co-linearity between the variable as to ensure that the final set of independent variables is truly independent of each other, and the only interaction that exists is that between the independent variables and the dependent variable. The removal of collinear independent variables is done through a statistic method called the Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) where a large VIF value, i.e. VIF > 4, indicates the existence of co-linearity in a specific variable. Thus, any independent variable that produces a VIF value greater than 4 is removed from the final regression equation. The computations of the VIF for each of the independent variables are done using SPSS statistical software. As a final step in getting the regression equation, the independent variables that are not significant at α=0.05 level are also removed. Thus, the final regression equation contains variables that are significant as well as variables that are not co-linearly related with other independent variables. 8. Model calibration The predicted road density for a base year is compared to the actual road development density for the same year as to determine the prediction error in term of the mean errors followed by the t-test. 9. Road development density forecasting Having established the base year model, the road development density of any future year can now be forecasted. As a test, the variables for the year 2010 are used to compute the percentage of space required for road development of each square grid. The numerical results of this computation are then exported into Arc View GIS where graphical representation of the road development density level is displayed. The major outcome of the study as expected is the establishment of a road development density model in relation to the variation of land uses as follows: Road development density = 1.721E-5*P5 + 8.555E-7*P8 + 3.788E-3*H3 © ARRB Group Ltd and Authors 2008 14 23rd ARRB Conference – Research Partnering with Practitioners, Adelaide Australia, 2008 where: P5 = Commercial area P8 = Industrial area H3 = Average household income Figure 15 shows the actual and modelled road development density for Kuantan in the year 2000 which gives an error of 5.06 when compared. Figure 16 shows the predicted road development density for Kuantan in year 2010 using the simulated land use changes given by UrbanSim model. (a) Actual (b) Modelled Figure 15: Actual and modelled road development density of Kuantan in year 2000 (Source: Mohamad and Muhammad 2006) Figure 16: Predicted road development density of Kuantan in year 2010 (Source: Mohamad and Muhammad 2006) CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS The successful implementation of the interactive procedure will depend on the efforts to store the site traffic impact assessment data into a common traffic GIS database (GIS-T). When there © ARRB Group Ltd and Authors 2008 15 23rd ARRB Conference – Research Partnering with Practitioners, Adelaide Australia, 2008 is a need to conduct a new site traffic impact assessment study, the GIS-T database can be referred for gathering prevailing traffic and land use data of the study area. The TIA can then be carried out and the process to store and update the GIS-T database will be continuous as 2-way system. Having the GIS-T database will also serve the need of the approving authorities in their day-to-day planning needs and as a decision-support mechanism for verification purposes. Hence, the approach in the development of the GIS-T model will be needs driven rather than adopting a pre-conceived plan. In addressing this factor, a key issue, data standardization needs particular attention from both the consultants and the approving authorities. This is to ensure that the common database is truly a compilation of common data that is usable by every party involved. Technology transfer or training, which once was critical issues of GIS implementation in governmental departments in the early 90s, will be tackled by developing a user-friendly procedure for traffic impact studies. REFERENCES Abdullah, MR 2004, ‘Current status of GIS implementation in JKR’, 1st national GIS conference and exhibition 2004, PWTC, Kuala Lumpur. Highway Planning Unit 2005, Trip Generation Study Report, Public Works Department, Ministry of Works Malaysia. Kuantan 2006, Goggle Search, http://www.malaysiasite.nl/kuantaneng.htm. viewed 30 October 2007, Mohamad NS & Muhammad ZS 2006, GIS as a supporting tool in the Establishment of land use – road density model, GISdevelopment.net, viewed 6 August 2007, http://www.gisdevelopment.net/application/urban/agglomeration/mm026pf.htm. REAM 2005, Draft Manual of REAM Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA) Guidelines. Road Engineering Association Malaysia. (Not published). Rosenbaum, AS and Koenig, BE 1997, Evaluation of Modelling Tools for Assessing Land Use Policies and Strategies, Report EPA420-R-97-007, Ann Arbour, MI: Office of Mobile Sources, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. UrbanSim 2006, University of Washington, Seattle, USA, viewed 7 August 2007, http://cuspa.washington.edu/people/. Zulkiple, A, OK Rahmat, RAA & Ismail, A 2004, ‘Developing interactive traffic model with GIS capabilities’, 3rd national technical post graduate symposium (Tech’pos04), Universiti Malaya, Malaysia, 5pp. Zulkiple, A, OK Rahmat, RAA & Ismail, A 2005, ‘National traffic impact assessment (TIA) guidelines for Malaysia – a step forward for sustainable development’, 23rd conference of ASEAN Federation of Engineering Organizations (CAFEO – 23), 9pp. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My sincere appreciation to Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) of the Australian Government for sponsoring my Endeavour Malaysia Research Fellowship attachment at University of South Australia. My special thanks to Professor MAP Taylor and colleagues at Transport System Centre, UniSA for making my stay in Adelaide a memorable one. AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES Adnan Zulkiple is an associate professor at Universiti Malaysia Pahang and the current chairman of Highway and Transportation Engineering Technical Division of Institution of Engineers Malaysia. © ARRB Group Ltd and Authors 2008 16