GIS-based monitoring of urban utility excavations for permit compliance and pavement management in smart cities

Abstract

Real-time compliance monitoring of urban utility excavations remains challenging in digital construction, pavement management, and infrastructure governance. This study presents a pilot field evaluation of a Geographic Information System–based Pavement and Infrastructure Monitoring System (GIS-PIMS) for permit verification, utility-proximity monitoring, and pavement management support. The framework integrates multi-sensor excavation-activity detection, GNSS-based equipment tracking, GIS-defined permit corridors, underground utility layers, and rule-based alarm logic. Field testing at three urban excavation sites used 30 paired observations comparing the tracking device with survey-grade RTK-GNSS reference measurements. The tracking unit showed a mean horizontal deviation of 6.82 m and an RMSE of 7.41 m. Under the tested 20 m-wide permit corridor, rule-based alarm classification achieved 96.7% accuracy. The findings support pilot-scale feasibility for spatial compliance screening, precautionary near-utility warning, and pavement reinstatement planning. Larger datasets, diverse equipment and urban conditions, and longer-term evaluation of communication reliability are required before citywide deployment.