A comparative study of monitoring methods in sustainable pavement management system

Pavement management systems (PMS) have been receiving increasing attention in the attempt to ensure that roads are always in good condition and serving its purpose. Appropriate PMS must be implemented to gather valid and reliable pavement data. Previous studies which attempted to identify methods for monitoring pavements were limited by constraints such as cost, time, safety, data accuracy and sustainability. This study was conducted to review some of the pavement monitoring models introduced in previous studies. After completing a literature review, three models, i.e. manual survey, smart sensor, and optical image processing, were selected for a comparative study to determine which of these models is the most effective model in terms of cost, time, safety, accuracy and sustainability. A data quality guideline was modified to produce a rating system for ranking the models from the worst to the best. The results of this study shows that smart sensor has the highest score in the radar chart, and hence is the best model. In conclusion, the findings of this study could provide a guideline for the government and private sectors in determining the most effective pavement monitoring model to be used in their sustainable PMS strategy despite the constraining factors.