Application of GIS in Facility Space Management: A Case Study of ILRI

Space management is an important part of facilities management. It is a process of determining space requirements, identifying deficiencies, and allocating available space to users in an equitable way, monitoring use, assisting users with space usage problems, and resolving space problems. Managing facilities space involves storing, querying, and updating spatial and non-spatial data related to these facilities. This makes Geographic Information System (GIS) an important tool in management of space. International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) lacks a system that has data repository of all its facilities integrated in one platform to help in effective and efficient management of space. The facilities department faces many problems, including time spent searching for information on space allocated to facilities, organizing data, difficulties finding accurate location of facilities, duplication of work, and difficulties in adding and updating data. This project demonstrates how GIS can be used in managing space. This was achieved through building of a GIS database which integrated spatial and non-spatial data of facilities in ILRI. Data which was obtained from AutoCAD ArchiCAD and PDF files was geo-referenced, harmonized and used to create spatial entities. Non-spatial data was obtained from Excel and PDF files. GIS analyses were then carried out on the data stored in the geodatabase. These analyses included determination of the main types of facilities that occupy the organizations space and their areas, paddocks sub-division in the grazing area as well as assessment of spaces allocated to rooms of the buildings that are used as offices in order to determine whether they are utilized well, under-utilized or over-utilized. Potential locations for fire assembly points were also determined. Finally a web map of the underground and surface facilities was built using features stored in the geodatabase.