FOSS4G-Asia 2023 Seoul

Open-source resources are vital in promoting collaboration, innovation, and accessibility in the digital age, making them an essential component of modern society. These resources empower individuals and organizations to work together, share knowledge and ideas, and ultimately create new and innovative solutions that benefit everyone. Development and use of open-source resources have diversified into all research and developmental domains, among which utility management has also become essential. Unlike commercial-grade resources, open-source resources are free, customizable, and subject to the larger community of developers for fixing vulnerabilities. This has emphasized the need to utilize technology and freely available resources to create structured and effective systems for managing utilities. Utilities such as electricity, water, sewer, drainage, and infrastructures like cable lines, supply pipelines, roads, and others have become integral to modern life. Adopting innovative strategies that cater to the community's changing needs is crucial to keep up with the constantly evolving urban landscape. This research delves into the case study of utility management system for Kathmandu University, demonstrating the potency of web-enabled utility management systems using open-source resources. We developed a Django-based backend, PostgreSQL backed database and employed HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and jQuery for the front end of the utility system. Data for the case study were prepared using UAV imageries and open-source tools like QGIS. Its interactive web map facilitates user engagement, issue reporting, and complaint logging, enabling timely responses and sustainable resource allocation. Our study showcases the open-source web-enabled utility management prototype that can be further extended for use in larger communities and industries for improved and managed urban living, prompt resource distribution, and monitoring.