摘要：AbstractCulverts are essential elements of any road infrastructure. A culvert failure or malfunction may affect not only the culvert itself, but also it could cause serious problems on the road and its surroundings, such as floods, roadway damage, traffic interruption, and even fatal accidents. Although there are extensive bibliography and regulations related to proper design and construction of culverts, very valuable and less accessible information can be obtained from bad experiences. For example, sometimes culverts have a malfunction because of extreme rainfalls, but other times the failure is caused by changes in land use outside the road area with an excessive production of debris. It is therefore very important to gather all the information related to failures in culverts and to process it efficiently, both to reconsider the design criteria, and to prioritize actions for maintenance or improvement.In this paper a methodology for the collection and processing of information related to culverts pathologies is proposed by the establishment of appropriate categories, the development of a database easy to operate; and the implementation of all this information in a Geographic Information System (GIS) for decision making support. As an example, this methodology has been applied to the Andalusian regional road network in the province of Jaen, (Spain).
