• August 14th, 2019

This PowerPoint presents a model of data integration of geo-located weather and roadway data for decision making with the US Department of Transportation, the National Weather Service, and end- users who need integrated data for better roadway weather decision making. The application of this Roadway Weather Data Implementation (RWDI) in Alabama and Georgia serves as a pilot evaluation to determine the relevant weather and transportation data needed for weather traffic management and decision making. A UA study of winter weather roadway decision making in 2014 in Atlanta, GA led to the implementation of this concept with the National Weather Service and the Georgia DOT, which developed a data integration for their winter weather events. These data will serve as the factors for a model of roadway weather traffic management to be implemented in several test locations over the duration of the upcoming project. The result will be a roadway weather transportation research program for the development of new technologies, data analytics, and applications for transportation weather safety. A decision-making analytics portal will be developed for the data integration for ease of use by end-users. This project will tie directly to the Pathfinder project of the USDOT’s FHWA and the National Weather Service that can be accessed here:

https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/fhwahop16086/fhwahop16086.pdf

Pathfinder was developed a few years ago to encourage collaboration of agencies and data to provide decision-making guidelines on road conditions. The project that is proposed to extend this implementation will have a duration of 5 years.

  • Years 1-2: Evaluations of Alabama, Georgia, and the remaining 26 states that have deployed
    Pathfinder will be conducted and decision-making portals will be developed for use of the
    data integration by end users.
  • Years 3-4: A series of workshops will be held with weather and transportation professionals
    to determine additional data elements required for other locations and weather types and
    the necessary data collection instruments will be identified. Simulations will be developed
    for exercise and training for decision-makers in advance of real-time usage.
  • Year 5: A model for roadway weather data integration will be published for use by Pathfinder
    partners, and it will be disseminated to these partners for use.