THE FHWA PROGRAM FOR PROTOTYPING ADVANCED DECISION SUPPORT FOR WINTER ROAD MAINTENANCE

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THE FHWA PROGRAM FOR PROTOTYPING ADVANCED
DECISION SUPPORT FOR WINTER ROAD MAINTENANCE

• PAUL PISANO
• ROAD WEATHER MANAGEMENT COORDINATOR
• FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION

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Presentation Overview

• Summarize Surface Transportation Weather Decision
  Support Requirements (STWDSR) effort
• Highlight STWDSR findings
• Review Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS)
  project

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STWDSRNeeds, Requirements, Outcomes
Performance Requirements on DSS
Operational Techniques (Output)
User Needs for Information
System Resources (Information)
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Progress to Date
FHWA Weather Team
STWDSR V2.0
Operational Concept Description
Road Weather Mgmt. Prog.
White Paper
MDSS Prototype Ops. Test 00-03
STWDSR Needs (V1.0)
Preliminary Interface Reqs.
Met. Comm.
Stakeholders State DOTs, National Labs
(6), Value Added Meteorological Services (VAMS)
STWDSR Project (Mitretek)
1997
2000
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Decision Support Needs (V1.0)

• Defined needs as decisions
• Covered all surface transportation decision
  makers
• Defined 426 needs
• Across 44 decision maker categories
• Across 3 scales planning, operational, and
  warning

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Examples of Needs
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Operational Concept Description (V2.0)

• Analyzed winter road maintenance decisions
• Originally 10 operational scale decisions
• Expanded to 53
• Organized into 16 clusters
• Defined essential functions (i.e., system
  requirements) for the Weather Information for
  Surface Transportation Decision Support System
  (WIST-DSS)

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Needs Timing and Confidence
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Preliminary Interface Requirements (V2.0)

• Defines the information resources needed from
  external sources for decision support.
• Synthesizes the Information Taxonomy
• 212 items necessary to support winter road
  maintenance decisions
• Three categories environmental information,
  transportation state information, and the
  treatment asset information.

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Formation of the MDSS
Environmental Threat
212 Data Objects
Transportation State
Treatment Assets
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Prototype DevelopmentThe MDSS Project

• Puts STWDSR effort into practice for one user
  group (winter maintenance managers)
• Based on design elements captured in the OCD and
  information interfaces in the PIR

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Logical Functions Defined by OCD for MDSS
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MDSS Approach

• Employ National Labs to develop prototype modules
• Iterative development with users and system
  deployers
• Based on open systems principles
• Field test

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MDSS Prototype Developers
 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Environmental Technology Lab (ETL) Forecast System Lab (FSL) National Severe Storm Lab (NSSL)
 Department of Defense (DOD) The Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab (CRREL) The Air Force MIT/Lincoln Lab (MIT/LL)
University consortium The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
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Development Schedule
Labs, DOTs, VAMS
OCD PIR
Prototype Development
Field Test Evaluation
Deployment
9/00
9/01
7/03
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References Contacts

• All documents are posted on the Electronic
  Document Library
• www.its.dot.gov/welcome.htm
• To participate in MDSS contact
• Rudy Persaud 202-493-3391
• rudy.persaud_at_fhwa.dot.gov
• Gary Nelson 202-488-5718
• gnelson_at_mitretek.org