Highway Weather Information Needs

1
Highway Weather Information Needs Requirements

• Paul Pisano
• Road Weather Management Coordinator
• Federal Highway Administration

2
4-Step Process

• Step 1 Information Needs
• Step 2 Operational Concept Description
• Step 3 Preliminary Interface Requirements
• Step 4 Test Evaluation

3
Step 1 Information Needs

• Focus is on decision makers
• first understand the information needs of these
  users and operators of the transportation system
  to be able to treat, respond to or cope with
  weather threats.
• Covered all surface transportation decision
  makers
• 426 needs across 44 decision maker categories

4
Examples of Needs
5
Key Organizing Concept Information and Decision
Scales
meso
synoptic
climatic
micro
(minutes-6 hrs.)
(6 hrs.-week)
(weeks)
(current-minutes)
use caution
route/diversion
trip mode
time/break
veh. equipage/prep
go/no-go
trip route/time
load manage
destination
protect work/stock
inquire/search
set signals
Planning
dispatching
set issue warnings
event decisions
close/open/restrict routes
schedule jobs
respond to emer. call
work schedules
harvest/plant
report calls/threats
store/ship
emer. resource readiness
budget
triage
order stock/goods
bring assets online
Warning
design facilities
protect work/stock
locate facilities
treat vuln.
provide capacity
plow/salt/drain
provide backup
warn/evacuate
allocate land uses
suppress emissions
allocate transport
Operations
6
Road Weather Decision Support
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Step 2 Operational Concept Description

• Analyzed winter road maintenance decisions
• Originally 10 operational scale decisions
• Expanded to 53
• Organized into 14 clusters
• Defined essential functions (i.e., system
  requirements) for the Weather Information for
  Surface Transportation Decision Support System
  (WIST-DSS)

8
Needs Timing and Confidence
33, 60
2.F Assign Crews
9
WIST-DSS Essential Functions
10
Step 3 Preliminary Interface Requirements

• Linking decisions to threats
• Linking performance threats and environmental
  information
• Synthesizing the Information Taxonomy
• 212 items necessary to support winter road
  maintenance decisions
• The 212 items include environmental information,
  transportation state information, and the
  treatment asset information.

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Examples of taxonomy items
Environmental Information 2.1 Operational scale
info. to Update Context 2.1.1 Weather
2.1.1.1 Winds 2.1.1.1.1
Wind direction 2.1.1.1.2
Wind speed 2.1.1.1.3 Wind
situation 2.1.1.1.4 Maximum
wind gust speed 2.1.1.1.5
Maximum wind gust direction 2.1.1.1.6
Stability
Transportation State 2.1.5 Surface transportation
network status 2.1.5.1 Road network
2.1.5.1.1 Segment characteristics
2.1.5.1.1.1 Traffic density
2.1.5.1.1.2 Traffic speed
2.1.5.1.1.3 Safe speed
2.1.5.1.1.4 Open/closed
2.1.5.1.1.5 Structure condition
2.1.5.1.1.6 Pavement condition (potholes,
etc.) 2.1.5.1.1.7 Facility
condition 2.1.5.1.1.8 Pavement
type 2.1.5.1.1.9 Emissivity
2.1.5.1.1.10 Albedo
Asset Information 2.1.4.3 Mobile treatment
(crews) 2.1.4.3.1 Status 2.1.4.3.2
Equipment assigned 2.1.4.3.3
Beat completed 2.1.4.3.4 Dispatched
beat 2.1.4.3.4.1 Treatment
product type 2.1.4.3.4.2
Treatment product form 2.1.4.3.4.3
Percentage of treatment type in mix
2.1.4.3.4.4 Treatment amount
2.1.4.3.4.5 Treatment width
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Linking Performance Threats and Environment
Information
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Step 4 Test Evaluation

• Iterative development of operational systems
• Observing-to-outcome chain
• Quantifying the relationships between performance
  improvements and environmental information
  quality
• Quality of decision support (Wheres the
  bottleneck?)
• Foretell evaluation 1st comprehensive
  evaluation of the entire chain