Details:

Creators:
Landman, E. Dean ; Dissanayake, Sunanda ; Knapp, Mary ; He, Wei
Landman, E. Dean ; Dissanayake, Sunanda ; Knapp, Mary ; He, Wei Less -
Corporate Creators:
K-TRAN (Research program)
Subject/TRT Terms:
[+]
Evaluation And Assessment Intelligent Transportation Systems Programs Reliability Road Weather Information Systems Transportation Planning Weather Forecasting
Publication/ Report Number:
K-TRAN: KSU-04-5
Resource Type:
Tech Report
Geographical Coverage:
Kansas
Edition:
Final Report; July 2003 - August 2005
Corporate Publisher:
Kansas. Dept. of Transportation
NTL Classification:
NTL-INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS-Road Weather Management;NTL-INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS-INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS;
Abstract:
It is just as important to keep the highways functioning in a safe and efficient manner as it is to construct them in

the first place. Our economy is built around an efficient transportation system. Winter weather plays an important role

in highway operations, and accurate weather forecasts help the maintenance forces plan for weather events. The

purpose of this research is to enhance the use of KDOT’s Roadway Weather Information System by improving the

weather forecasts themselves and raising the level of confidence in these forecasts.

Monitoring of the forecasts is necessary to assure that their accuracy meets the expectations of the agency.

However, to properly evaluate the forecast quality, accurate sensor data from the monitoring stations are essential. The

researchers found that at least some of the wind direction and moisture sensors at the RWIS sites were malfunctioning.

Because of the limitations of having just one year of storm events, a statistically reliable statement could not be made

about ranking the three vendors. However, it was observed that there was a tendency to over-predict certain conditions.

The storage and retrieval system limited the ability to evaluate the prediction of the timing and occurrence of storm

events. Opinions by field personnel on the formats of the forecasts varied but were generally very favorable toward

SSI. Some metrics that were identified to be key elements to evaluate forecast accuracy prior to the study and later

confirmed during interviews with field personnel were not archived or the sensors were providing erroneous ground

truth. Based on field observations, the temperature sensors were reporting very accurately at and around the freezing

point.

This report contains analysis that substantiates the problems with the data, analysis of the available data to compare

the forecasts of the vendors and recommendations of procedures for monitoring sensor performance, data storage and

retrieval, and items to consider in contract negotiations.


Format:
PDF
Funding:
C1408
Collection(s):
US Transportation Collection
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:fefbfc0f8379178f2aa96931bfbe1f0de1710610d8617e30e321f0b1a25f030c
Download URL:
https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/16494/dot_16494_DS1.pdf
File Type:

Supporting Files

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