Highway Weather Information Needs & Requirements

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. WIST-DSS Decisions Tailored Decision Support ----------------- filtering, fusion, presentation Actions System requirements (Information Infrastructure) Communications Interface requirements Interface requirements Interface requirements Other ITS Weather Services Specialized Road Sensors (ESS) Road Weather Decision Support

6. 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)

7. Needs: Timing and Confidence 14, 75% 0, 96% 2.H Act. Staff 2.K Prime Disp. 2.G Prep Equip. 41, 40% 14, 56% 2.B Prepare 2.D Prep. Exp. 9, 77% 2.I Init. Dispatch 2.E Select Strat. 2.C Get Ready 16, 72% 3.8, 95% 49, 46% 29 2.A Aware Monitor Detect 100 30 10 3 0 -3 Time Before Event (Hrs., pseudo logarithmic) 33, 60% 2.F Assign Crews

8. response_decision situation_selector decision_file query_decision scenario_selector Present Decision time_local decision_selector Update Clock decision_situation Generate Scenario Monitor Conditions decision_criteria time_universal conditions_scenario decision_operational response_scenario query_scenario input_user Update Context context_selector context_update presentation_user context_operational context_planning Make Decision context_parameters Select Context (to all processes) Primary Information Interfaces Computer-Human Interface WIST-DSS Essential Functions

9. 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.

10. 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

11. Linking Performance Threats and Environment Information

12. 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 (Where’s the bottleneck?) • Foretell evaluation – 1st comprehensive evaluation of the entire chain