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MDSS Stakeholder MeetingBoulder, CO

October 21, 2005

Road Weather Information SystemEnvironmental Sensor Station

Siting Guidelines

Ed BosellyWeather Solutions Group

Olympia, WAwith help from

Paul Pisano, FHWA and Lee Smithson, SICOP

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AcknowledgementsAcknowledgements

• SAIC: – John Manfredi, Tom Walters, Greg Wilke,

Tom Incrocci

• Meridian Environmental Technology, Inc.– Leon Osborne, Bob Hart

• T & S Diversified Inc.– Tom Schmitt

• Many Interviewees

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Defines RWISDefines RWIS

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Purpose of the ProjectPurpose of the Project

• Provide information on the selection & installation of environmental sensor station (ESS) equipment & instrumentation

• Help ensure that the data adequately support the specified purposes of the observing site

• Educate on the importance of participating in the greater community and on issues such as the need for accurate metadata

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RWIS/ESS RWIS/ESS ApplicationsApplications

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Siting Guidelines CharacteristicsSiting Guidelines Characteristics

• Provide siting criteria that satisfy as many road weather monitoring, detection, & prediction requirements as possible

• Criteria are based on an analysis of other published research & interviews with state DOT experts, equipment suppliers & consultants

• Guidelines are a set of recommendations & are not mandates or standards

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ESS Sensor CategoriesESS Sensor Categories

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Planning the ESS NetworkPlanning the ESS Network

• How will the road weather information be used, and who will use it?– Will the ESS be used to measure a site-specific

condition or provide information that represents conditions across a general area?

• What needs to be measured at each installation?

• What other sources of weather and pavement data are available to share and improve the availability of data to other partner agencies

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Examples of ESS SensorsExamples of ESS Sensors

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Regional Site RequirementsRegional Site Requirements

• Support broad, real-time monitoring of weather and road conditions

• Provide data to improve the accuracy of surface transportation specific forecasts

• Provide ground truth to evaluate accuracy

• Anticipate changes in road weather from upstream locations

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Local Site RequirementsLocal Site Requirements

• Observations used to assist in issuing advisories & short term forecasting

• Observed conditions may be locally worse, but may be representative of other similar segments or structures

• Highlights specific problems, typically called trouble spots

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Additional Siting ToolsAdditional Siting Tools

• Thermal mapping– Better defines thermal characteristics– Help identify similar areas– Optimize the number of ESS to be installed

• Portable sensor systems– Help identify potential permanent ESS sites– Do not include sensors requiring implanting

in/below pavement

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Typical Locations of Tower-Based Typical Locations of Tower-Based SensorsSensors

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ESS Location Relative to RoadwayESS Location Relative to Roadway

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Other ConsiderationsOther Considerations

• Electrical power availability

• Communications availability

• Roadside environment

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Typical Pavement Sensor SitingTypical Pavement Sensor Siting

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Optional ConsiderationsOptional Considerations

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Aside (mine) – Also Consider:Aside (mine) – Also Consider:

• Installing remote sensor systems in the pavement using wireless communications to the ESS RPU

• Repeater sites to solve communications problems– Can solve line-of-site problems– Can get data into a backbone system

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Siting MetadataSiting Metadata

• Metadata: “data about data”• Metadata are used to document the

characteristics of each sensor and its siting to provide users an understanding of what the sensor data really represent

• Standards have been developed for some geospatial metadata, but not for RWIS ESS location and sensor metadata

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ConclusionConclusion• Collection of road weather information can provide

decision support to transportation managers & contribute to more accurate road weather forecasts

• Siting recommendations are designed to satisfy as many road weather monitoring, detecting and predicting requirements as possible

• Siting recommendations encourage uniformity in siting, application and participation in the greater community

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Conclusion (cont.)Conclusion (cont.)

• Siting decisions are best made by a team of transportation operations, road maintenance, and weather experts.

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Recommendation (Mine)Recommendation (Mine)

Hire a weather expert experienced in RWIS ESS siting

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Questions?Questions?