Presentation / Speaker Listing
View All Presentations | Report a Problem With This Abstract
Monday 17 October 2005: Session 2, 4:40:00 PM
A Discussion of Geospatial Characterization of Roadway Vegetation Roughness
Presentation Abstract
Winter travel in the Snow Belt areas of the United States can be hazardous during times of blizzards, winter storms, and blowing snow events. For surface transportation precipitation does not have to be falling in order for travel to become hazardous. Wind alone can transport snow, from previous snow events onto the roadway, which reduces visibility and can begin to accumulate. The areas of roadway accumulation depend on the orientation of the roadway with respect to the prevailing winds during the event, the amount of snow mass present and surface roughness factors along the roadway. Identifying the surface roughness or vertical extent of the vegetation is a geospatial problem that can be accomplished with ground-based observations. North Dakota has been a national leader in the development of traveler information systems and its location within the upper Midwest offers an excellent opportunity for RGIS-Great Plains to assist rural America with traveler safety. Blowing snow models are currently being developed that would benefit greatly if detailed information on surface roughness and/or obstructions could be incorporated into the model initialization. This presentation will illustrate the work being done to better the geospatial characterization of roadway vegetation roughness used within a blowing snow model. It will highlight the need for the roughness categorization within surface transportation weather research and discuss the use of video mapping along a roadway and the process involved with transferring data to a GIS.
Speaker Biographical Information
Scott Kroeber Research Assistant: RGIS Great Plains - University of North Dakota
Scott Kroeber is a faculty research assistant in the Regional Weather Information Center at the University of North Dakota. During his seventeen years at UND, Scott was involved in the universities field research projects as a Doppler weather radar operator. He also served as the Department of Atmospheric Sciences meteorology lab coordinator, and was a lab instructor. Presently he is involved in working with Geographical Information Systems. Scott’s area of expertise is in merging meteorological data sets, into Geographical Information Systems.
