The Winter Maintenance Management System
The Winter Maintenance Management System supports decision-making on winter maintenance services. The system consists of two subsystems: the Winter Road Friction Monitoring System and the Winter Maintenance Support System. It provides road operators with weather forecasts, road surface temperatures and risks of icing (as point data and as route data), road images captured by CCTV cameras, and road surface conditions (i.e., slipperiness).
The system outputs forecast information based on scientific algorithms and supports evidence-based decision-making.
Feedback from the field is used to improve the system interface and the parameters of forecast models.
The Snow-Removal Machinery Management System
The Snow-Removal Machinery Management System collects real-time data on the locations and operation statuses of snow removal machinery working on national highways. The system aims for the flexible, efficient and effective deployment of snow removal machinery.
Tool for reporting snow removal operation status: This makes it easy for road operators to understand the progress of snow removal operations. By setting snow removal routes, you can simulate snow removal operation completion times.
When localized heavy snowfall occurs, the commander at a depot can reassign snow removal machinery to assist on sections whose completion would otherwise be delayed, thereby shortening the snow removal operation time on all the planned sections.
Tool for visualizing snow removal operation: This tool uses a graph to comprehensively and visually display each snow removal machine’s operation status. One can see changes in the operation routes and locations of a machine and those near it, and one can see changes in the formations of plows during echelon plowing.
By using historical records of a section’s snow removal operation status to create visual representations, the commander can identify factors contributing to inefficiency of deployment and can assess the effectiveness of flexibly allocating adjoining snow removal machinery to removal sections, thereby improving the planning of snow removal operations.