Driving through Extreme Weather (DEW) Mobile APP: Improving Risk Communication from NWS to Vehicle Drivers

Severe thunderstorms, such as tornadoes, pose a significant threat to the traveling public and transportation personnel along roadway corridors. For a number of reasons, road travelers cannot receive severe weather warning for their current or down-road locations, which puts them at risk for being impacted by severe weather. In addition, even though the road travelers can receive severe weather warning, they may not take any actions as they do not know what they can do to make them safe. This suggests that extra message (guidance on where to drive to) is needed by road travelers, besides severe weather warning. Recognizing this need, this project will propose to develop an advanced decision-making framework that can provide the optimized route for vehicle drivers based on big data, in order to facilitate them in taking timely protective actions during extreme weather. To achieve this, a route-optimizing algorithm will be developed to identify an optimized route for vehicle drivers during severe weather, and a mobile app will be developed to facilitate in real-time sending the optimized route to vehicle drivers (risk communication). This product will add a layer of protection to those traveling to ensure that they reach their destination safely. This product can provide end-users when they should get off the highway and which route they should take to get to the nearest storm shelter. Tornadoes will be taken as an example of extreme weather; Missouri will be taken as a pilot location; NWS in Springfield, MO will be taken as our collaborative NWS office; and Missouri Department of Transportation (MODOT) will be brought onboard to develop this mobile app together. The proposed framework and App development procedure can be applied to improve the public safety under other extreme weather conditions and in other locations.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $209208
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3552348307

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Mid-America Transportation Center

  University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  2200 Vine Street, PO Box 830851
  Lincoln, NE  United States  68583-0851
• Performing Organizations:

  Missouri University of Science & Technology, Rolla

  Department of Engineering
  202 University Center
  Rolla, MO    65409
• Principal Investigators:

  Yan, Guirong

• Start Date: 20230601
• Expected Completion Date: 20240731
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Decision support systems; Driver information systems; Mobile applications; Route guidance; Tornadoes; Weather
• Geographic Terms: Missouri
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Environment; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01908390
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Mid-America Transportation Center
• Contract Numbers: 69A3552348307
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Feb 19 2024 4:41PM