A Geostatistical Approach to Winter Road Surface Condition Estimation using Mobile RWIS Data

In winter, it is critical for cold regions to have a full understanding of the spatial variation of road surface conditions such that hot spots (e.g., black-ice) can be identified for the effective mobilization of winter road maintenance operations. Acknowledging the limitations in present study, this paper proposes a systematic framework to estimate road surface temperature (RST) via the geographic information system (GIS). The proposed method uses a robust regression kriging method to take account for various geographical factors that may affect the variation of RST. A case study of highway segments in Alberta, Canada is used to demonstrate the feasibility and applicability of the method proposed herein. The findings of this study suggest that the geostatistical modelling framework proposed in this paper can accurately estimate RST with help of various covariates included in the model and further promote the possibility of continuous monitoring and visualization of road surface conditions.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author