Research

Projects

Freight Congestion Mitigation

	MeTrIS architecture and instrumentation. A sample of 250 drayage trucks are outfitted with GPS tracking devices. Location and other data are relayed in real time to our servers, and analytical outputs are shared with motor carriers and area governments to enable improved safety/security, operations and long range planning. — Digital Geographic Research Corporation
	MeTrIS dynamic transportation data model. A customized transportation data model has been developed to address the specialized geographies and operations of ports and freight facilities. This research component includes evaluation of transportation databases and data fusion. — UCSB
	MeTrIS port synchronization model. Models are being developed to synchronize truck arrivals with port operations. Container stack management strategies, gate appointment systems and truck queue management use MeTrIS data to realize efficiencies and improvements in terminal velocity. — University of Washington
	MeTrIS deadhead reduction model. Port operations are often characterized by unproductive trips, ferrying empty containers, bare chassis or nothing at all ("bobtail runs") over critical port arteries. A real-time container exchange model and empty container depot planning tool are being developed, using MeTrIS data to reduce these deadhead trips. — UCSB

Corridor Development

	Decision Support System for Corridor Alignment. To find the best alignment for a new highway, pipeline, etc, given a table of suitability scores (derived from attributes by LIDAR, multispectral sensing, etc). — UCSB
	LIDAR vs photogrammetry: comparison of accuracy.  LIDAR surveys are carried out in advance of alignment, design and construction.  This project compares the accuracy of LIDAR, traditional photogrammetry and softcopy photogrammetry.   — University of Wisconsin-Madison, with LIDAR by 3Di
	LIDAR vs photogrammetry: comparison of cost and time. Documents a ~50% improvement in cost and time using LIDAR for preliminary survey of a relatively wide corridor swath, and photogrammetry for final design only. — Iowa State University, with LIDAR by 3Di
	Network Development Prioritization. A decision support system to prioritize corridors for development. Most relevant to undeveloped areas and developing countries where settlements remain poorly connected — UCSB

Asset Inventory, Centerlines and Pavement

	Highway Features and Characteristics Using Remote Sensing, Mobile Mapping, GIS, GPS.  Studied the feasibility of using RS/GIS/GPS to extract road centerlines, edges, medians, shoulders, traffic lanes, and land use. The project explores the combined strength of the technologies, and the relative strengths of each. — Florida DOT with Oak Ridge National Laboratory
	Road Centerline Mapping using Hyperspectral Data. Reports some success, but concludes that even using 224-band hyperspectral data, road centerlines are not easily derived from remote sensing imagery alone. Clearly the challenge with multispectral data is much greater. Also see hyperspectral project under "Urban Analysis" below. — UCSB, with AVIRIS by JPL
	Ground Laser Applications in Construction and Bridge Maintenance.  Ground laser is useful for developing as-built 3-D infrastructure data (e.g. bridges), and measuring solid volumes on construction sites (e.g. stockpiles and pits).  Pilot study report, funded by Iowa DOT, explains the methods and provides examples. 52-pg report — Iowa State University
	Calculating Grade and Cross-Slope from LIDAR.  Grade can be accurately calculated, but cross-slope is not reliably computable from LIDAR data because point spacing (~1 m) is too high relative to pavement width (~10-15 m). — Iowa State University with LIDAR by 3Di
	Roadway Feature Inventory.  2-pg handout  — Iowa State University
	BridgeView.  A tool to identify bridges (or other infastructure objects) in aerial/satellite imagery and to edit linear referenced GIS databases.  8-pg cookbook (PDF). Software available free to DOTs. — University of Wisconsin-Madison
	Microsimulation Support: Tool to translate ESRI® Shape files for use with Paramics®. Free software, downloadable. — UCSB with UC Berkeley
	Pavement health evaluation. Pavement samples have been scanned by AVIRIS, handheld spectrometer, Roadware® ARAN® and Spectir Inc sub-meter hyperspectral flights, and evaluated by several independent pavement evaluation experts. Initial findings are that pavement age is reflected in imagery, but parameters of physical condition (e.g. cracking, rutting) are difficult to correlate. — UCSB with Iowa State University, Roadware, Spectir, Independent Seals, Western Paving, Vulcan

Spatial Database Management

	UNETRANS — Essential Data Model for Transportation. A transportation template for ArcGIS8.2, developed in consultation with ESRI® users.  Free download. — UCSB with ESRI and the UNETRANS consortium
	Instant Access to Imagery.  A tool that access imagery over the Internet, rectifies and registers as required, on the fly. — OrbImage Inc with Bentley

Urban Analysis

	Hyperspectral analysis of urban and pavement surfaces.  Identifies the best wavelengths for urban feature discrimination, arguing that these should form the design parameters for an urban sensor.  Urban areas are difficult to handle because of the similarity in materials used for different purposes, e.g. roof tiles and roads are similar, tennis courts and concrete roofs are similar. In rural areas, materials are relatively easy to distinguish. — UCSB with AVIRIS by JPL, and IKONOS by Space Imaging
	Targeting Traffic Counting by Change Detection.  Uses change detection to identify recently settled areas, in which traffic counts are most likely to change. This helps target traffic demand forecasting studies better. 24-pg report  Also featured by TRB. — Iowa State University
	Analysis of Historic Landuse around Boston's Big Dig.   — University of Massachusetts, Amherst
	Intermodal Connector Analysis Toolkit. Pan sharpened imagery of intermodal transfer points near the Alameda Corridor (Los Angeles) assists evaluation of traffic and land use impacts by and upon the Corridor. — Tetra Tech Inc with Jet Propulsion Laboratory, HJW and CSU Long Beach

Incident Management and Critical Infrastructure Protection

	Research Agenda in Critical Infrastructure Protection.  8-pg report  . — Dave Fletcher, Geographic Paradigm Computing Inc
	Incident Management: a Rapid Deployment Sensing Platform.  Helikites (combination helium balloon and kite) can be deployed at short notice to examine incidents from low altitude. Still and video images are beamed from on-board cameras in real time. — Iowa State University
	Identifying Critical Infrastructure ... and How to Design a Resilient Network.  Some bridges and infrastructure, while elaborate and elegant, may be less critical to traffic flow and overall regional economics than others. How does this impact future network design and disaster planning?   — UCSB
	Neighbourhood Evacuation.  In the Oakland Hills fires of 1991, 25 people perished in their cars, stuck in traffic trying to escape. Traffic microsimulation evaluates infrastructure adequacy and expected clearance time.  22-pg report   — UCSB