Cost-benefit analysis and microclimate-based optimization of a RWIS network

The Road Weather Information System (RWIS) has been applied as an effective tool to collect weather and road surface temperature information and to assist operational decisions for snow and ice control activities. Current practices on siting regional RWIS stations rely on the knowledge and experiences of maintenance and operation personnel, which is subjective and inefficient. A two-stage sequential model is developed in this paper. The Stage-1 model optimizes the number and locations of RWIS stations, which intends to maximize spatial coverage with the least overlapping area, considering the variation of regional weather severity. The deployment of the optimized RWIS sites can be prioritized by the Stage-2 model, which maximizes the lifecycle profit subject to limited budget. The proposed methodology is applied to optimize a RWIS network for the State of New York.