GIS and LiDAR Use for Identification of Potential Road Hazard Locations

In Northerly climates snowstorms are common occurrences that pose severe hazards to drivers. Thousands of lives and property worth of millions of dollars are lost annually. This paper presents a novel method of identifying road segments that pose special hazards to drivers during and after snowstorms by using Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data and a Geographic Information System (GIS). The methodology presented herein can be used for prioritizing roadway snow clearing efforts by identifying the most hazardous road segments. The proposed methodology uses the spatial analysis functionality provided by GIS software and three-dimensional (3D) data obtained from an airborne LiDAR scanning system. The computing focus of this paper is on spatial data analysis. The data include road centerline 3D coordinates (to identify roadway crests and troughs), aspect data (to determine ground surface slope), and sunlight data (to determine ground surface illumination values and identify shaded areas). Combining and analyzing these data sets identify potentially dangerous north facing, shaded, steep slopes over large geographic areas.