A Standardized Repository of 9,031 Regional Storm Events Enables Traffic-Based Analysis of Transportation Disruption Signatures

Abstract

Roads are disrupted constantly due to minor hazards: flooding shutting down a bridge, a snowstorm burying an interchange temporarily. Not only rare disasters but routine hazard events affect the performance of the regional transport network. Hazard data and traffic data are stored independently in separate databases with incompatible format and structure. Closing that gap first required a tool that didn’t exist: the Hazard Footprint Repository, built for this project standardizes storm event records from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) across Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. into one, common framework. As a result, twenty-seven source files in various formats were merged into one database, containing 9,031 events and forty-two variables standardized by level of transportation relevance. The next step will be based on this hazard database and will involve selection of representative flood and other hazard events, mapping their impact, location, and time, and calculating the severity-weighted area-under-the-curve metric for each event. The proposed framework would allow us to see the impact of hazard disruptions in a new light.