Open data based RWIS for mobile devices Mikael Holmström, Intrinsic Oy

Open data based RWIS for mobile devices Content Background Overall system architecture and back-end system Information sources Mobile applications Conclusions and way to market

Background Intrinsic is a Finnish software company providing RWIS related systemsIntrinsic RWIS clients include Finnish Transport Agency and Destia Finnish Transport Agency and FMI offers open weather data Ongoing project at Intrinsic to deploy open data in RWIS using mobile devices The aim is to use the developed system as a reference and a basis for future customer projects This presentation describes the project and conclusions What is a RWIS?

Road Weather Information System is a decision support system for road maintenance professionals To optimize costs and maximize road safety and smoothness of traffic flow RWIS collects and stores all kind of information which is helpful in maintenance decision making Information provided by RWIS is often used also in public services and applications Background

Optimized maintenance and safe traffic Decision making Road weather data visualization Observations, forecasts and all other related information. Data collection and storing

Overall system architecture Other sources FMI Digitraffic Information sources Forecasts, radar and satellite pictures, etc. Synoptic observations, radar pictures Road weather observations, weather camera pictures, etc. Mobile client applications Database Application server Map server Back-end system

Other sources FMI Digitraffic Information sources Forecasts, radar and satellite pictures, etc. Synoptic observations, radar pictures Road weather observations, weather camera pictures, etc. Mobile client applications Database Application server Map server Back-end system

Information sources, Digitraffic Open data provided by Digitraffic:Digitraffic Real-time observation data from road weather stations About 40 sensor values available per station Weather Camera pictures Driving condition forecasts in winter time Forecasts are provided for road segments (about 300 segments in Finland) 2h, 4h, 6h, 12h forecasts Real time data from traffic measuring devices Traffic volumes and average speed observations and current free flow speeds Real time fluency and travel time data Fluency classes, travel times and free flow speeds Average daily fluency class data Digitraffic Open Traffic Data

Information sources, FMI FMI open data offeringopen data offering Weather, marine and climate observations Weather radar images and lightning observations Data from national weather forecasting and marine models For RWIS use the most useful information is Synoptic weather observations Weather point forecasts (HIRLAM model) Weather radar pictures: Rainfall intensity 1, 12 and 24 hour precipitation Based on Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards such as Web Feature Service (WFS)

Information sources, Other All weather information needed in RWIS is not available as open data at the moment, e.g.: Point forecasts for weather station points Satellite pictures Radar picture forecasts No plans have been published if, for example FMI, will include this needed information in its open data offering The missing information must be purchased from commercial weather information suppliers in order to put up a sound RWIS offering In business context this gives a strong control point to these suppliers (e.g. FMI and Foreca in Finland) RWIS must be technically able to connect to these other (commercial) information sources Other sources

Mobile applications Map interface to control all the applications and functionality: Map view with symbols for weather stations and cameras Animation of weather radar and satellite pictures on the map Graph view to present sensor values in trend graphs Weather camera pictures and animation Table view. Shows station observations in table form

Map interface

Graph view

Weather camera pictures

Mobile applications Applications are developed with tools under the HTML5 technology umbrellatechnology umbrella Run in any browser supporting these technologies

Conclusions The project showed that the open data interfaces provided by FTA (Digitraffic) and FMI work well and the default service level is acceptable even for professional use Open data provided by FTA and FMI does not cover all needed weather information content. The main missing content is forecasts and satellite pictures RWIS implementation needs data from commercial sources in addition to open data. The same applies to other types of professional weather information systems as well Commercial forecast information suppliers have a major business control point here The chosen client application development technology (HTML5 family) has not caused any major surprises and the work has been quite straight forward. Still some deviation how different browsers support different HTML5 technologies

Way to market Discussions with customers are ongoing Product offering portofolio Back-end Mobile client apps Workstation apps Content delivery for partners Customer-hosted and SAAS business approaches Project continues with further development of the client applications and commercial utilization Database Application server Mobile client applications Map server Other sources FMI Digitraffic Information sources Forecasts, radar and satellite pictures, etc. Synoptic observations, radar pictures Road weather observations, weather camera pictures, etc. Back-end system Workstation applications Content Interface

Thank you for listening and have a nice summer!