GIS and Snow Plow Routing
What is the most efficient way to use GIS resources to manage snow plow operations? I got to thinking about that today, as I ran across an ESRI press release, referencing a Government Technology article on using GIS/GPS to monitor snow plow locations during a snow storm (near-real-time). What is the utility of such an application – to the public, and to the local government?
Over the years I have been involved with several GIS applications for snow plow routing. The most effective “application” by far was a GIS-generated hardcopy map, multiple copies of which were distributed throughout Town Hall. A fancier twist is to post PDFs of those maps on the town’s website.
A few years back a student of mine at Monmouth University worked on a snow plowing course project, which showed off the student's analytical and programming skills, but had little practical application, IMHO (he got an A). Right now I am working on a GIS RFP for a local town, which (the RFP) has a special line item for a snow plowing application.
Why is this useful? Is it a fad? Am I totally missing something?
Posted by Atanas Entchev at 10/14/2008 6:38 PM 
Categories: Technology, Online Mapping, Snow Plow, GIS, GIS Uses, Maps, GPS
Tags: Technology Online Mapping Snow Plow GIS GIS Uses Maps GPS
Categories: Technology, Online Mapping, Snow Plow, GIS, GIS Uses, Maps, GPS
Tags: Technology Online Mapping Snow Plow GIS GIS Uses Maps GPS
From researching this in the past the best way to use GIS for snow removal is to track your plowing efforts. This information can be used by whoever is managing the snow events to decide the next course of action. This information can also be provided to the public via the web so they can see the progress being made.
This tends to make more sense than trying to pre-plan as storm events are to chaotic and unpredictable to apply preset routes.
In other words there are too many constantly changing variables to apply a logistical model to automatically determine routes. Or at least that is my opinion.