Traffic congestion has been identified as the one of the most serious problems in urban transportation. Not much can be done in finding solutions to recurring congestion problem. As a part of ITS research in the 90's, a lot of research is being focused on non-recurring congestion which is caused primarily by incidents. Incident Response is a part of Incident Management programs but it has not been researched in depth. In this project, an incident response plan has been formulated on paper. A contact information database and a resource allocation database are the part of the plan. The resource allocation database has been created using expert knowledge and statistical anaJysis on the incident survey conducted in Fairfax County in northern Virginia. This plan is converted to a computer based response plan. It is then implemented using the ARCIINFO GIS software on a Unix Sun Sparc 2000 platform. The response plan is the part of a larger 'Wide Area Incident Management System Software'. / Master of Science

This creative project was proposed to develop a GIS model for transportation planning purposes with the ARC/INFO software. The urban street network in the GIS model was based on urban arterial systems in the city of Muncie, Indiana. The model was also expected to demonstrate the applicability of GIS technology in transportation planning. Several transportation planning techniques were tested with the model which included road and traffic data inventory, optimum pathing, road capacity analysis, traffic shift study modeling, and graphic presentation. The case study was targeted on road capacity analysis of urban arterial network as well as study of alternative traffic route for the urban route of State Road 32 in Muncie. The project began with an discussion of GIS technology, GIS application in planning, and ARC/INFO software programs. Then an urban street information model was developed in form of digital network in the computer database which could perform the functions of data inventory, spatial traffic analysis, and mapping manipulation. Finally the case studies were performed to demonstrate the application of this GIS network model. The findings and analysis results generated by GIS operation were used to evaluate the traffic conditions as well as to determine the feasibility of alternative route for State Road tables, ARC/INFO macro programs, traffic maps, and print-out of analysis results. / Department of Urban Planning

Congestion due to traffic accidents and incidents can be reduced through effective freeway incident management. However, this is plagued by a number of problems and requires a high level of expertise and coordination among the involved personnel. The ill-structured nature of the problem, constantly changing conditions, the number of agencies involved, and the lack of current information often cause errors in decision and response. Under these conditions, there is need for computer based support tools to provide the required decision and information support and aid the entire process by improving coordination and communication. This study focuses on addressing this issue through the development of an Expert-GIS system which integrates the powerful spatial data handling capabilities of a Geographic Information System with the rule based reasoning logic of an Expert System. The system is designed as a Group Decision Support System that provides the required support for both the substance of the problem (decisions) and the agency level interactions that take place. The ability to support the process of response is modeled using a blackboard architecture for the system. The prototype developed fully integrates the software environments of Arc/Info and Nexpert-Object and presents a unified interface, from where different incident management functions can be accessed. A complete spatial database was designed for the Fairfax County in Northern Virginia as a part of this development effort. Decision support is provided through a set of six integrated modules - incident detection and verification, preliminary response, duration estimation, delay calculation, final response plan and diversion planning, and recovery. Coordination and communication were enhanced by ensuring the uniformity of information at different locations using the system, and through a messaging mechanism that informed users about the current status of incident. The prototype system was developed for two hypothetical agencIes called the Traffic Management Center and The Police Control Center. Historical incident cases were use to test these systems and check the accuracy of the database and the rule base. Both the tests and the development effort showed a strong need for established sources of network information, that could be readily incorporated into the database. Given the fact that the system works with real network data, the next phase of research in should focus on the deployment of the system at test sites. User feedback obtained from these tests would then serve as a basis for future enhancements. / Master of Science