As road transport professionals strive to build resilience into the road network, using data and new technologies is becoming increasingly popular. Dr Federico Perrotta, Principal Consultant at AECOM – and a CIHT Technical Champion – believes that, used the right way, they can make a positive impact.

“Obviously, nowadays, data doesn't always appear in a structured shape and form. Large tech companies have showed us how they can take information from pretty much everything we do, get a better understanding of our lifestyles and learn about how we make use of their products,” explains Dr Perrotta.
 
“Climate change is affecting our everyday lives and, as transport planners, engineers and professionals, we should take advantage of all that information generated,” he adds. “If the objective is to move people and goods from A to B with minimal disruptions, we must understand how people’s habits are affected by extreme weather events and what vulnerabilities the network presents, before we can discuss what the most appropriate solutions are.

“For this reason, accessing an appropriate level of customer data could be key to informed decision making, to pick the best solution and ultimately deliver resilient road infrastructure for all.”

Machine learning and artificial intelligence

Dr Perrotta’s background is in civil engineering and, in his PhD studies at the University of Nottingham, he investigated the use of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) when applied to transportation data.

“That was a bit niche, but nowadays I look at the broader picture; for example, how does a flooding event affect a community? Or how do pavements that deteriorate quicker than they have ever done affect a road authority’s planning and investment strategies?” he explains. 

“We’re looking specifically at historic pavement management systems (PMS) data, collected over the past few decades, to understand how grippy road surfaces are and what can be done to help drivers brake safely, even under adverse weather conditions.

“That information allows us to determine the best times to do maintenance and understand which materials perform best, in different scenarios. Certainly, we are dealing with ageing assets, which are difficult to manage anyway, but with climate change the challenges simply double up.

“We are observing faster deterioration, as most of the roads we use nowadays were designed decades ago to cope with less frequent extreme weather events than we currently experience. Combined with other sources of information, including road weather information systems (RWIS) data, such a rich dataset helps us understand and identify changes in trends, which can be related to climate.”

Data from individuals is much easier to obtain, thanks to advances in technology, a trend that Dr Perrotta is happy to see. “Vehicles and mobile phones have a variety of sensors, so anytime we move, they collect enormous amounts of information at a speed that is sometimes difficult to keep up with,” he explains. “With that information, we can more easily find out which journeys will be impacted by heavy rainfall, high winds or intense snowfall. 

“Road authorities tend to also collect climate information from road surface temperatures to rainfall to wind speeds – and we have seen changes [in] the extremes of these events.”

To make improvements in the future, Dr Perrotta believes the industry needs to include AI and ML in its toolkit. “We need to embrace the use of crowdsourced information to get data from the customers and use that information for the customers,” he reasons.

“A lot of us, when we give consent to use our data on websites, don't know exactly how that data is going to be used. Now, there is an incredible opportunity to share some of our data with road authorities to potentially change our everyday travels, on roads, for the better. Would people be happy to share some of their data to drive on better roads?

“If that happens, there will be plenty of opportunities for the sector to change. Those of us in the civil engineering sector, along with highways engineers, transportation planners and other professionals, need to upskill and prepare to use data from a variety of sources, to discern complex patterns and deliver valuable insights to decision makers.

“On the other hand, customers need to be a bit more open to cooperate and share data, if they wish for their views and challenges to be identified and addressed, even when affected by more frequent extreme weather events.”

Next steps

Listen to Dr Federico Perrotta in the podcast ‘Navigating the chal-lenges of climate change adaptation’; watch the video.

CIHT have developed the ‘Transportation Digital Skills Gap’ policy briefing which highlights the top five digital skills an average transport professional will need for the future.

Newsletter image: AI used to gather transport data; credit: Shutterstock.

Dr Federico Perrotta, Principal Consultant at AECOM; credit: AECOM