Ammatzia Peled

Road safety is a complex issue. To arrive at satisfactory solutions, it is essential to have a thorough knowledge of the underlying facts. In road safety engineering, these basic facts include accident highway and traffic data. Using such data it is possible to investigate the underlying principles relating to the occurrence of various types of accidents, and to develop standards which incorporate safety measures into the design of roads. Also, it will help to identify and treat those components of the transportation system which result in the most effective improvements in road safety. The ever-growing popularity and use of micro-computer technologies have helped in many ways improving quantitative data analysess for decision-making. The paper describes the establishment of a PC-based Geographic Information System (GIS) and databases developed to deal with road safety analysis, safety management and evaluation of improvements. The study includes a number of phases: establishment of detailed databases with information on accidents, traffic characteristics, road-physical data, digitized locations of the road system, geographic names; integration of databases into a GIS; analysis definition and development of GIS-based applications to road safety and management.

This paper describes a newly developed Arc/Info-based road safety analysis Geographical Information System (GIS). This software package was developed for the Haifa municipality in Israel. The package may be adapted very easily to any other city. The software package was tested succesfully using accident data during a three-year period. The package was adopted as the basic tool for road safety management, analysis and improvement. For the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD 867839.

Road safety improvements are a complex issue. To arrive at satisfactory improvements requires a thorough knowledge of the underlying facts. In road safety engineering, these basic facts include accident, highway and traffic data. Using such data makes it possible to investigate the underlying principles relating to the occurrence of various types of accidents. Through such analysis it is possible to develop design standards which incorporate safety measures into the design of roads. Also it helps to identify and treat those components of the transportation system which result in the most effective improvements in road safety. Microcomputer technologies have helped in many ways to improve quantitative data analyses and decision making. Many agencies at international, national, and local levels have therefore established computer databases to meet their particular requirements. A PC oriented accident data base is of great benefit to the organisation. However, the traditional programs and software used in creating the accident databases cannot be applied when it comes to the digital location coding, using the system for processing the accident data with its geographic component and performing any geographic analysis with the data. Geographic Information System (GIS) technology provides the needed solution. GIS is a computerized database management system for analysing and managing spatial data. This study describes the establishment of a PC based GIS database developed to deal with road safety analysis, safety management and the evaluation of safety improvements. The study deals with these phases: establishment of detailed databases containing information on accidents, traffic flow characteristics, selected road physical data, digitized locations of the road network; integration of the above databases into a GIS; definition and development of GIS based applications to road safety and management; and design and development of a user interface in the use of the developed GIS accident database system. The system as developed was demonstrated on the Hadar area, which is the central business district of Haifa, a city in Israel. Emphasis was placed on road safety analysis including the generation of periodic reports on predefined accident types (e.g., severity, pedestrian accidents etc.); the analysis of specific road safety issues (e.g. child accidents near schools) and area-wide analysis of the study area. The results of this demonstration clearly show the applicability of using GIS as a tool in road safety studies and in enhancing decision making in safety management.

The paper describes a highway safety analysis system, designed for the Haifa Municipality in Israel, which is Arc\Info-based (GIS). As the result of a successful 3 year test using accident data, the software package was adopted for use for the management, analysis and improvement of highway safety. It should be able to identify and solve those traffic event problems relating to streets, street segments, neighborhoods and intersections. This labor saving package will allow for more in-depth investigations and complex analyses.

The understanding of information communicated over social networks enables quick tracking of real events as they occur. In other cases, where the “crowd” factor is on high note, it is possible to identify events and to evaluate their magnitude, even before they occur. A full assessment of the content generated by social network users is very complex. This, due to the gigantic volume of data communicated over the net at any given time. Using few, well defined, keywords for the detection of relevant data reduces, considerably, the processing effort and expedites the identification of events, such as wildfire, floods or terror attacks. The preliminary results here has shown that by using keywords, specially tailored for different types of major events, one may detect ‘abnormal' surges of social network activities. Also, presented are threshold values, in terms of magnitude and frequency designed for early detection of these events. This approach is the basis for the development of ...

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on Israel Metadata Standard 2000. The Israeli Metadata Standard (Format) IMF2000 is aimed to establish the framework and mechanism for transferring information related to spatial data. In addition, the standard was devised as an instrument of spatial data marketing and distribution. Thus, the standard was divided into separate chapters, which accommodate various aspects of the description and quality definition of the spatial data in terms of spatial accuracy, completeness and currentness, and information related to availability of information and its accessibility. The major motivation in the development and the emphasis of the separate structure of individual chapters was to accommodate many optional models and a variety of data without using separate profiles but rather various parts of the common standard.

Automatization of processes for revision and updating existing GIS information is essential for the modern maintenance of spatial databases. The integration of remotely sensed multi-spectral data into the process of database revision is affected here by the implementation of GIS-driven analyses. The adoption of the GIS-driven principles, provide also an accurate geographical basis for a future supervised classification of the spectral data. The goal of the present research was to define and develop an automatic quality assessment method for the Land Cover classification layer of the Israeli National GIS database. During the experiments on multi-spectral remotely sensed data, effort was carried out in attempt to define "typical " spectral ranges as statistical maximum-likelihood criteria for the classification of each of the land cover phenomenon. These ranges were envisaged to characterize each of the land cover classification groups and to provide quantitative criteria fo...

As well as a number of Commissions, the International Cartographic Association (ICA) had one Working Group, on Incremental Updating and Versioning, and this presentation describes some of the work undertaken recently by the Working Group (WG). The WG was voted for a Commission by the General Assembly held at the 21st ICC in Durban, South Africa. The basic problem being addressed by the Commission is that a user compiles their data base using core data sets from various sources, integrating them together for their particular needs and building their own, value-added data and topology on top. The user’s primary concern is their value-added data, maintaining their integrity, quality and spatial referencing; however, the core data sets provide the crucial spatial framework for the value-added data. Unfortunately, geographical data are dynamic and most suppliers maintain and update their core data sets. Such updates could be: continuous (eg: telemetry), periodic (eg: daily, monthly or an...

Spatial Information revision and updating is the main concern and production effort of maintaining the ever-growing GIS systems and spatial data bases. Developing easily effected automatic updating methods of spatial information becomes the key to the successful maintenance of the large GIS data bases established by many mapping agencies all over the world. The objective of this research was to develop a rule based system for updating a spatial database. Taken into consideration were rules, such as: (a) The radiometric and textural parameters; (b) The geometric parameters of the objects, such as area, perimeter, compactness, elongation, etc; and (c) The topological relationships between objects of the same type group and from different layers, as well. This paper presents the algorithms and rules which were implemented for updating the Israeli National GIS spatial database. Also, discussed are the experiments implemented over the Haifa region test site. 1.

Abstract: This study describes four statistical models—Poisson; Negative Binomial; Zero-Inflated Poisson; and Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial—which were devised in order to examine traffic accidents and estimate the best probability estimating model in terms of future risk assessment at interurban road sections. The study was conducted on four sets of fixed-length sections of the road network: 500, 750, 1000, and 1500 m. The contribution of transportation and spatial parameters as predictors of road accident rates was evaluated for all four data sets separately. In addition, the Empirical Bayes method was applied. This method uses historical accidents information, allowing regression to the mean phenomenon so as to improve model results. The study was performed using Geographic Information System (GIS) software. Other analyses, such as statistical analyses combined with spatial parameters, interactions, and examination of other geographical areas, were also performed. The results sh...

Automatization of processes for revision and updating existing GIS information is essential for the modern maintenance of spatial databases. The integration of remotely sensed multi-spectral data into the process of database revision is affected here by the implementation of GIS-driven analyses. The adoption of the GIS-driven principles, provide also an accurate geographical basis for a future supervised classification of the spectral data. The goal of the present research was to define and develop an automatic quality assessment method for the Land Cover classification layer of the Israeli National GIS database. During the experiments on multi-spectral remotely sensed data, effort was carried out in attempt to define "typical" spectral ranges as statistical maximum-likelihood criteria for the classification of each of the land cover phenomenon. These ranges were envisaged to characterize each of the land cover classification groups and to provide quantitative criteria for...

Valid classification of remotely sensed data is one of the most studied issues in the geoinformation science. In recent years knowledge-based approach to image analysis has been developing for assessment and improvement of traditional statistically-based image classification. Knowledge-based classification procedure integrates remote sensing imagery with ancillary geospatial information from GIS. Data about land cover stored in GIS database are usually subjected to an intensive change processes that diminish their relevance and include different types of discrepant information. Classification of land cover by up-to-date satellite imagery and automatic updating of GIS database allows revision of discrepant or erroroneous data. The knowledge-based classification doesn’t require any assumptions regarding the data distribution and allows straightforward incorporation of ancillary data from GIS. Compared to traditional mapping approaches knowledge-based classification has the advantages ...

Spatial Information revision and updating is the main concern and production effort of maintaining the ever-growing GIS systems and spatial data bases. Developing easily effected automatic updating methods of spatial information becomes the key to the successful maintenance of the large GIS data bases established by many mapping agencies all over the world. The objective of this research was to develop a rule based system for updating a spatial database. Taken into consideration were rules, such as: (a) The radiometric and textural parameters; (b) The geometric parameters of the objects, such as area, perimeter, compactness, elongation, etc; and (c) The topological relationships between objects of the same type group and from different layers, as well. This paper presents the algorithms and rules which were implemented for updating the Israeli National GIS spatial database. Also, discussed are the experiments implemented over the Haifa region test site.

A user of geographical data invariably compiles their data base using core data sets obtained from various sources. They then integrate these together to meet their particular needs and build their own, value-added data and topology on top. The user's concern is their value-added ...

Automatization of processes for revision and updating existing GIS information is essential for the modern maintenance of spatial databases. The integration of remotely sensed multi-spectral data into the process of database revision is affected here by the implementation of GIS-driven analyses. The adoption of the GIS-driven principles, provide also an accurate geographical basis for a future supervised classification of the

Title: Theme Issue: Integration of Geodata and Imagery for Automated Refinement and Update of Spatial Databases. Authors: Heipke, C.; Pakzad, K.; Willrich, F.; Peled, A. Publication: ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, v. 58, iss. ...