Meteorological Technologies help Improve Winter Road Maintenance

Integration of latest meteorological technologies into the winter road maintenance processes generates significant costs savings along with the improvement safety, security and winter road conditions.

Innovative meteorological technologies were used for the measurement and analyses of weather conditions in Slovakia’s capital city Bratislava. The technological solution was designed and developed by the Slovakia based company BARANI. The city of Bratislava was able to reduce its winter maintenance costs by 63% in comparison with the previous winter seasons thanks to the use of these cutting edge technologies and process optimization based on professional meteorological services provided by the BARANI company and resulted in a better services delivered to the public.

High density weather network

The uniqueness and innovative approach of the provided solution lies in its concept and technologies used. It consists of an automated weather station - AWS, data transfer, cloud based data storage and analytical and predictive software. The AWS is a professional measurement device, such as those commonly used by national meteorological institutions. The wind, temperature, humidity measurement precision standards are in accordance to the World Meteorological Organization’s – WMO guidelines for professional instruments. For example, the temperature measurement accuracy is within 0.1°C. The uniqueness of the AWS is it construction – a unibody, compact, all-in-one device with a plug & play standard, which requires significantly less installation, operation & maintenance efforts (costs) compared to similar devices. The system is operated wirelessly and powered by solar panels. The data is also transferred wirelessly via an automated interface to cloud based analytical software which manages data collection and data analysis (including weather forecast models) in real time. Data collection is plug and play and starts automatically immediately after single or multiple weather station installation without requiring operator intervention. The AWS is also equipped with other high tech sensors such as optical rain sensor, sky monitoring and cloud coverage analysis (analyzed through an artificial intelligence system) and camera based area monitoring.
The solution is ideal for setting up a dense meteorological network ideally suited for urban (or densely populated) areas such as Bratislava. The system allows multiple station management and big data collection & analysis.

Local public administration office saved up to 72% on year-on-year costs

Every year, public administrations of central and northern parts of Europe spend considerable amount of funds on winter road maintenance. In Slovakia the costs are shared by different public entities. One of them partnered with a private company to build a dense network of stations allowing precise professional weather data collection and analysis which streamlined the road maintenance process.
Slovakia has a large footprint in the global meteorological technology industry. There are a number of companies producing professional meteorological devices and services. One of the very innovative ones is BARANI, with its patented meteorological sensors and solutions.
Jan Hrcka, head of Bratislava’s public district Karlova Ves, explains: „The progressive approach of the public administration office and the company BARANI helped open new approaches towards the winter maintenance process. The use of new affordable technologies and software, previously available only to professional national weather services, was of a great help. “....