# Presentation: 361052

## NOAA, FHWA and the Environmental Enterprise:Partnering for a Safer Surface Transportation System

- James R. Mahoney, Ph.D.Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans & Atmosphere
- NOAA Deputy Administrator
- ITSA Annual Meeting
- Phoenix, ArizonaMay 3, 2005

## Why NOAA Is Here

- The impacts of adverse weather, annually, on the Nation’s roads are significant:
- 7,000 deaths
- 1.4 million crashes
- More than 600,000 injuries
- $42 billion in economic loss

## Why NOAA Is Here

- NOAA’s Commerce and Transportation Goal Team Vision is Aligned with FHWA Objectives:
- Safe, secure, efficient, and seamless movement of people and goods in the U.S. transportation system.
- Environmentally sound development and use of the U.S. transportation system.

## NOAA’s Mission & Goals

- To understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment and manage coastal and marine resources to meet the Nation’s economic, social and environmental needs.
- Mission Goals:
- Protect, restore, and manage the use of coastal and ocean resources through an ecosystem approach to management
- Understand climate variability and change to enhance society’s ability to plan and respond
- Serve society’s needs for weather and water information
- Support the Nation’s commerce with information for safe, efficient, and environmentally sound transportation
- Provide critical support for NOAA’s mission

##  Partnerships Crucial to Success

- ITSA, AMS and TRB
- The “Enterprise”
- FHWA: Clarus, VII and MADIS
- Auto Manufacturers (for VII)

## Partnering The Clarus Initiative

- Goals:
- Establish network for exchanging surface transportation weather observations
- Harness data to develop decision support tools
- Fill data gaps (for all applications)
- Utilize emerging and existing technology

## Partnering The Clarus Initiative

- Integrates RWIS observations with other data for traveler safety
- Showcases potential of NERON, ISOS and  GEOSS
- Assesses the utility of environmental information to meet the needs of the transportation enterprise

## PartneringThe Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) Initiative 

- Data from mobile sensors (vehicles)
- Vehicle probe data as surrogates for atmospheric variables
- Data to improve safety via immediate decision making

## VII Decision Making Opportunities

- VII enables enhanced response and planning
- Immediate response (e.g. black ice, fog banks) conveyed in seconds to minutes
- Tactical response (e.g. thunderstorms, flash floods) forecast in minutes to hours
- Strategic response (e.g. blizzards, floods, heat) forecast in hours to days

## Supporting GEOSSNOAA’s Integrated Observing System

- GEOSS

- IOOS

- IUOS

- IOS

- NERON

- ISOS

- HCN

- COOP-M

- LegacyCOOP

- CRN

- Other Networks

- ASOS

## The Mechanism for Data Integration

## U.S. Commitment

- “The United States is making the commitment to move earth observation   to the next level to benefit this next generation. This is one of President Bush’s environmental priorities...

*US Secretary of Commerce**Carlos Gutierrez*
*Earth Observation Summit III**February 16, 2005**Brussels, Belgium*

## Conclusion

- Data are at the heart of meteorological services
- NOAA is responsible for protecting life and property and promoting safe and efficient commerce and transportation

## NOAA, FHWA and the Environmental Enterprise:Partnering for a Safer Surface Transportation System

- James R. Mahoney, Ph.D.Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans & Atmosphere
- NOAA Deputy Administrator
- ITSA Annual Meeting
- Phoenix, ArizonaMay 3, 2005