FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH ON MEASURING SNOW DEPTH ON ROADS USING A LOW-COST MMS

Abstract

 The utilization of information and communications technology in snow removal to ensure safe and accessible winter road traffic is progressing. However, despite the essential role of snow depth measurement in snow removal patrols, the efficiency of these patrols has not advanced sufficiently. Thus, in this study, we performed experiments using a low-cost, self-developed mobile mapping system (MMS) to identify the snow depth differences in three designated snow-covered sections, i.e., sections A: ≤3 cm, B: 6–8 cm, and C: ≥10 cm. The snow depths were calculated using two methods, i.e., the difference in DSMs and the estimated road surface position. The results demonstrated that both methods successfully identified the differences in the snow depth between the sections. In addition, the results of a statistical analysis demonstrated that the proposed system can detect statistically significant snow depth differences when the difference was 2 cm. These results demonstrate the potential of the low-cost MMS for effective snow depth measurement on roads.