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Improving Weather Information Data Services with FME

Date
Monday, April 9, 2018
Presenters
Mark McCart
Presenter Company
Iowa Department of Transportation/HNTB
City
Chicago
Location
us
Event
FME World Tour 2018
Session Type
User
Industry
AEC (Architecture Engineering and Construction)

Presentation Details

Iowa Department of Transportation needed to modernize their WeatherView web application which provides weather data to the public. This data comes from both AWOS (Automated Weather Observation System) and RWIS (Roadway Weather Information System) data feeds. The existing WeatherView application used a combination of direct database and REST services. Iowa DOT has moved to an open data model for their geospatial data and wanted to revamp the AWOS and RWIS REST services to provide more data to the public and to be leveraged in multiple applications/solutions.

I leveraged FME due to the complexity of processing the data. The data sources included JSON feeds, database views and an FTP folder. I needed to leverage startup Python Scripts for moving RWIS images between two FTP folders. The Maintenance Office wanted to add a ‘Spatial Buddy Check’ for several sensors on the RWIS data feed to exclude outlier values. Finally, Iowa DOT leverages ArcGIS Online Feature Collections for high availability data feeds. This requires a custom shutdown Python script to update Feature Collections after the AGOL Feature Service is updated.

This presentation will cover the different methods used to modernize the AWOS and RWIS weather data feeds so they could be leveraged by the public and in other geospatial solutions.

WeatherView URL: weatherview.iowadot.gov

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