ABSTRACT 7th International Symposium on Environmental Concerns in Rights-of-Way Management
TITLE:	Automating Monitoring and Management of Roadside Vegetation
AUTHOR(S):	Nancy P. Cain - cainvegetation@sympatico.com Cain Vegetation Inc. Acton, ON, Canada Kevin McKague Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs - Applied Research Guelph, ON, Canada Laura A. Kingston Ontario Ministry of Transportation St. Catherines, ON, Canada Steven Struger Ontario Ministry of Transportation St. Catherines, ON, Canada
An integrated system was evaluated for monitoring of desirable roadside vegetation, weed locations and related features. The system incorporated a global positioning system (GPS) for locating the sites in the field and geographic information system (GIS) for storing, managing, manipulating and displaying the data. Weed areas, desirable vegetation, water features, culverts and sensitive adjacent land use were recorded. Methods of recording each feature type, using polygon, linear or point data were explored using field collection tests. Two systems of collecting the information were compared - a polygon, field-based collection system and a linear, vehicle-based collection system. In a replicated field trial, the linear system provided an estimated one-third cost saving, in field data collection but only resulted in a 10% total time savings compared to the polygon system, due to the additional data post-processing required with the linear collection system. The data collected with these automated systems can be used for planning of operations, contract management, automating herbicide application, quality control and communication of vegetation features for planning, design and construction. Keywords: Rights-of-way, integrated vegetation management, maintenance, GPS, GIS, weed control, brush control, selective maintenance. Ref#: 2-18