An ontology-based traffic accident risk mapping framework

Abstract

Road traffic accidents are a social and public challenge. Various spatial concentration detection methods have been proposed to discover the concentration patterns of traffic accidents. However, current methods treat each traffic accident location as a point without consideration of the severity level, and the final traffic accident risk map for the whole study area ignores the users' requirements. In this paper, we propose an ontology-based traffic accident risk mapping framework. In the framework, the ontology represents the domain knowledge related to the traffic accidents and supports the data retrieval based on users' requirements. A new spatial clustering method that takes into account the numbers and severity levels of accidents is proposed for risk mapping. To demonstrate the framework, a system prototype has been implemented. A case study in the city of Calgary is also discussed. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.