Assessment Of The Benefit Of Meteorological Service On Shanghai-Nanjing Highway

In recent years, Shanghai-Nanjing highway had regional advantage of residing in the most developed area of Yangtze River Delta, which had brought enormous economic benefits for its neighboring provinces. It had become the economic artery in the Yangtze River Delta, which is also called the traffic corridor of the Delta. A variety of severe weather could have an important impact on the safe operation of the highway and other relevant sectors, which is causing more and more attention from the society and relevant departments. So far, the company has invested 5.2 million yuan in installing those 26 automatic weather stations which is used to real-timely monitor various weather elements. In addition, it has played an important role in securing the traffic safety and road operations by cooperating with the Meteorological Department, which provides forecasting service and equipment maintenance.Based on the real-time monitoring data of Huaqiao Station in the Shanghai-Nanjing highway and the statistics, this paper conducted an analysis of the weather elements which may have an influence on the Shanghai-Nanjing highway through the correlation analysis and combining existing results. The results show that various elements have different influences on the highway and there are seasonal variations in those different influences. The inclement weather such as the fog (haze) in autumn and winter, frozen and snowed road caused by the precipitation and snow in winter, the rainfall in summer and so on, could pose a threat to the operation safety of Shanghai-Nanjing highway.Based on the questionnaire survey, this paper conducted a comparative analysis of the status, users' needs and satisfaction of the weather services in the Shanghai-Nanjing highway. There are the following results. First of all SMS, broadcast and electronic display are the main distribution channels. Secondly the existing weather services major in the conventional weather forecasting and the demand for the preventive alarm against severe weather is increasing. Thirdly the users tend to pay more attention to the fog (haze), frozen and snowed road, and snow. Fourthly they generally had a high evaluation for forecasting accuracy and service satisfaction. At last their pay willingness for the weather service is relatively at low level and it is independent of their individual factors. In addition, we estimated the inputs and economic efficiency of the company in 2009 are 789,300 yuan and 7.005 million yuan, and the ratio is 1:8.94, by analyzing the input and economic efficiency of meteorological services.Based on summary, this paper proposed some suggestions on improving the level and efficiency of weather services in Shanghai-Nanjing highway, including strengthening the monitoring and forecasting of weather information to improve its accuracy, expanding the channels for distributing weather information, researching the targeted and refinement products and so on. Finally, we indicate the shortcomings of this article and what needs to be improved in future research.