Where to place wim stations? The brazilian approach including a novel data-driven spatial decision support system

The current most advanced WIM systems distributed worldwide have already proven their capacity for weight enforcement. The question of whether or not precise weight measurements are possible in highway speeds is no longer open, as many systems have shown good results in this direction. Now, other questions start to arise in the industry. One of the main questions is: in large road networks, where should we install WIM sensors so that they achieve their maximum efficiency? It is proven that the enforcement system as a whole is ineffective if improper locations are chosen, and effective if the locations are well chosen. In this paper, the method that is currently being used by the Brazilian National Land Infrastructure Department (DNIT) is presented. It is a spatial decision support system (SDSS) that includes a multi-criteria method developed to facilitate decision-making in this process by summarizing a set of important information into a single index named IVFP. The adopted philosophy is not to make the decision on behalf of the road entity but, rather, to provide the planner with accessible information regarding the road network and a unified index that highlights segments for weight enforcement. The Brazilian approach is presented so that it can serve as a starting point for the international community, as this is a problem that will become common in the next few years.Papers presented at the 40th International Southern African Transport Conference on 04 -08 July 202