GIS Tools for Analyzing Accidents and Road Design: A Review

A significant unexpected outcome of transportation systems is road accidents with injuries and loss of lives. In recent years, the number of studies about the tools for analysing accidents and road design has increased considerably. Among these tools, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) stand out for their ability to perform complex spatial analyses. However, sometimes the GIS, has been used only as a geographical database to store and represent data about accidents and road characteristics. It has also been used to represent the results of statistical studies of accidents but, these statistical studies have not been carried out with GIS. Owing to its integrated statistical-analysis capabilities GIS provides several advantages. First, it allows a more careful and accurate data selection, screening and reduction. Also, it allows a spatial analysis of the results in pre and post-processing. Second, GIS allows the development of spatial statistics that rely on geographically-referenced data. In this paper, several GIS tools used to model accidents have been examined. The understanding of these tools will help the analyst to make a better decision about which tool could be applied in each particular condition and context.