Right-of-Way Vegetation Management with Selective Spray Control

摘要

Vegetation management is an important part of maintaining railroad right of way areas, as vegetation can encroach on the track, interfere with drainage, and obscure unsafe conditions. Currently, herbicide application is the most cost effective option for controlling vegetation. Post-emergent herbicides are only effective when they are applied to existing vegetation. However, there are many miles of well-maintained track with vegetation-free areas. Selectively applying herbicide to only areas with existing vegetation has the potential to significantly reduce cost and environmental impact by decreasing herbicide usage. The present study is a survey of vegetation distribution on over 3,500 acres of railroad right-of-way in North America (over 1,000 linear miles) collected by the selective spray system, Chlorovision™. This dataset was used to compare herbicide usage with selective spray control verses current practices. Results show that selective spraying can reduce herbicide usage by approximately 40% on this real world dataset.