Winter road maintenance in urban areas Part (II) Spatial distribution of road icing in relation to urban climate

In recent years the knowledge regarding road climatology has been put in focus regarding winter maintenance in urban areas. From observations and measurements the spatial distribution of road icing has been found to vary according to weather and local climate factors. In order to fully understand the mechanisms causing the variation in road icing a research project has been initiated at the Road Climate Centre, University of Göteborg.

The present study deals with the distribution and processes resulting in road icing. From the study of the interaction between urban and road climate factors, presented under part I, it can be seen that the urban environment has a pronounced effect on the slipperiness distribution. The present part (II) focus on the factors that leads to a varying pattern for different types of situations such as snow, hoar frost and black ice.

For planning purposes it is also important to have ways of extrapolating climate data from field stations to be valid for larger areas. Especially for cost – benefit analyses the distribution and frequency of different slipperiness types with-in the urban area is very important information to have knowledge about. In the present project this forms an important part and cities of different size and geographical location are analysed in order to develop a model for calculation of need of maintenance activity during wintertime.