Indicators of road network vulnerability to storm-felled trees

Rolf Nyberg and Magnus Johansson ()

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, 2013, vol. 69, issue 1, 185-199

Abstract: In this paper, we exemplify the use of simple indicators of wind storm vulnerability of the road network that can be derived from existing geographic datasets. We point out the possible utilization of the datasets, applying GIS techniques, for highlighting road sections that, due to adjacency of high forest stands, are sensitive to closure by storm-felled trees. Indicators reflecting the reduced access to different areas or to the population in need of emergency aid can be derived based on the parameter tree height along roads and road network analysis. As a case in this study, the methodology is applied to elderly people (+80 years) with possible need of daily care at home following a severe storm. A comparison to the extreme 2005 storm felling in southern Sweden reveals that only limited estimates of road network disruption due to storm-felled trees are possible using the indicators, as other factors, for example, wind direction, which determine the exact impact of a particular storm are not taken into account. However, the indicators and network analysis also provide a possibility to draw attention to locations where disruptions of the road network would have significant effects on the accessibility to large surrounding areas. Potential critical road closures can be identified and preventive measures considered locally at these points. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

Keywords: Indicator; GIS; Storm; Risk; Road network vulnerability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11069-013-0693-z (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:69:y:2013:i:1:p:185-199

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11069

DOI: 10.1007/s11069-013-0693-z

Access Statistics for this article

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards is currently edited by Thomas Glade, Tad S. Murty and Vladimír Schenk

More articles in Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards from Springer, International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().