Improving snow removal efficiency in Arctic cities

• Published in: IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science
• Main Author: Mitroshina, M
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: IOP Publishing 2020
• Subjects: Arctic; Murmansk
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/539/1/012067; https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/539/1/012067/pdf; https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/539/1/012067

Abstract The Arctic zone of the Russian Federation is quite urbanized. However, due to climatic conditions, the population of Arctic cities has recently declined. The task of the State is to change this trend. One of measures is creation of the comfortable urban environment which consists in modernization and improvement of quality of living conditions. It would seem that this task should be solved at the level of the city municipality [1], but if there are identical climatic restrictions for all cities, it is necessary to develop a single effective regional mechanism to overcome them. It is about snow removal in Arctic cities, where winter lasts more than six months, and the amount of precipitation sometimes exceeds the average values several times. And it is impossible to be prepared for this, because in such cases the issue of road safety and comfort of the urban environment for local residents and guests of the city is acute. The winter of this year in the Murmansk region showed that the existing snow removal system needs to be modernized. To this end, the author studied the Russian and foreign experience of snow removal in northern cities and developed recommendations to increase its efficiency.