抄録
Maintaining safe, effective and efficient travel during the winter is an important problem in snowy cold regions. For appropriate road infrastructure management, road administrators conduct various snow and ice control operations to provide good roadway conditions. However, limitations of budgets make it necessary to conduct these operations more efficiently. Therefore, our research group has undertaken development of a method for forecasting winter road conditions and maintenance support systems that provide the appropriate information to the road authorities. The project was undertaken in cooperation with other relevant organizations. For instance, the project involved the meteorological agency, an academic institution and road authorities. This system consisted of weather forecasts, the prediction of road surface conditions and provision of forecast results through the internet.
The project began observing the weather and road surface temperatures to develop a prediction model in 2004, and in 2005 the prototype started experimentally providing information to road authorities. This paper describes the conceptual framework and status of the project and also details the operational processes.
JEL Classification: R11, R49
