The purpose of this study is to obtain basic data to examine plans of cites, regions and constructions and their standards, taking into consideration plans for preventing snow and ice disasters. We investigated the snow damages from 1971 to 1990 in Hokkaido and analyzed the restraints on the traffic, the cancellations of trains and the power breakdowns due to the disasters. The results show that disasters have decreased in number in all the categories and that normal services are usually resumed within three days. They also show that many snow damages are caused by snowstoms which may be influenced by the wind velocity and the temperature.

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Actual conditions and problems of festive events using snow or ice as a measure for activation of regional society are investigated based on a mail survey to municipalities of depopulated area that belong to the snowy area doubly. Event cases are classified into five types. Three main types of them are general festival in winter, ski event, and other sports or recreation events. Several characteristics of the events, e.g., starting year, contents, aim and practical staffs are examined with an attention to.the event types and regional variation. Popular event type has shifted with time from ski to general festival, and next, to other events. An analysis of municipal officials' estimation for effects and remaining problems of the events revealed some characteristics and factors of variation of the estimation. Municipal officials highly estimate the activation effect of festive event, and tend to attach importance to social (endogenous) effects for inhabitants' daily life and spirits than economic (exogenous) effects, e.g., development of tourist industries.

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