| Abstract | In Canada, there are approximately 8,000 km of official winter roads. Unlike roads that can be used all year round, winter roads are seasonally constructed, over frozen terrain and water bodies, such as lakes and rivers. Winter roads are highly vulnerable to a warming climate, since a sufficient number of cold days are required for the ground and bodies of water to freeze to the required depth to create a strong foundation for the safe passage of traffic. A literature review of 131 documents has been completed to date to examine Canada’s winter road network, standards and guidelines on construction and maintenance, identify parameters that affect winter road safety, models that assess the impact of climate change on winter roads, and identify standards for climate risk assessment related to northern infrastructure. A framework to review and assess the climate risk and vulnerability of winter roads in Canada has been developed, as well as the structure of a Winter Roads Module for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada’s Climate Risk Index. Both are intended to evolve over time as more data and information becomes available, and both are based on published scientific methods, field data from winter road operations, as well as stakeholder observation, experience and concerns. A number of case studies have been completed using available data to validate and refine the framework and the Winter Roads Module. The standardization of winter road data has been completed for the province of Ontario. The development of a trial version of the Winter Roads module has been initiated to automate the data gathering and analysis. |
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