GUEST COLUMN: Winter mayhem could be reduced by listening to researchers

print this

By Lasse Makkonen
     
      In the eyes of the public at large, the difficulties arising this winter from snow and ice have seemed almost beyond our ken and control.
      At the same time, those responsible for keeping up the infrastructure have defended themselves by playing the "adverse weather card" when the problems have piled up.
      In principle, society ought to be prepared even for exceptional situations.
      Where, then, does the fault lie when serious problems emerge in this country nearly every winter - let alone during a winter that is more severe than average by the standards of Southern Finland?
     
When it is a matter of traffic accidents, the authorities are always at pains to point out that the blame lies between the driver's ears and not with slippery conditions on the roads.
      Could this thinking be more widely applied, such that we interpret all the difficulties and accidents arising from snow as being caused more by human actions than by the weather itself?
      If a roof collapses when the snow-load on it is clearly less arduous than the planned loading set out in building regulations, the blame must lie somewhere else than in the snow.
     
However, not one case of significant roof collapse that has occurred in Finland over the past decades has taken place under the sort of conditions where the snowload set out in building norms has been exceeded.
      The structural failures have been a matter of errors associated with design or in the actual construction process, or alternatively they have reflected a weakening of load-bearing structures over time and use.
      They could in turn have been reduced in number by examining more carefully the entire construction process and by stepping up the monitoring of the condition of structures during their working life.
     
The use of risk analysis is one means of finding the factors that have a bearing on the emergence of errors.
      On the basis of the errors that are uncovered, it would be possible to change practices and regulations and to clarify the division of responsiblities.
      For instance, in Northern Germany there have not been any significant cases of collapsing roofs, even though this winter the snow has already gone beyond the design loading norms.
      By listening to the researchers it would also be possible to avoid some of the architectonic solutions that have been increasingly common of late, in which snow and ice form - and then fall - in an uncontrolled manner.
     
And what of the much-discussed problems of VR, the Finnish Railways?
      As a country with no shortage of either commodity in its winter months, Finland can call upon internationally-recognised research into snow and ice, and many solutions have been developed hereabouts for the prevention of ice formation and for the removal of ice from structures.
      This know-how has nevertheless not been put to adequate use.
     
The difficulties encountered in rail traffic can be seen as one indication of what happens when long-term research and development work is ignored.
      It is hard, for instance, to acquire the sort of rolling stock that is suitable for unhampered winter use if no research is carried out on the properties of the wagons vis-a-vis the way they accumulate snow and ice, and how it is to be removed.
     
Research is naturally not going to provide a panacea for everything and certainly not immediately.
      It is nevertheless possible to develop, through modelling and by reference to weather data, the sort of practical solutions to prevent ice build-up and to facilitate the removal of ice.
      One example of this that might be mentioned is the Technical Research Centre of Finland's heating system for the blades of wind turbines.
     
It is possible to plan and design our built environment in such a way that accidents do not increase materially even in exceptional circumstances, and such that excessive amounts of snow can be removed without unreasonable difficulties.
      Aerodynamic design can be harnessed to influence the way in which snow builds up, for example in railway marshalling yards, and to reduces the problems to vehicles and other equipment brought by snow.
      Surfacings can also be selected to ease the removal of snow and ice when it builds up.
      Technology already makes almost anything possible. For example in Japan, one can see motorised "mowers" fixed on the roofs of detached houses, which can clear an entire roof of snow at the press of a button.
     
Preparing for exceptional conditions requires investment in solutions that are not often going to be used in earnest.
      Such preparation must be based on optimisation and on risk analysis, in order that the costs are in a sensible relationship to the costs of the damage accruing from exceptional situations.
      There is little to be gained from wholesale "planning for anything and everything".
      Finding this balance is possible only through research.
      It is a complex matter and also touches upon some ethical choices and considerations, for exceptional situations also often bring with them personal injury as well as inconvenience.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 9.3.2010
     
     
The writer is an adjunct professor and senior research scientist at VTT, the Technical Research Centre of Finland.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Barges to keep Turku bridge from collapsing (8.3.2010)
  Snow removal from roofs causes fatal accidents (1.3.2010)
  Brief thaw could get Finnish rail operations out of a fix (22.2.2010)
  Deep winter conditions grip Helsinki and the entire south of Finland (8.1.2010)

Helsingin Sanomat