The Canadian winter road infrastructure in a warming climate: Toward resiliency assessment and resource prioritization

Abstract

Winter roads are seasonal roads that only exist during the winter – they run over frozen land and frozen lakes and rivers. Many northern communities in Canada rely on them for their yearly supplies of bulk goods, including fuel and building supplies, which are too costly to ship by air. Because of a warming climate, a progressive shortening of the operational time windows is observed, and is predicted to continue based on climate model projections. Compared to all-season roads, winter roads are less well understood; they are also unevenly managed across Canada. This state of affairs represents a liability for Northerners and could be addressed via the systematic characterization of individual roads. This would help the assessment of community vulnerability and costs for remediation measures. It would also guide decision-making and prioritization.