Risk assessment of snow disaster for trunk highway transportation in Shaanxi, China

Highway transportation was seriously affected by the rare 2008 snow disaster which occurred in China. Shaanxi Province (China) was one of the most affected areas. Research on risk assessment can play an important role in the mitigation of highway snow disasters. Based on a theoretical model, an index system of highway snow cover risk assessment was put forward. This system covers hazard of environment and the vulnerability of disaster-affected entities. The historical disaster hazard and the potential disaster hazard are the two aspects considered for hazard of environment. Physical exposure of the disaster-affected entities to environment and the societal disaster recovery capabilities are considered as the main factors in the vulnerability of disaster-affected entities. Grades of indices and their weights were prompted based on the assessment model. Assessment of the hazard of environment, the vulnerability of disaster-affected entities and the risk of highway snow disaster in Shaanxi Province were carried out by GIS. The risk was divided into five grades using statistical methods in accordance with regional characteristics of highway snow disasters. A distribution of trunk highway snow disaster risks in Shaanxi was put forward. The results are consistent with actual events.