Methodology for the Evaluation of the Effect of the Climate of Lithuania on Road Construction and Climatic Regioning

Abstract

This summary of the author’s PhD thesis supervised by Prof Dr Alfredas Laurinavičius and defended on 16 December 2009 at the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University. The thesis is written in Lithuanian and is available from the author upon request. Chapter 1 gives the analysis of researches carried out by the scientists – developers of the science of climatology related to climate and its change and climatic regioning. The climate of Lithuania is described and the effect of climatic factors on road construction. Chapter 2 presents the analysis of climatic regioning methods, studies the climatic factors having the largest effect on road design, construction, repair and maintenance. Chapter 3 makes the analysis, evaluation and comparison of multi-year data of the Lithuanian Hydrometeorological Service (1961–1990) and the Road Weather Information System (1999–2008). Chapter 4 presents examples of the subject maps made of the basis of RWIS data which is useful and informative for the users, especially for the road organizations and services. The regioning possibilities are evaluated from the point of view of road construction.

Keywords

• climatic factors
• road construction
• road weather information system (rwis)
• climatic zones