Hedges and afforestration to prevent damage from snow drift: from theory to practice

Abstract

Blowing and drifting snow can generate snowdrifts on roads and railways. This is an important issue for instance in the Massif Central (France) where even limited snowfall on vast areas can locally lead to huge snow accumulations. This problem is not new and prevention measures were designed and tested as early as the end of the 19th century. However, the development of efficient snow clearing vehicles in the second half of the 20th century led to some decrease of research efforts (mostly a trial and error approach) on traditional prevention measures such as afforestration and hedges. Nevertheless, the renewed interest in ecological engineering, dating from the early 90s, has yielded new research efforts on this topic, even though such measures are not effective in the short term. Currently, bioengineering techniques meet the requirements of sustainable development and therefore of long-term management. In this context, this paper aims at taking stock of hedges and afforestration, taken as protection measures against snowdrift, through the eyes of a fluid mechanics researcher, a forester and a manager. The principles of action, setting and species choice are presented through case studies with emphasis on difficulties related to land property as well as long and short-term maintenance.