This article needs additional citations for verification .(January 2019) |
The ROADEX Project was an EU-funded collaboration of Northern European road organisations from Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Scotland and Sweden that aimed to improve the condition of rural road networks. The project started as a pilot in 1998 to share best practice, to research and develop new knowledge, and to implement and test new solutions; it is still active, as the ROADEX Network, and currently comprises 13 partner organisations.
It has now been running for 22 years and has become a centre of information for all things concerning the management of rural roads. Its website averages over 5,000 hits per month from around the world seeking information and strategies for dealing with issues of poorly performing roads, including Banked turns , Cross slopes, traction, Drainage gradients, and in the European Campaign for Safe Road Design.
The project was awarded a European Union RegioStars special mention in 2009. [1] and in 2018 its strategies and technologies were recognised in a Global Road Achievement Award by the International Road Federation for ″Asset Preservation and Maintenance Management″ [2]
The project became self-funding as the ROADEX Network in 2012.
The pilot project (ROADs Information EXchange = ROADEX) was set up between the roads districts of Finnish Lapland, Troms County of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, the Northern Region of The Swedish National Road Administration and the Highland Council of Scotland. It was 50% funded by the European Union and also received support from The Scottish Executive and The Icelandic Road Administration.
The pilot identified 5 common problems, and these issues still form the basis for all considerations today.
This second project [3] continued to be part-funded by the EU and aimed at developing new ways for the management of rural roads. The four members from the pilot were joined by two new organisations from Scotland: Forest Enterprise of Scotland and Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar and six associate partners: The Norwegian Hauliers Association, [4] The Finnish Road Administration Lapland District, Metsähallitus Forestry, Stora Enso Metsä, Metsäliitto Osuukunta, and The Forestry Centre of Lapland. [5] The new associate partners from the forestry and paper industry brought experience of using forest gravel roads to the project and extended its researches into all road surfaces.
The formal outputs of the co-operation included a DVD Focussing on low volume roads in the Northern Periphery and 11 technical reports.
The third project was designed as a Dissemination and Implementation project to show how the strategies and practices developed under the previous projects could be used in practice and what benefits could result. This included translating the reports into the six partner languages, presentations at conferences, seminars and workshops. Four new e-learning training packages were produced for the website in the partner languages and road trials of new solutions trialled on local roads.
Five new organisations joined: The Icelandic Road Administration, The Swedish Forest Agency, The Department of Transport and The National Roads Authority from Ireland, and The Municipality of Sisimiut of the Greenland Home Rule Government. The Swedish Board of Forestry, Dalarna/Gävleborg and the Russian Association of Regional Road Authorities (RADOR), [6] joined as Associate Partners.
A new area of research was the measurement of daily vibration in drivers of heavy vehicles caused by poorly maintained road networks. An important finding of the research was that this arises wholly as a result of the condition of the road and cannot be mitigated by modern trucks with modern suspension systems.
Outputs of the project included 3 DVDs and 14 technical reports on the management and maintenance of roads, including the socio-economic benefits of rural roads to communities. HITRANS of Scotland was one of the first organisations to recommended the adoption of the new strategies. [7]
The project received a RegioStars award [8] in 2009 by the Northern Periphery Programme. [1]
The fourth project [9] carried out a programme of demonstrations of strategies on live public roads. [10] The work was supported by a new consultancy service and web-based knowledge centre. New research and development continued in the areas of climate change, [11] road widening [12] and driver health issues. [13] The Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada (FERIC) [14] and Coillte of Ireland joined as Associate Partners.
In all 30 technical reports were published at the end of the project, covering issues such as road drainage methods in different countries and road types, demonstrations of road repairs and widening, road condition surveys and proposals for forest roads. [15] The project concluded with a summary report on the benefits and savings [16] that could be achieved using the new strategies.
The ROADEX project was listed as a best case study for tangible benefits in the final summary report of the Northern Periphery Programme 2007–2013, "Achievement". [17]
EU part-funding of the ROADEX projects ended in 2012 and the partners continued at their own cost as the "ROADEX Network". Joint research continued [18] [19] [20] [21] to keep the collaboration current and sharing information [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27]
Recent projects involving strategies developed by the project include: research into the effects of the new generations of heavy trucks on road surfaces; [28] [29] and the PEHKO [30] [31] [32] project in Finland.
The PEHKO Project was the first comprehensive long-term application of the ROADEX strategies in a main road maintenance programme. The Finnish Transport Agency commissioned the project in 2015 on two tests areas on the Kemi-Tornio and Karstula to take place from 2015-2025. In this the ROADEX strategies and analyses are being used to design the maintenance plans for the test areas to improve the condition of the network, whilst reducing maintenance costs . The key operations are better drainage maintenance, pro-active snow removal [33] and targeted repairs of road sections that need action. Early results in 2016 [34] showed clear benefits in the two test areas. The trials were extended to a third test network in the Uusimaa area outside Helsinki in 2018.
The PEHKO project was awarded the 2018 Global Road Achievement Award for ″Asset Preservation and Maintenance Management″ [2] by the International Road Federation. The project publishes results its results internationally [35] [36]
The project website, www.roadex.org, contains everything that has done since 1998, and holds the e-learning suite and knowledge centre. It is fully open access. As of 2020 the project website was averaging over 5,000 users per month from around the world seeking information and solutions, including India (18%), USA (13%), Philippines (8%), Malaysia (5%), Nigeria (5%).
The economy of Finland is a highly industrialised, mixed economy with a per capita output similar to that of western European economies such as France, Germany and the United Kingdom. The largest sector of Finland's economy is services at 72.7 percent, followed by manufacturing and refining at 31.4 percent. Primary production is 2.9 percent
A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation.
Lapland is the largest and northernmost region of Finland. The 21 municipalities in the region cooperate in a Regional Council. Lapland borders the region of North Ostrobothnia in the south. It also borders the Gulf of Bothnia, Norrbotten County in Sweden, Troms and Finnmark County in Norway, and Murmansk Oblast and the Republic of Karelia in Russia. Topography varies from vast mires and forests of the South to fells in the North. The Arctic Circle crosses Lapland, so polar phenomena such as the midnight sun and polar night can be viewed in Lapland.
The A82 is a major road in Scotland that runs from Glasgow to Inverness via Fort William. It is one of the principal north-south routes in Scotland and is mostly a trunk road managed by Transport Scotland, who view it as an important link from the Central Belt to the Scottish Highlands and beyond. The road passes close to numerous landmarks, including Loch Lomond, Rannoch Moor, Glen Coe, the Ballachulish Bridge, Ben Nevis, the Commando Memorial, Loch Ness, and Urquhart Castle.
A public–private partnership is a long-term arrangement between a government and private sector institutions. Typically, it involves private capital financing government projects and services up-front, and then drawing revenues from taxpayers and/or users over the course of the PPP contract. Public–private partnerships have been implemented in multiple countries and are primarily used for infrastructure projects. They have been employed for building, equipping, operating and maintaining schools, hospitals, transport systems, and water and sewerage systems.
Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase, or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a protected area; the cutting down of protected species; or the extraction of timber in excess of agreed limits. Illegal logging is a driving force for a number of environmental issues such as deforestation, soil erosion and biodiversity loss which can drive larger-scale environmental crises such as climate change and other forms of environmental degradation.
Urban forestry is the care and management of single trees and tree populations in urban settings for the purpose of improving the urban environment. Urban forestry involves both planning and management, including the programming of care and maintenance operations of the urban forest. Urban forestry advocates the role of trees as a critical part of the urban infrastructure. Urban foresters plant and maintain trees, support appropriate tree and forest preservation, conduct research and promote the many benefits trees provide. Urban forestry is practiced by municipal and commercial arborists, municipal and utility foresters, environmental policymakers, city planners, consultants, educators, researchers and community activists.
Shared space is an urban design approach that minimises the segregation between modes of road user. This is done by removing features such as kerbs, road surface markings, traffic signs, and traffic lights. Hans Monderman and others have suggested that, by creating a greater sense of uncertainty and making it unclear who has priority, drivers will reduce their speed, in turn reducing the dominance of vehicles, reducing road casualty rates, and improving safety for other road users.
Sustainable forest management (SFM) is the management of forests according to the principles of sustainable development. Sustainable forest management has to keep the balance between three main pillars: ecological, economic and socio-cultural. Sustainable forestry can seem contradicting to some individuals as the act of logging trees is not sustainable. However, the goal of sustainable forestry is to allow for a balance to be found between ethical forestry and maintaining biodiversity through the means of maintaining natural patterns of disturbance and regeneration. The forestry industry mitigates climate change by boosting carbon storage in growing trees and soils and improving the sustainable supply of renewable raw materials via sustainable forest management. Successfully achieving sustainable forest management will provide integrated benefits to all, ranging from safeguarding local livelihoods to protecting biodiversity and ecosystems provided by forests, reducing rural poverty and mitigating some of the effects of climate change. Forest conservation is essential to stop climate change.
The economy of Montenegro is currently in a process of transition, as it navigates the impacts of the Yugoslav Wars, the decline of industry following the dissolution of the Yugoslavia, and economic sanctions imposed by the United Nations. Montenegro joined the World Trade Organization on 29 April 2012. Montenegro joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on 5 June 2017. The accession of Montenegro to the European Union is planned for 2025.
Interreg is a series of programmes to stimulate cooperation between regions in and out of the European Union (EU), funded by the European Regional Development Fund. The first Interreg started in 1989. Interreg IV covered the period 2007–2013. Interreg V (2014–2020) covers all 27 EU member states, the EFTA countries, six accession countries and 18 neighbouring countries. It has a budget of EUR 10.1 billion, which represents 2.8% of the total of the European Cohesion Policy budget. Since the non EU countries don't pay EU membership fee, they contribute directly to Interreg, not through ERDF.
Kemi-Tornio University of Applied Sciences (KTUAS) was a Finnish University of applied sciences located in Kemi and Tornio. It was founded in 1992 as Kemi-Tornio Polytechnic, a merger of several institutes of higher vocational education in the Kemi-Tornio region of Finland. It was merged with Rovaniemi University of Applied Sciences into Lapland University of Applied Sciences on January 1, 2014.
Kerala, a state in Southern India, has a network of 11 National Highways, 72 State Highways and many district roads.
Renewable energy in Finland grew to 38.7% of total final energy consumption by year end 2014, achieving joint second position with Latvia in terms of renewable energy consumption by share amongst the EU-28 countries, behind its neighbour Sweden in first position on a 52.6% share. The 2014 share in Finland breaks down as renewable energy providing 52% of the heating and cooling sector, 31.4% of the electricity sector and 21.6% of the transport sector. By 2014, Finland had already exceeded its 2020 target for renewable energy use under the EU renewable energy directive as shown in the table of country targets.
The Baltic Sea Region Programme 2007–2013 is a support programme part-financed by the European Union and Norway. It is one of the mainstream Structural Funds programmes under the European Community's territorial co-operation objective. The Programme will support transnational projects working together for balanced and sustainable development of the European territory.
Pavement management is the process of planning the maintenance and repair of a network of roadways or other paved facilities in order to optimize pavement conditions over the entire network.
The United Kingdom, being in the British Isles, is ideal for tree growth, thanks to its mild winters, plentiful rainfall, fertile soil and hill-sheltered topography. Growth rates for broadleaved (hardwood) trees exceed those of mainland Europe, while conifer (softwood) growth rates are three times those of Sweden and five times those of Finland. In the absence of people, much of Great Britain would be covered with mature oaks, except for Scotland. Although conditions for forestry are good, trees do face damage threats arising from fungi, parasites and pests. The development of afforestation and the production and supply of timber in Wales come under Natural Resources Wales, as set out in the Forestry Act 1967.
Scotland is ideal for tree growth, thanks to its mild winters, plentiful rainfall, fertile soil and hill-sheltered topography. As of 2019 about 18.5% of the country was wooded. Although this figure is well below the European Union (EU) average of 43%, it represents a significant increase compared to the figure of 100 years previously: in 1919 it was estimated that only 5% of the country's total land area was covered in forest. The Scottish Government's Draft Climate Change Plan has set an aim of increasing coverage to 21% of Scotland by 2032, with the rate of afforestation rising to 15,000 hectares per year by 2024.
The German Association for Housing, Urban and Spatial Development is a politically independent association and registered with an approved non-profit status. It is concerned with key questions and future perspectives of the housing and real estate industry, urban planning and spatial development.
Iron-Age-Danube was a project that ran from 2017–2019 that worked on communicating archaeological research to the general public. It was a part of the Interreg Danube Transnational Programme of the European Union.