The methodology of determining optimum access routes to remote areas for the purposes of crisis management

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article presents a methodology to determine access routes to places with difficult access, situated outside the regular transport network. To determine the optimum route, the existing road network was used, along with terrain passability maps, as well as high-resolution digital terrain models together with the traction parameters of the vehicle to enable conducting a detailed analysis of micro-relief and excluding inaccessible areas. The research was extended to include a comprehensive analysis of terrain accessibility for areas located in the vicinity of the capital cities of three European countries on various levels of economic development: Germany, Poland, and Ukraine. The degree of development of the analysed area was determined with the use of the gross domestic product (GDP), human development index (HDI), and the road quality coefficient. The case study presented in the paper illustrates the practical application of the developed methodology that was implemented to a real crisis situation. Access routes were determined for a MAN TGM 15.290 vehicle that went to take part in emergency action in buildings situated approximately 500 m away from paved roads. The developed methodology may be widely used in crisis management, where the emergency actions often require rescue units to access remote places.