As a high-density metropolitan area with substantial traffic volumes, Seoul requires a systematic winter road maintenance strategy to ensure public safety. An analysis of weather data from 2020/2021 to 2024/2025 shows a decline in snowfall days but a rise in road icing incidents. This shift highlights the need to move from snow accumulation-focused responses to preventive strategies targeting icy conditions. Given Seoul’s diverse topography?densely populated areas, bridges, and steep slopes?flexible and proactive snow removal planning is essential.
Snow removal responsibilities are distributed among multiple agencies, resulting in uneven service quality. District offices, in particular, face a heavier burden due to their role in clearing not only local roads but also city-assigned roads and pedestrian areas. Resource disparities and inconsistent manuals have created blind spots in response. Coordinated frameworks and GIS-based planning are required to establish balanced, road-class-specific strategies.
Currently designated vulnerable sites lack clear, scientific selection criteria and often overlap. A risk-based classification system reflecting traffic volume, structure, and weather variability is necessary for efficient equipment allocation.
Deicing agent use shows weak alignment with actual conditions due to variations in equipment, field decisions, and the absence of guidelines for non-roadway zones. Operational standards should be revised, equipment modernized, and spatial data expanded to improve efficiency.
Finally, decision-making still heavily relies on experience rather than integrated weather and surface data. A more scientific, standardized response protocol is needed to reduce inter-district discrepancies and improve timeliness. This study proposes key improvement tasks to support a Seoul-specific snow removal model centered on safety, resource efficiency, and climate adaptability.