In the depths of winter, the rain turns to snow in the north. In the year of Ruixue mega, snow is the representative weather of winter, but now many places are often drought, there is little rain and snow weather, and the seasonal aura of fluttering and sprinkling pleasant people has been quite scarce, and the wild ski resorts are mostly artificial snow, and the dry weather is also easy to cause respiratory diseases and other diseases, so people are looking forward to a few heavy snowfalls. However, if there is too much snow to melt in time, the snow on the road will become icy and slippery, which will affect the already busy road traffic. Especially in the city, the largest volume and traffic flow, in order to ensure the smooth and safe travel, road cleaning, snow melting, ice shoveling and anti-skid have long been institutionalized.
In Beijing, for example, there are many roads and a lot of work, and melting snow may be the main measure, that is, by sprinkling snow melting agent on the road surface to reduce the temperature required for ice and snow to melt, so that the ice and snow can melt into water at natural low temperatures, without much impact on traffic. However, the main ingredient of common snow melting agents is chloride salts, which will not disappear with the disappearance of ice and snow after entering the environment, and it is very easy to diffuse from the road in various ways, so that if you apply too much, it will become a pollutant and form an ecological and environmental problem, such as endangering the normal growth of plants and street trees in the roadside green belt nearby.
Intuitively, the snow melting agent is of course sprinkled on the road surface with snow melting needs, and has nothing to do with the green belt, but when the salt particles melt ice and snow, they also melt into the water, and will infiltrate into the soil with the natural flow of water. When the snow is clear, the ice and snow melt away, and the salt left on the road surface will become dust and naturally fall into the green belt and other water and soil media through vehicle disturbance and wind blowing. In particular, the green belts and street trees that isolate the main and auxiliary roads are next to the road or part of the road, and it is common for the street trees and greenery to be affected when the snow melting agent is thrown. These salts eventually enter the soil, inhibiting the absorption of water by plant roots by changing the soil salt concentration, and in severe cases, causing plants to wilt and die.
In the past, we have heard reports of the effect of chloride precipitation after snow melting agent is sprinkled with snow melting agent during de-icing and snow melting. In 2023, the correlation between a street tree change and a snow melting agent was observed in a new urban area in the suburbs of Beijing. Around mid-June, rows of ginkgo trees along many roads suddenly withered, some of the leaves withered and looked dead, and some of the leaves were turning from green to yellow to red. After the late spring and early summer is about to enter the middle of summer, the heat, light, and water are abundant, and everything is rushing to grow luxuriantly, it is the time when the vegetation is verdant, but these are only carefully cared for and no one harms, and the ginkgo street trees that were originally vigorous and full of beauty have suddenly withered, which is very regrettable.
What is the reason for this?It looks like it has been watered once recently, but it seems that the ginkgo trees on the other road that have not been watered have also withered, so it is natural to think of the snow melting agent situation that I have seen on these roads before. On the night of January 22, it was rare for a light snow in the capital, the snow here was not big, the weather was sunny on the day, the snow on the road was very thin, after melting and crushing, most of the road sections were basically free of snow around noon. But seeing that there are still a lot of snow melting agents on the road, it should be based on the institutionalized de-icing and snow melting work arrangement, preventive sprinkling, and later the snow conditions changed more snow melting agent and less snow, and the salt that was not converted into water was left on the road, which looked white from a distance, and some of the road teeth and green belts were thick with a thick layer of salt grains on the side of the road.
At that time, observing the application and retention of snow melting agent on the road here, I felt that it would be difficult to completely eliminate it for a while without rainwater cleaning, and I had a premonition that it might affect the normal growth of plants in the green beltThis is entirely possible, the earth thaws from winter to spring, the salt of the snow melting agent slowly enters the soil, the root pressure of the ginkgo biloba soil changes directly affects the absorption of water, and even the phenomenon of backflow may occur, plus the weather is dry and hot, it is no wonder that it does not wither, and there is almost no grass under the tree and the adjacent green belt, which should be the same situation. However, the locust tree on the outside of the ginkgo tree grows normally, probably because the locust tree is farther away from the salt road, and the sensitivity to salt may be weaker than that of ginkgo. Fortunately, these withered ginkgo trees slowly survived later, and they have been hanging ginkgo fruits, and the tenacity of life is very touching.
There is no doubt that it is an important task to do practical things for the people by spreading snow melting agent to eliminate snow on the road, reduce traffic risks from the source and ensure travel safety. However, as with all work, there is a need to take into account the need for a more holistic approach, and the application of snow melting agents, despite the urgent need, should not only focus on road safety but not on anything else. According to reports, Canadian studies have shown that groundwater and lakes in Ontario are experiencing very rapid salinization as municipal transportation departments sprinkle salt on roads in the winter to de-ice. The impact of salt and snow melting on roads in China may not be so serious, but it is necessary to strike a balance between road security and urban greening to avoid the impact of high salinity on plants. Green belts, street trees and road safety are just as indispensable as road safety, and there are so many constraints that many plants are difficult to grow and often need to be replanted.
This is also guided by materialist dialectics, insisting on observing things comprehensively rather than one-sidedly, systematically rather than fragmentedly, and universally connected rather than single and isolated, properly handling the relationship between road snow melting and urban greening and farmland and water quality, and solving the problem of safe travel in a realistic and necessary way, without wasting resources and harming the innocent, so as to truly achieve effective, low-carbon and green. When the snow is very small and does not have an actual impact on road traffic, it is not necessary to start the snow melting agent plan, and the snow can be sprinkled less than more, let alone over-sprinkle salt. At the same time, snow is a natural phenomenon, and people should also have a certain degree of adaptability, beware of talking about the need for snow color to increase and sprinkle salt.