A8.10 - Isolation

Isolation

Isolation occurs when people are unable to access normal community facilities or where there are long distances to travel to these facilities. Isolation may arise because:

• roads are unreliable.
• people live in remote areas.

Impacts of isolation

The impacts of the above two aspects of isolation are as follows:

1. Areas may be isolated by road closures caused by flooding, slips, collapses of bridge structures, etc. Areas served by only one road are particularly vulnerable to road closures but potentially access to and from major towns and cities can also be disrupted by events such as flooding and major earthquakes. The impacts of these road closures are firstly that people and businesses are unable to undertake normal activities and secondly there is the potential of being unable to deal with emergencies. In situations where road closures occur frequently, the threat of road closures may also create a sense of insecurity.
2. In the case of remote areas, people generally live there by preference. Thus the only case where a valid benefit for isolation shall be claimed is where an existing link has been cut, eg where an existing bridge gets washed away. In this case the project to replace the bridge would produce benefits in terms of reducing unwanted isolation.

Reporting of isolation

In the case of unreliable roads, isolation shall be reported in terms of:

• the number of residents affected by road closures.
• frequency and duration of road closures.
• availability of alternative routes, particularly for emergencies.
• degree of disruption caused by road closures, eg to commerce and to commuters and school children.

In the case of remote areas threatened with isolation, isolation shall be reported in terms of:

• number of residents in the remote area
• additional distance to community facilities by alternative routes
• visitor and tourist potential of the area.
• Where projects reduce isolation or the threat of isolation, the benefits shall be quantified, where possible.