Assessment of Landscape Conflicts in Motorway Planning, NE Hungary

Abstract

Field surveys are essential in the Hungarian motorway planning process so that it would be possible to assess their impacts on the landscape, since the available databases are insufficient in respect of listing all the valuable elements of the landscape. The aims of the research are to analyse the impacts of the planned M30 Motorway (located in north-eastern Hungary) on the landscape, to enumerate the cultural and natural valuable elements of the landscape near and within the area to be expropriated, to explore the possibilities of their protection and to outline the possible land use conflicts likely to arise after the implementation of the motorway. The main sources used for the research were: landscape, green space management and environmental protection studies made for the modification of the affected settlements’ urban plans, field surveys alongside the entire track, and existing environmental databases. In the case of M30 motorway, the chosen corridor was mostly acceptable in the sections where the motorway track leads along the track of the existing Main Road 3, because it is fitted to an existing linear artificial landscape element, it is basically on the border of two natural micro-regions and can also fit into the existing land use structure. Nevertheless, it is not considered to be the best choice in places where it separates vineyards from vine cellars, where it is located within 50 meters from residential areas or where it passes through small plot vineyards or horticultural areas instead of the arable lands of the nearby plain.

The contributions of socio-environmental information maps in an environmental mobilisation: the case of a fight against a highway project in France

“…The landscape impacts of new transport infrastructure are rarely considered when a project takes place (Mészáros and Antonson 2020), even though the transformation of landscapes can give rise to land use impacts including visual changes, barrier effects on cultivated land, and conflicts between infrastructure, recreational facilities, and cultivated land (Mészáros, Gergely, and Illyés 2018). Unlike spatially-concentrated areal planning projects (e.g., shopping zones, new urban developments), linear infrastructure such as highways may cross various landscapes (rural, urban, or suburban areas), resulting in a net loss of land and a fragmentation of land over several tens or hundreds of kilometres.…”

“…This implies direct and indirect environmental impacts on agricultural land (Bacior, Dudzińska, and Prus 2018;Eremina 2018), air quality (Filigrana et al 2020;Zhu et al 2002), landscapes (Mészáros, Gergely, and Illyés 2018), and ecosystems (Wu et al 2014;Coffin 2007;Bennett 1991). One specific impact on ecosystems is the barrier effect of roads, which disrupts wildlife movements across the landscape (Girardet, Foltête, and Clauzel 2013;Fu et al 2010;Cushman 2006;Forman and Alexander 1998).…”