Incorporating Biodiversity Issues into Road Design

Roberts, Kevin C.; Sjölund, Anders

doi:10.1002/9781118568170.ch4

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…In strategic planning, route options are developed and key project goals established. The strategic planning stage usually concludes with the preparation of an investment plan identifying targets for cost, traffic access, safety, and design, but rarely provides targets for environmental or ecological issues (Roberts and Sj€ olund, 2015). In the project development stage, the transportation project is more clearly defined.…”

Section: Road Project Stages and Experimentationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are typically six stages in the road planning process (Ontario Ministry of Transportation, 2010; U.S. Department of Transportation, 2012; Roberts and Sj€ olund, 2015). Although their names and scale often vary across agencies and with the size of the project, they are: (1) strategic planning, (2) project development (preliminary design), (3) detailed design, (4) property acquisition, (5) construction, and (6) operation and maintenance.…”

Section: Road Project Stages and Experimentationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Experimental study designs to improve the evaluation of road mitigation measures for wildlife

Rytwinski

Ree

Cunnington

et al. 2015

Journal of Environmental Management

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Section: Road Project Stages and Experimentationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Road Project Stages and Experimentationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental study designs to improve the evaluation of road mitigation measures for wildlife

Rytwinski

Ree

Cunnington

et al. 2015

Journal of Environmental Management

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“…Broadly speaking, transport planning may be broken down into four phases (Roberts and Sjölund, 2015). The first is the development of a business case (concept/investigation phase).…”

Section: Dissemination Of Road Ecology Principles In Transport Planningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Planning for fauna-sensitive road design: A review

Johnson

Matthews

Burke

et al. 2022

Front. Environ. Sci.

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Roads can have significant negative impacts on wildlife. Fauna-sensitive road design (FSRD) can alleviate adverse impacts on several species by installing specialised structures, such as wildlife crossing structures. This developing subfield has generally, however, had a limited impact on transportation planning and management. Indeed, most research is focused narrowly on technological solutions, instead of broader policy learnings. This systematic quantitative literature review (SQLR) of international literature sought to identify the biodiversity concerns acknowledged in transport planning policy, as well as the barriers to the adoption of environmental policies within transport planning. Despite considerable literature available on the impacts of roads on wildlife elsewhere, acknowledgement and consideration of both fauna movement and fauna-sensitive road design were limited in road transportation planning research. More broadly, failure to achieve environmental objectives within transport planning occurred primarily as a result of competing sector interests (conflicted knowledge), different political objectives (political interest), and incorrect interpretation of policies. In essence, the results add new layers of understanding to the field of transportation planning and policy, in particular, the gaps in acknowledgement of wildlife movements and the limitations of current fauna-sensitive road design considered. Importantly, the review identified multiple ecological support tools available to transport policy- and decision-makers. Integration of these in road transportation projects could facilitate enhanced uptake and adoption of FSRD measures and thus foster improved sustainability of the transport network.

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“…Roads can have substantial and far-reaching impacts on the environment [4,[7][8][9]20]. Quantifying the road-effect zone in management and road-planning processes is necessary to plan effectively for wildlife and their habitat requirements [66][67][68][69]. This information can help guide road-planning and decision-making on where to build roads, how to mitigate and reduce the impacts to wildlife and how much habitat is lost or degraded and needs to be compensated for.…”

Section: Accounting For the Road-effect Zone In Planningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insectivorous bats are less active near freeways

et al. 2021

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Traffic disturbances (i.e. pollution, light, noise, and vibrations) often extend into the area surrounding a road creating a ‘road-effect zone’. Habitat within the road-effect zone is degraded or, in severe cases, completely unsuitable for wildlife, resulting in indirect habitat loss. This can have a disproportionate impact on wildlife in highly modified landscapes, where remaining habitat is scarce or occurs predominantly along roadside reserves. In this study, we investigated the road-effect zone for insectivorous bats in highly cleared agricultural landscapes by quantifying the change in call activity with proximity to three major freeways. The activity of seven out of 10 species of bat significantly decreased with proximity to the freeway. We defined the road-effect zone to be the proximity at which call activity declined by at least 20% relative to the maximum detected activity. The overall road-effect zone for bats in this region was 307 m, varying between 123 and 890 m for individual species. Given that this road-effect zone exceeds the typical width of the roadside verges (<50 m), it is possible that much of the vegetation adjacent to freeways in this and similar landscapes provides low-quality habitat for bats. Without accounting for the road-effect zone, the amount of habitat lost or degraded due to roads is underestimated, potentially resulting in the loss of wildlife, ecosystem services and key ecosystem processes (e.g. predator-prey or plant-pollinator interactions) from the landscape. We suggest all future environmental impact assessments include quantifying the road-effect zone for sensitive wildlife, in order to best plan and mitigate the impact of roads on the environment. Mitigating the effects of new and existing roads on wildlife is essential to ensure enough high-quality habitat persists to maintain wildlife populations.

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Incorporating Biodiversity Issues into Road Design

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Experimental study designs to improve the evaluation of road mitigation measures for wildlife

Experimental study designs to improve the evaluation of road mitigation measures for wildlife

Planning for fauna-sensitive road design: A review

Insectivorous bats are less active near freeways

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