Transportation and ecological corridorsTransportation and ecological corridors Transportation corridors affect wildlife habitat, populations, and entire ecosystems. Habitat fragmentation due to transport infrastructure is receiving growing concern among ecologists and civil engineers. Much data has been gathered that gives evidence of the complex impact of infrastructure on wildlife and landscapes. Roads, railroads, and their traffic disrupt ecological processes; increase mortality in animals, lead to a degradation, loss and isolation of wildlife habitat, and cause a fragmentation of the landscape in a literal sense. Infrastructure affects nature in both direct and indirect ways: The physical presence of roads and railroads in the landscape creates new habitat edges, alters hydrological dynamics, and disrupts natural processes and habitats. Road maintenance and traffic contaminate the surrounding environment with a variety of chemical pollutants and noise. In addition, infrastructure and traffic impose dispersal barriers to most nonflying terrestrial animals, and vehicle traffic causes the death of millions of individual animals per year. We can distinguish between five major categories of primary ecological effects
The key to success is the adoption of an approach that allows the whole range of ecological factors operating across the landscape to be integrated within the planning process. The problem of fragmentation is universal, therefore joint research and combined international efforts are required. To develop adequate tools for assessing, preventing and mitigating the negative ecological impact of infrastructure requires interdisciplinary work. A significant challenge to ecologists, infrastructure planners and civil engineers and other actors is the establishment of an ecologically adapted, safe and sustainable transportation infrastructure system and, of course, the involvement of users of the infrastructure in the process. The political support is the foundation of the success in combating the problem of habitat fragmentation due to transportation infrastructure.
The main challenge for European countries and whole world is to adapt the existing and future transportation infrastructure to produce an ecologically sustainable transportation system. TRANSGREEN project aims to contribute in the environmentally correct development of the transport system in mountainous regions of the Danube Basin with a special focus on the Carpathian Mountains. This is done by improving planning frameworks and developing concrete environmentally-friendly and safe road and rail transport solutions taking into account elements of Green Infrastructure, in particular ecological corridors. Innovative pilot actions are focused on ecological corridors crossed by EU TEN-T road and rail projects in the Carpathians. EU TEN-T is the European Commission Programme aimed to ensure "cohesion, interconnection and interoperability of the trans-European transport network". In TRANSGREEN, sharing experience and knowledge is of of great importance. An interdisciplinary partnership comprised of planners, economists, engineers, and ecologists integrates and apply their specific knowledge across the region and cooperate on developing Guidelines on integrated transport infrastructure planning, construction, management and monitoring, taking into account aspects of road safety and biodiversity conservation. We also work on methodologies for stakeholder participation processes, training modules on Environmental Impact Assessment with a focus on ecological corridors, and Catalogues of measures for each of the four pilot sites. An intersectoral dialogue will be fostered at the policy level that seeks for mutual understanding and implementation of recommendations towards integrated transport infrastructure planning from the local to the transnational level including EU level. Sources: Last updated: August 2018 |
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