Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
This executive summary plus thousands more available at http://www.nap.edu
Assessing and Managing the Ecological Impacts of Paved Roads
http://books.nap.edu/catalog/11535.html
12
Assessing and Managing the Impacts of Paved Roads
Recommendation: Monitoring systems should be developed for
the evaluation and assessment of environmental effects resulting from
changes in the road system―for example, traffic volume, vehicle mix,
structure modifications, and network adjustments. Data from monitoring
could then be used to evaluate previous assessments and, over the long
term, improve understanding of ecological impacts.
CONCLUSION: Much useful information from research on the
ecological effects of roads is not widely available because it is not in the
peer-reviewed literature. For example, studies documenting the effects
of roads on stream sedimentation have been reported in documents of
state departments of transportation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
and the World Bank. Although much of this literature is available
through bibliographic databases, it is not included in scientific abstracting services and may not be accessible to a broader research community.
Also, the data needed to evaluate regulatory programs are not easily accessible or amenable to synthesis. The data are typically contained in
project-specific environmental impact statements, environmental assessments, records of decision, or permits (for example, wetlands permits),
which are not easily available to the scientific community.
Recommendation: Studies on ecological effects of roads should
be made more accessible through scientific abstracting services or
through publication in peer-reviewed venues. The Federal Highway
Administration, in partnership with state and federal resourcemanagement agencies, should develop environmental information and
decision-support systems to make ecological information available in
searchable databases.
CONCLUSION: Transportation agencies have been attempting to
fill an institutional gap in ecological protection created by the multiple
social and environmental issues that must be addressed at all phases of
road development. The gaps often occur when problems arise that are
not covered by agency mandates or when agencies need to interact with
other organizations in new ways. Even when transportation agencies
work toward environmental stewardship, they cannot always do the job
alone.
Recommendation: Transportation agencies should continue to
expand beyond their historical roles as planners and engineers, increasing their roles as environmental coordinators and stewards. Transporta-
This executive summary plus thousands more available at http://www.nap.edu
Assessing and Managing the Ecological Impacts of Paved Roads
http://books.nap.edu/catalog/11535.html
12
Assessing and Managing the Impacts of Paved Roads
Recommendation: Monitoring systems should be developed for
the evaluation and assessment of environmental effects resulting from
changes in the road system―for example, traffic volume, vehicle mix,
structure modifications, and network adjustments. Data from monitoring
could then be used to evaluate previous assessments and, over the long
term, improve understanding of ecological impacts.
CONCLUSION: Much useful information from research on the
ecological effects of roads is not widely available because it is not in the
peer-reviewed literature. For example, studies documenting the effects
of roads on stream sedimentation have been reported in documents of
state departments of transportation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
and the World Bank. Although much of this literature is available
through bibliographic databases, it is not included in scientific abstracting services and may not be accessible to a broader research community.
Also, the data needed to evaluate regulatory programs are not easily accessible or amenable to synthesis. The data are typically contained in
project-specific environmental impact statements, environmental assessments, records of decision, or permits (for example, wetlands permits),
which are not easily available to the scientific community.
Recommendation: Studies on ecological effects of roads should
be made more accessible through scientific abstracting services or
through publication in peer-reviewed venues. The Federal Highway
Administration, in partnership with state and federal resourcemanagement agencies, should develop environmental information and
decision-support systems to make ecological information available in
searchable databases.
CONCLUSION: Transportation agencies have been attempting to
fill an institutional gap in ecological protection created by the multiple
social and environmental issues that must be addressed at all phases of
road development. The gaps often occur when problems arise that are
not covered by agency mandates or when agencies need to interact with
other organizations in new ways. Even when transportation agencies
work toward environmental stewardship, they cannot always do the job
alone.
Recommendation: Transportation agencies should continue to
expand beyond their historical roles as planners and engineers, increasing their roles as environmental coordinators and stewards. Transporta-