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
xv
Preface
In the past century, dramatic changes have been made in the U.S.
road system to accommodate an evolving set of needs, including personal travel, economic development, and military transport. As the
struggle to accommodate larger volumes of traffic continues, the road
system is increasing in width and, at a slower pace, overall length.
As the road system changes, so does the relationship between roads
and the environment. With the increase in roads, more resources are going toward road construction and management. More is also understood
about the impact of roads on the environment. To address these matters,
a better understanding of road ecology and better methods of integrating
that understanding into all aspects of road development are needed.
This report attempts to consolidate understanding in a number of
areas—how roads interact with different ecological structures and processes across scales of space and time; how the legal framework for
evaluating ecological effects intersects with the scales of ecological features; and how ecological considerations can be integrated better into all
phases of road development—from planning to use.
The compilation of current understanding of the effects of roads on
ecological processes and structures is a major focus of this report. We
found that most of the current knowledge is about aspects of the environment that change over short time periods and small areas and that
ecological processes and structures that cover large areas over broad time
scales have been largely overlooked.
The current federal legal framework for consideration of ecological
impacts of roads has essentially been in place for over three decades.
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
xv
Preface
In the past century, dramatic changes have been made in the U.S.
road system to accommodate an evolving set of needs, including personal travel, economic development, and military transport. As the
struggle to accommodate larger volumes of traffic continues, the road
system is increasing in width and, at a slower pace, overall length.
As the road system changes, so does the relationship between roads
and the environment. With the increase in roads, more resources are going toward road construction and management. More is also understood
about the impact of roads on the environment. To address these matters,
a better understanding of road ecology and better methods of integrating
that understanding into all aspects of road development are needed.
This report attempts to consolidate understanding in a number of
areas—how roads interact with different ecological structures and processes across scales of space and time; how the legal framework for
evaluating ecological effects intersects with the scales of ecological features; and how ecological considerations can be integrated better into all
phases of road development—from planning to use.
The compilation of current understanding of the effects of roads on
ecological processes and structures is a major focus of this report. We
found that most of the current knowledge is about aspects of the environment that change over short time periods and small areas and that
ecological processes and structures that cover large areas over broad time
scales have been largely overlooked.
The current federal legal framework for consideration of ecological
impacts of roads has essentially been in place for over three decades.