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
Summary
3
BOX S-1 Statement of Task
A multidisciplinary committee will be established to review the scientific information on the ecological effects of road density, including
the impacts of roads and highway density on ecosystem structure
and functioning and on the provision of ecosystem goods and services. The committee will focus on hard-surfaced roads and will assess data and ecological indicators needed to measure those impacts. Cumulative effects will be considered. The proposed study
will also provide a conceptual framework and approach for the development of a rapid assessment methodology that transportation
and regulatory agencies can use to assess and measure ecological
impacts of road density. To the degree that the committee can identify documentation of their effectiveness, it will consider the potential
ameliorating effects of measures that might avoid, reduce, or compensate for the effects of highways and highway density on the
structure and processes of ecosystems.
The committee will consider such questions as the following:
1. What are appropriate spatial scales for different ecological
processes that might be affected by roads?
2. The importance of various ecological models and their appropriateness to the analysis.
3. The applicability of various ecological indicators, such as those
recently recommended by the National Research Council.
4. The degree to which the national, regional, and local environmental concerns expressed in such laws as the Endangered Species
Act and the Clean Water Act are relevant to the ecological effects of
roads.
The study will focus on all classes of hard-surfaced roads. The
committee will consider and describe as possible the various attributes of roads that have ecological significance, such as how the
right-of-way is managed, surface composition, and the presence or
absence of structures such as overpasses and underpasses. It will
consider the importance of the pattern of road layout on ecological
systems. It will not address global or regional climate effects, since
they are being studied under other initiatives. However, local climate
effects are appropriate in the scale of individual project design, construction, and use, and are directly related to ecosystem performance in both long- and short-term contexts.
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
Summary
3
BOX S-1 Statement of Task
A multidisciplinary committee will be established to review the scientific information on the ecological effects of road density, including
the impacts of roads and highway density on ecosystem structure
and functioning and on the provision of ecosystem goods and services. The committee will focus on hard-surfaced roads and will assess data and ecological indicators needed to measure those impacts. Cumulative effects will be considered. The proposed study
will also provide a conceptual framework and approach for the development of a rapid assessment methodology that transportation
and regulatory agencies can use to assess and measure ecological
impacts of road density. To the degree that the committee can identify documentation of their effectiveness, it will consider the potential
ameliorating effects of measures that might avoid, reduce, or compensate for the effects of highways and highway density on the
structure and processes of ecosystems.
The committee will consider such questions as the following:
1. What are appropriate spatial scales for different ecological
processes that might be affected by roads?
2. The importance of various ecological models and their appropriateness to the analysis.
3. The applicability of various ecological indicators, such as those
recently recommended by the National Research Council.
4. The degree to which the national, regional, and local environmental concerns expressed in such laws as the Endangered Species
Act and the Clean Water Act are relevant to the ecological effects of
roads.
The study will focus on all classes of hard-surfaced roads. The
committee will consider and describe as possible the various attributes of roads that have ecological significance, such as how the
right-of-way is managed, surface composition, and the presence or
absence of structures such as overpasses and underpasses. It will
consider the importance of the pattern of road layout on ecological
systems. It will not address global or regional climate effects, since
they are being studied under other initiatives. However, local climate
effects are appropriate in the scale of individual project design, construction, and use, and are directly related to ecosystem performance in both long- and short-term contexts.