Scientifically rigorous research that produces accurate information is required to identify and mitigate the negative impacts of roads and traffic on wildlife, communities and ecosystems. The current approach to road planning and construction is not conducive to doing good science or incorporating explicit learning in the road development process. This typically results in inadequate information about road impacts, and poor‐quality monitoring that rarely answers relevant questions about mitigation effectiveness, often leads to equivocal outcomes and does not improve ‘best practice’ as it potentially could and should. With some improvements and more experiments with roads and mitigation measures, the planning, design, construction and management of roads and road impacts could be significantly enhanced.

    Rigorous science is essential to assess, avoid, minimise, mitigate and offset the impacts of roads and traffic.

    Effective monitoring is an essential tool in road ecology.

    Getting the question right is a critical first step in research and monitoring.

    Study design matters.

    Monitoring should be seen as an integral and valuable part of road projects.

    Experiments investigating road impacts and mitigation effectiveness are an important way forward in road ecology and better management of roads.

    Research and monitoring should be strategically planned and coordinated across jurisdictional boundaries.

    The data and findings need to be accessible to relevant user groups, e.g. scientists, planner, and decision‐makers, ideally also the public.

    A diverse suite of people are involved in the planning, design, construction, and maintenance of roads and other linear infrastructure, and they all require reliable and accurate information to make decisions – not just about a particular location, but knowledge about ecological patterns and ecological relationships. Rigorous research, experiments and meaningful monitoring are urgently required to ensure linear infrastructure is ecologically sensitive and mitigation is effective ecologically and in terms of costs.


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    Title :

    Good Science and Experimentation are Needed in Road Ecology



    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2015-04-01


    Size :

    11 pages




    Type of media :

    Article/Chapter (Book)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




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