Restoring ecological connectivity after the impact of transportation infraestructures.

Habitat fragmentation is one of the most outstanding impacts of transport networks in the landscapes and it has been identified as the main cause of biodiversity loss in Europe. Loss, disturbance and pollution of wildlife habitants, fauna casualties and dispersal of exotic species are some of the ecological effects of roads and railways, but their barrier effect, that difficult the wildlife movements across the landscape, is a major threat for the long term conservation of wildlife populations. First step for minimising these impacts, and the basis for the restoration of ecological connectivity, is the identification of the habitats witch concentrate a high biodiversity, and the ecological corridors which allow the dispersal of individuals, the exchange between different nucleus of metapopulations and the accessibility to all resources (food, refuge, etc.) needed for the long term conservation of healthy populations. Between the measures that must be considered we highlight the importance of the route design, that must avoid the fragmentation of key habitats and ecological corridors. A second step is the construction of wildlife crossing structures such as big landscape bridges and fauna passages. Monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of these structures have provided a good knowledge of the requirements of different species and the information collected all around Europe have been compiled in the handbook COST 341. Wildlife and traffic. A European Handbook for identifying conflicts and designing solutions. Location, dimensions, and conditioning of the entrances of wildlife crossings are key points for guarantying their effectiveness. At present, the challenge is to achieve the awareness of decision makers and professionals involved in the design and construction of transport infrastructures and promoting the best practices for the avoidance of habitat fragmentation and the restoration of ecological connectivity.

Data and Resources

Metadata
Download
DCAT-AP/NTI-RISP

Basic information
Resource type Text
Date of creation 2024-09-17
Date of last revision 2024-09-17
Show changelog
Metadata identifier b7c02e73-ef0b-5bd3-b0cd-5d8a7fdccefc
Metadata language Spanish
Themes (NTI-RISP)
High-value dataset category
ISO 19115 topic category biota
Other identifier
Keyword URIs
Character encoding UTF-8
Spatial information
INSPIRE identifier ESPMITECOIEPNBFRAGM281
INSPIRE Themes
Geographic identifier Spain
Coordinate Reference System
Spatial representation Type
Bounding Box
"{\"type\": \"Polygon\", \"coordinates\": [[[-18.16, 27.64], [4.32, 27.64], [4.32, 43.79], [-18.16, 43.79], [-18.16, 27.64]]]}"
Spatial resolution of the dataset (m)
Provenance
Lineage statement
Metadata Standard
Conformity
Source dataset
Update frequency
Sources
  1. The World Conference on Ecological Restoration. Conference Abstracts. 17th Conference
  2. pags. 132-133
Purpose
Process steps
Temporal extent (Start)
Temporal extent (End)
Version notes
Version
Dataset validity
Responsible Party
Name of the dataset creator Rosell, C.
Name of the dataset maintainer
Identifier of the dataset creator
Email of the dataset creator
Website of the dataset creator
Identifier of the dataset maintainer
Email of the dataset maintainer
Website of the dataset maintainer