Ecological Compensation in Dutch Highway Planning

The ecological compensation principle was introduced by the Dutch government in 1993. This principle is designed to enhance the input of nature conservation interests in decision-making on large-scale development projects and to counterbalance the ecological impacts of such developments when implemented. This article evaluates the application of the Dutch compensation principle in highway planning. Six current highway projects reveal consistent implementation of this principle, although provincial policies on compensation and a national method for identifying compensation measures are still under development. As the planning process has not yet been completed for all the projects, no general conclusions can be drawn on the impact of the compensation principle on highway decision-making. Nevertheless, several examples show that the principle stimulates project initiators to develop alternative routes or route sections in order to avoid or reduce ecological impacts and the need for coherent compensation measures. If the compensation principle is to be properly implemented in the context of highway planning, particular attention should be paid to the following aspects: (1) sequential assessment of overall project legitimacy and the necessity of intersecting protected areas and compensation measures, (2) the initiator's attempts to avoid and mitigate ecological impacts in developing alternative routes prior to compensation for impacts, and (3) the role of uncertain ecological impacts in identifying compensation measures, especially those concerning habitat isolation.     

大尺度下土地利用与景观格局演变分析--以湛江海洋大学主校区为例

通过分析景观斑块的分离度、多样性、均匀性等指数，总结了大学校园土地利用与景观类型的关系，对优化校园景观格局具有现实指导意义。以湛江海洋大学主校区1996年和2005的遥感影像为信息源．在大尺度下利用GIS技术计算和分析主校区各类景观和总体景观的演变情况。结果表明．湛江海洋大学主校区整体景观的孔隙度、多样性、均匀度增加，而破碎度、优势度减小。     

基于县域尺度的土地利用景观格局特征及其影响因素研究——以江苏省丰县为例

从类型水平、景观水平两个维度选取8个景观指数定量分析了江苏省丰县土地利用景观格局特征,探讨其影响因素.研究表明,耕地作为丰县景观基底,其景观结合度水平较高;耕地和园地景观的聚集度高、破碎度低、连接度高,而其他农用地和林地则相反;距离交通线路越近,斑块密度、景观多样性、均匀度等景观指数越大;经济较发达镇的斑块密度较大,景观分散度和分离度指数较高,聚集度指数较低;距县城越远,景观类型分布越集中且较单一.     

Control of landscape diversity by catastrophic disturbance: A theory and a case study of fire in a Canadian boreal forest

A landscape may be envisioned as a space partitioned by a number of ecosystem types, and so it conforms to a neo-Clementsian model of succession. A corollary is that intermediate disturbance rates should maximize landscape (beta) diversity. This was confirmed using eight boreal forest landscapes in northwestern Ontario, Canada, where intermediate rates of forest fire were associated with highest landscape diversity. Because current measures of evenness subsume a richness measure, it is not, as yet, feasible to assess the relative contributions of evenness and richness to biological diversity, and thus it was not possible to determine the roles of numbers of habitat types and relative amounts of habitat types in the above situation. Both theory and observations suggest that forest fire control in fire-prone landscapes increases landscape diversity, but that it is lowered by fire control in landscapes of intermediate to low diversity.     

成都市热力景观空间格局分析

城市热力景观空间格局是城市附属物和城市活动性在热场方面的综合表现。使用2008年11月23日的Landsat5/TM数据,将第6波段反演为亮温,并按温度值的高低把热力景观分为7个类型;借鉴景观生态学的原理和方法,以破碎度指数、多样性指数、均匀度指数和优势度指数为评价指标,对成都市三环路内约200km2热力景观空间格局的研究结果表明：5个行政区的热力景观格局指数存在显著差别,如锦江区的破碎度指数最大,为0.924,成华区的最小,为0.559,指数大小与城市热力景观类型的分布特点密切相关。这些结果对于分析和研究城市整体格局、城市规划和环境保护等具有应用意义。     

Managing Radioactively Contaminated Land: Implications for Habitat Diversity

Radioactive contamination of agricultural land may necessitate long-term changes in food production systems, through application of selected countermeasures, in order to reduce the accumulation of radionuclides in food. We quantified the impact of selected countermeasures on habitat diversity, using the hypothetical case of two agricultural areas in Finland. The management scenarios studied were conversions from grassland to cereal production and from grassland and crop production to afforestation. The two study sites differed with respect to present agricultural production: one being predominantly cereal production and seminatural grasslands, while the other was dominated by intensive grass and dairy production. Some of the management scenarios are expected to affect landscape structures and habitat diversity. These potential changes were assessed using a spatial pattern analysis program in connection with geographic information systems. The studied landscape changes resulted in a more monotonous landscape structure compared to the present management, by increasing the mean habitat patch size, reducing the total habitat edge length and reducing the overall habitat diversity calculated by the Shannon diversity index. The degree of change was dependent on the present agricultural management practice in the case study sites. Where dairy production was predominant, the landscape structure changes were mostly due to conversion of intensive pastures and grasslands to cereal production. In the area dominated by cereal production and seminatural grasslands, the greatest predicted impacts resulted from afforestation of meadows and pastures. The studied management changes are predicted to reduce biodiversity at the species level as well as diminishing species-rich habitats. This study has predicted prominent side effects in habitat diversity resulting from application of management scenarios. These potential long-term impacts should be considered by decision-makers when planning future strategies in the event of radionuclide deposition.     

URBAN IMPACTS ON PHYSICAL STREAM CONDITION: EFFECTS OF SPATIAL SCALE,CONNECTIVITY, AND LONGITUDINAL TRENDS1

ABSTRACT: An assessment of physical conditions in urban streams of the Puget Sound region, coupled with spatially explicit watershed characterizations, demonstrates the importance of spatial scale, drainage network connectivity, and longitudinal downstream trends when considering the effects of urbanization on streams. A rapid stream assessment technique and a multimetric index were used to describe the physical conditions of multiple reaches in four watersheds. Watersheds were characterized using geographic information system (GIS) derived landscape metrics that represent the magnitude of urbanization at three spatial scales and the connectivity of urban land. Physical conditions, as measured by the physical stream conditions index (PSCI), were best explained for the watersheds by two landscape metrics: quantity of intense and grassy urban land in the subwatershed and quantity of intense and grassy urban land within 500 m of the site (R²= 0.52, p > 0.0005). A multiple regression of PSCI with these metrics and an additional connectivity metric (proximity of a road crossing) provided the best model for the three urban watersheds (R²= 0.41, p > 0.0005). Analyses of longitudinal trends in PSCI within the three urban watersheds showed that conditions improved when a stream flowed through an intact riparian buffer with forest or wetland vegetation and without road crossings. Results demonstrate that information on spatial scale and patterns of urbanization is essential to understanding and successfully managing urban streams.     

Distributed travel time savings of a multiscale transportation access management program

Access management in transportation planning can save travel time, reduce crashes, and increase route capacities. The planning literature suggests a need for performance metrics and a decision-aiding framework to guide access management programs across large corridor networks and diverse time horizons. This paper describes a quantitative framework to support access management programs, applying multicriteria analysis and cost-benefit analysis with parameter uncertainties. The metrics used to assess relative priorities at existing access points include the following: travel time delay index, traffic exposure, value of time, and costs of typical access management activities. Uncertain parameters that influence the estimates of the potential benefits and costs are identified and treated via a numerical interval analysis. The framework is demonstrated at several geographic scales and locations including 7,000 km of highway arterials of a 110,000 square-kilometer region and several sub-regions. The results assist decision makers to identify route segments that should be addressed sooner by eliciting additional information, reserving right-of-way, closing access points, planning new alignments, facilitating development proffers, etc. The approach is transferable to other topics involving resource allocation for preservation and improvement of multiscale infrastructure systems.     

BR-319: Brazil’s Manaus-Porto Velho Highway and the Potential Impact of Linking the Arc of Deforestation to Central Amazonia

Brazil’s BR-319 Highway linked Manaus, in the state of Amazonas, to Porto Velho, Rondônia, until it became impassable in 1988. Now it is proposed for reconstruction and paving, which would facilitate migration from the “Arc of Deforestation” in the southern part of the Amazon region to new frontiers farther north. The purpose of the highway, which is to facilitate transport to São Paulo of products from factories in the Manaus Free Trade Zone, would be better served by sending the containers by ship to the port of Santos. The lack of a land connection to Manaus currently represents a significant barrier to migration to central and northern Amazonia. Discourse regarding the highway systematically overestimates the highway’s benefits and underestimates its impacts. A variety of changes would be needed prior to paving the highway if these potential impacts are to be attenuated. These include zoning, reserve creation, and increased governance in various forms, including deforestation licensing and control programs. More fundamental changes are also needed, especially the abandonment of the long-standing tradition in Brazil of granting squatters’ rights to those who invade public land. Organizing Amazonian occupation in such a way that road construction and improvement cease to lead to explosive and uncontrolled deforestation should be a prerequisite for approval of the BR-319 and other road projects for which major impacts are expected. These projects could provide the impetus that is needed to achieve the transition away from appropriation of public land by both small squatters and by grileiros (large-scale illegal claimants). A delay in reconstructing the highway is advisable until appropriate changes can be effected.     

Comparison of Macroinvertebrate‐Derived Stream Quality Metrics Between Snag and Riffle Habitats1

Abstract: We compared benthic macroinvertebrate assemblage structure at snag and riffle habitats in 43 Wisconsin streams across a range of watershed urbanization using a variety of stream quality metrics. Discriminant analysis indicated that dominant taxa at riffles and snags differed; Hydropsychid caddisflies (Hydropsyche betteni and Cheumatopsyche spp.) and elmid beetles (Optioservus spp. and Stenemlis spp.) typified riffles, whereas isopods (Asellus intermedius) and amphipods (Hyalella azteca and Gammarus pseudolimnaeus) predominated in snags. Analysis of covariance indicated that samples from snag and riffle habitats differed significantly in their response to the urbanization gradient for the Hilsenhoff biotic index (BI), Shannon’s diversity index, and percent of filterers, shredders, and pollution intolerant Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera (EPT) at each stream site (p ≤ 0.10). These differences suggest that although macroinvertebrate assemblages present in either habitat type are sensitive to detecting the effects of urbanization, metrics derived from different habitats should not be intermixed when assessing stream quality through biomonitoring. This can be a limitation to resource managers who wish to compare water quality among streams where the same habitat type is not available at all stream locations, or where a specific habitat type (i.e., a riffle) is required to determine a metric value (i.e., BI). To account for differences in stream quality at sites lacking riffle habitat, snag‐derived metric values can be adjusted based on those obtained from riffles that have been exposed to the same level of urbanization. Comparison of nonlinear regression equations that related stream quality metric values from the two habitat types to percent watershed urbanization indicated that snag habitats had on average 30.2 fewer percent EPT individuals, a lower diversity index value than riffles, and a BI value of 0.29 greater than riffles.     

Anthropogenic effects on the biodiversity of riparian wetlands of a northern temperate landscape

Land uses such as forestry and agriculture are presumed to degrade the biodiversity of riparian wetlands in the northern temperate regions of the United States. In order to improve land use decision making in this landscape, floral and faunal communities of 15 riparian wetlands associated with low-order streams were related to their surrounding land cover to establish which organismal groups are affected by anthropogenic disturbance and whether these impacts are scale-specific. Study sites were chosen to represent a gradient of disturbance. Vascular plants of wet meadow and shrub carr communities, aquatic macro-invertebrates, amphibians, fish and birds were surveyed, and total abundance, species richness and Shannon diversity were calculated. For each site, anthropogenic disturbances were evaluated at local and landscape scales (500, 1000, 2500 and 5000 m from the site and the site catchment) from field surveys and a geographic information system (GIS). Land use data were grouped into six general land use types: urban, cultivated, rangeland, forest, wetland and water. Shrub carr vegetation, bird and fish diversity and richness generally decrease with increasing cultivation in the landscape. Amphibian abundance decreases and fish abundance increases as the proportions of open water and rangeland increases; bird diversity and richness increase with forest and wetland extent in the landscape. Wet meadow vegetation, aquatic macro-invertebrates, amphibians and fish respond to local disturbances or environmental conditions. Shrub carr vegetation, amphibians and birds are influenced by land use at relatively small landscape scales (500 and 1000 m), and fish respond to land use at larger landscape scales (2500, 5000 m and the catchment). Effective conservation planning for these riparian wetlands requires assessment of multiple organismal groups, different types of disturbance and several spatial scales.1998 Academic Press     

LONGITUDINAL SUCCESSION IN IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF RIVER SYSTEM FISH COMMUNITIES1

ABSTRACT: Longitudinal succession indicates that diversity and species richiess of fish communities increases with increasing river size (increasing habitat complexity and environmental stability). Cultural impacts tend to decrease diversity, species richness, and evenness. To assess the impacts of cultural events on the fish community of a river system, the bias caused by longitudinal succession was removed by normalizing diversity indices and species richness values for river size. The relationships between an impact index and the community parameters of evenness, normalized diversity, and normalized species richness were determined by regression analysis. Similar relationships were determined using nonnormalized data, and the results compared. The two sets of regressions were similar in terms of variance explained. Evenness, which is unaffected by longitudinal sucession, appears to be the most impact sensitive parameter. A major source of error and confusion rsults from introduced species which are simultaneously sources of biological impact and a component of the community. Numbers of introduced species tend to increase with both impact and river size.     

Scale Effects on Spatially Varying Relationships Between Urban Landscape Patterns and Water Quality

Scientific interpretation of the relationships between urban landscape patterns and water quality is important for sustainable urban planning and watershed environmental protection. This study applied the ordinary least squares regression model and the geographically weighted regression model to examine the spatially varying relationships between 12 explanatory variables (including three topographical factors, four land use parameters, and five landscape metrics) and 15 water quality indicators in watersheds of Yundang Lake, Maluan Bay, and Xinglin Bay with varying levels of urbanization in Xiamen City, China. A local and global investigation was carried out at the watershed-level, with 50 and 200 m riparian buffer scales. This study found that topographical features and landscape metrics are the dominant factors of water quality, while land uses are too weak to be considered as a strong influential factor on water quality. Such statistical results may be related with the characteristics of land use compositions in our study area. Water quality variations in the 50 m buffer were dominated by topographical variables. The impact of landscape metrics on water quality gradually strengthen with expanding buffer zones. The strongest relationships are obtained in entire watersheds, rather than in 50 and 200 m buffer zones. Spatially varying relationships and effective buffer zones were verified in this study. Spatially varying relationships between explanatory variables and water quality parameters are more diversified and complex in less urbanized areas than in highly urbanized areas. This study hypothesizes that all these varying relationships may be attributed to the heterogeneity of landscape patterns in different urban regions. Adjustment of landscape patterns in an entire watershed should be the key measure to successfully improving urban lake water quality.     

Benefits and Challenges of Linking Green Infrastructure and Highway Planning in the United States

Landscape-level green infrastructure creates a network of natural and semi-natural areas that protects and enhances ecosystem services, regenerative capacities, and ecological dynamism over long timeframes. It can also enhance quality of life and certain economic activity. Highways create a network for moving goods and services efficiently, enabling commerce, and improving mobility. A fundamentally profound conflict exists between transportation planning and green infrastructure planning because they both seek to create connected, functioning networks across the same landscapes and regions, but transportation networks, especially in the form of highways, fragment and disconnect green infrastructure networks. A key opportunity has emerged in the United States during the last ten years with the promotion of measures to link transportation and environmental concerns. In this article we examined the potential benefits and challenges of linking landscape-level green infrastructure planning and implementation with integrated transportation planning and highway project development in the United States policy context. This was done by establishing a conceptual model that identified logical flow lines from planning to implementation as well as the potential interconnectors between green infrastructure and highway infrastructure. We analyzed the relationship of these activities through literature review, policy analysis, and a case study of a suburban Maryland, USA landscape. We found that regionally developed and adopted green infrastructure plans can be instrumental in creating more responsive regional transportation plans and streamlining the project environmental review process while enabling better outcomes by enabling more targeted mitigation. In order for benefits to occur, however, landscape-scale green infrastructure assessments and plans must be in place before integrated transportation planning and highway project development occurs. It is in the transportation community’s interests to actively facilitate green infrastructure planning because it creates a more predictable environmental review context. On the other hand, for landscape-level green infrastructure, transportation planning and development is much more established and better funded and can provide a means of supporting green infrastructure planning and implementation, thereby enhancing conservation of ecological function.     

Potential Impacts of Highway Median Barriers on Wildlife: State of the Practice and Gap Analysis

Median barriers separate lanes of traffic moving in opposite directions on multilane highways. Such traffic safety devices can reduce head-on collisions but also have the potential to reduce landscape permeability by impeding wildlife movements across highways. Median barriers may also increase the risk of wildlife–vehicle collisions if an animal becomes trapped or confused amid barriers searching for a place to cross. A 2002 Transportation Research Board report highlighted the need to better understand the potential impacts of highway median barriers on wildlife. This lack of information can cause significant project delays and increase transportation project costs. This study represents the first attempt in North America to bring together information about highway median and roadside barriers and wildlife and provide preliminary guidelines to balance the needs of motorist safety and wildlife movements.     

VMS在旅游公路景观影响评价中的应用

应用美国林务局的“风景资源管理系统”（VMS）对贾登峪-禾木乡旅游公路进行了景观影响评价。结果表明,从处于低位的观察点来看,山体的不同垂直位置承受的工程活动强度不同。山体的上半部能承受一定强度的工程活动,受公路建设的影响轻微;但山体的中下部能承受的工程活动有限,受公路建设的影响较大。具体分析表明,公路设计的老路方案和四级路方案对泰加林山体的景观影响程度基本相同。     

Assessing Impacts of Typhoons and the Chi-Chi Earthquake on Chenyulan Watershed Landscape Pattern in Central Taiwan Using Landscape Metrics

The Chi-Chi earthquake (M_L = 7.3) occurred in the central part of Taiwan on September 21, 1999. After the earthquake, typhoons Xangsane and Toraji produced heavy rainfall that fell across the eastern and central parts of Taiwan on November 2000 and July 2001. This study uses remote sensing data, landscape metrics, multivariate statistical analysis, and spatial autocorrelation to assess how earthquake and typhoons affect landscape patterns. It addresses variations of the Chenyulan watershed in Nantou County, near the earthquake’s epicenter and crossed by Typhoon Toraji. The subsequent disturbances have gradually changed landscape of the Chenyulan watershed. Disturbances of various types, sizes, and intensities, following various tracks, have various effects on the landscape patterns and variations of the Chenyulan watershed. The landscape metrics that are obtained by multivariate statistical analyses showed that the disturbances produced variously fragmented patches, interspersed with other patches and isolated from patches of the same type across the entire Chenyulan watershed. The disturbances also affected the isolation, size, and shape-complexity of patches at the landscape and class levels. The disturbances at the class level more strongly affected spatial variations in the landscape as well as patterns of grasslands and bare land, than variations in the watershed farmland and forest. Moreover, the earthquake with high magnitude was a starter to create these landscape variations in space in the Chenyulan watershed. The cumulative impacts of the disturbances on the watershed landscape pattern had existed, especially landslides and grassland in the study area, but were not always evident in space and time in landscape and other class levels.     

Recreational System Optimization to Reduce Conflict on Public Lands

In response to federal administrative rule, the Tahoe National Forest (TNF), California, USA engaged in trail-route prioritization for motorized recreation (e.g., off-highway-vehicles) and other recreation types. The prioritization was intended to identify routes that were suitable and ill-suited for maintenance in a transportation system. A recreational user survey was conducted online (n?=?813) for user preferences for trail system characteristics, recreational use patterns, and demographics. Motorized trail users and non-motorized users displayed very clear and contrasting preferences for the same system. As has been found by previous investigators, non-motorized users expressed antagonism to motorized use on the same recreational travel system, whereas motorized users either supported multiple-use routes or dismissed non-motorized recreationists' concerns. To help the TNF plan for reduced conflict, a geographic information system (GIS) based modeling approach was used to identify recreational opportunities and potential environmental impacts of all travel routes. This GIS-based approach was based on an expert-derived rule set. The rules addressed particular environmental and recreation concerns in the TNF. Route segments were identified that could be incorporated into minimal-impact networks to support various types of recreation. The combination of potential impacts and user-benefits supported an optimization approach for an appropriate recreational travel network to minimize environmental impacts and user-conflicts in a multi-purpose system.     

Evaluating Aggregate Terrestrial Impacts of Road Construction Projects for Advanced Regional Mitigation

This study presents a GIS-based database framework used to assess aggregate terrestrial habitat impacts from multiple highway construction projects in California, USA. Transportation planners need such impact assessment tools to effectively address additive biological mitigation obligations. Such assessments can reduce costly delays due to protracted environmental review. This project incorporated the best available statewide natural resource data into early project planning and preliminary environmental assessments for single and multiple highway construction projects, and provides an assessment of the 10-year state-wide mitigation obligations for the California Department of Transportation. Incorporation of these assessments will facilitate early and more strategic identification of mitigation opportunities, for single-project and regional mitigation efforts. The data architecture format uses eight spatial scales: six nested watersheds, counties, and transportation planning districts, which were intersected. This resulted in 8058 map planning units statewide, which were used to summarize all subsequent analyses. Range maps and georeferenced locations of federally and state-listed plants and animals and a 55-class landcover map were spatially intersected with the planning units and the buffered spatial footprint of 967 funded projects. Projected impacts were summarized and output to the database. Queries written in the database can sum expected impacts and provide summaries by individual construction project, or by watershed, county, transportation district or highway. The data architecture allows easy incorporation of new information and results in a tool usable without GIS by a wide variety of agency biologists and planners. The data architecture format would be useful for other types of regional planning.     

Integrating Landscape Ecology and Geoinformatics to Decipher Landscape Dynamics for Regional Planning

We used remote sensing and GIS in conjunction with multivariate statistical methods to: (i) quantify landscape composition (land cover types) and configuration (patch density, diversity, fractal dimension, contagion) for five coastal watersheds of Kalloni gulf, Lesvos Island, Greece, in 1945, 1960, 1971, 1990 and 2002/2003, (ii) evaluate the relative importance of physical (slope, geologic substrate, stream order) and human (road network, population density) variables on landscape composition and configuration, and (iii) characterize processes that led to land cover changes through land cover transitions between these five successive periods in time. Distributions of land cover types did not differ among the five time periods at the five watersheds studied because the largest cumulative changes between 1945 and 2002/2003 did not take place at dominant land cover types. Landscape composition related primarily to the physical attributes of the landscape. Nevertheless, increase in population density and the road network were found to increase heterogeneity of the landscape mosaic (patchiness), complexity of patch shape (fractal dimension), and patch disaggregation (contagion). Increase in road network was also found to increase landscape diversity due to the creation of new patches. The main processes involved in land cover changes were plough-land abandonment and ecological succession. Landscape dynamics during the last 50 years corroborate the ecotouristic-agrotouristic model for regional development to reverse trends in agricultural land abandonment and human population decline and when combined with hypothetical regulatory approaches could predict how this landscape could develop in the future, thus, providing a valuable tool to regional planning.