A summary of the environmental impacts of roads, management responses, and research gaps: A literature review

Abstract

There are an estimated 400 000-550 000 km of unpaved resource roads in British Columbia. These roads are used for forest, mineral, and energy development, commercial and public recreation, and in some cases for access to private land holdings. This literature summary lists road effects on terrestrial and aquatic wildlife, plant communities, and physical elements found across landscapes in British Columbia. These effects may be local or may apply to large areas. Road effects can occur during construction or with subsequent road presence, upkeep, and use. Also summarized are recommendations meant to reduce negative road effects. These include taking a strategic approach to road and access management, using structured road planning methods and tools, implementing mitigation techniques, and following up with effectiveness monitoring and reporting. The summary also provides recommendations for further studies of road effects.

The Interactive Relationships between the Tourism-Transportation-Ecological Environment System of Provinces along the ‘Silk Road Economic Belt’ in China

“…There will be certain risks to water resources, land resources, forest resources, and other dependent aspects. Daigle et al (2010) analyzed the impact of unpaved roads in Colombia on land, vegetation, and wildlife and argued that proper planning should be adopted to reduce the negative effect of paved roads [16]. Zhou et al (2011) took the integrated transportation system and the ecological environment system as the research objects and analyzed the interactive relationship between the integrated transportation system and the ecological environment system by using the game model and analyzing the factors that affect the sustainable development of integrated transportation [17].…”

The Assessment of Ecological Livability for Agricultural, Pasture, Forestry, Residential, and Tourism Activities; Study Area: North of Iran

“…In the present age, there is less balance between urban networks and natural contexts, so the linked set of cities dominates the vulnerable ecological systems [9]. Accordingly, the ecological environment is in a fragile and critical situation in line with the rapid changes in development patterns and land uses [10], which poses a grave threat to national and regional ecological security and sustainable development of social-ecological systems [11,12]. It should be noted that an area's ecological environment is not only a guarantee for sustainable urbanization but also a basic need for residents, production, and life in both urban and rural settings [13][14][15].…”