This volume reviews the ecological effects of road, rail, marine and air transport. The focus ranges from identification of threats and repair of damaging effects to design of future transport systems that minimize environmental degradation. The scope of coverage extends from small ecosystems to the planet as a whole. Experts from a variety of disciplines address the topic, expressing views across the spectrum from deep pessimism to cautious optimism.
TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 305: Interaction Between Roadways and Wildlife Ecology summarizes existing information related to roadway planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance practices being used successfully and unsuccessfully, nationally and internationally, to accommodate wildlife ecology given the challenging background of rapid growth and diminishing natural resources.
Only applications-driven book dealing with commerically-sponsored spatial analysis research. Focuses on business and public sector planning case studies, offering readers a snapshot of the use of spatial analysis across a broad range of areas. Internationally-renowned editors and contributors present a broad variety of global applications, and demonstrate GIS components and spatial methodologies in practice.
A practical guide that explains how we can design roads that are compatible with populations of small wildlife. Few of us think twice about driving on roads. Yet the very presence of roads and the act of driving on them can impact the ecological infrastructure that supports an animal's daily life. What chance does a turtle have of successfully laying its eggs when it needs to traverse a busy highway? Is it realistic to expect small mammals to breed when an interstate thoroughfare subdivides their population? These are the sorts of challenges faced by small, often slow-moving, animals, challenges that road engineers and ecologists are trying to address. For countless small species, vehicles traveling at high speeds are nothing less than missiles shooting across migration pathways. For too many animals, the danger can lead to the loss of populations, in part because they simply are not programmed to react to traffic. Salamanders faced with a two-lane road between the forest and their aquatic breeding site, for example, will typically cross that road regardless of the congestion. The result can be hundreds of flattened animals in a single night. Roads and Ecological Infrastructure is the first book to focus on reducing conflict between roads and small animals. Highlighting habitat connections and the challenges and solutions from both transportation and ecological perspectives, the volume covers various themes, including animal behavior related to roads and design approaches to mitigate the negative effects of roads on wildlife. The chapter authors—from transportation experts to university researchers—each promote a goal of realistic problem solving. Conceptual and practical, this book will influence the next decade or more of road design in ecologically sensitive areas and should prevent countless unnecessary wildlife fatalities. Published in association with The Wildlife Society.
This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched. Animals are increasingly recognized as fit and proper subjects for historians, yet their place in conventional historical narratives remains contested. This volume argues for a history of animals based on the centrality of liminality - the state of being on the threshold, not quite one thing yet not quite another. Since animals stand between nature and culture, wildness and domestication, the countryside and the city, and tradition and modernity, the concept of liminality has a special resonance for historical animal studies. Assembling an impressive cast of contributors, this volume employs liminality as a lens through which to study the social and cultural history of animals in the modern city. It includes a variety of case studies, such as the horse-human relationship in the towns of New Spain, hunting practices in 17th-century France, the birth of the zoo in Germany and the role of the stray dog in the Victorian city, demonstrating the interrelated nature of animal and human histories. Animal History in the Modern City is a vital resource for scholars and students interested in animal studies, urban history and historical geography.
