Road Ecology: Science and Solutions

Front Cover
Island Press, 2003 - Architecture - 481 pages

A central goal of transportation is the delivery of safe and efficient services with minimal environmental impact. In practice, though, human mobility has flourished while nature has suffered. Awareness of the environmental impacts of roads is increasing, yet information remains scarce for those interested in studying, understanding, or minimizing the ecological effects of roads and vehicles.

Road Ecology addresses that shortcoming by elevating previously localized and fragmented knowledge into a broad and inclusive framework for understanding and developing solutions. The book brings together fourteen leading ecologists and transportation experts to articulate state-of-the-science road ecology principles, and presents specific examples that demonstrate the application of those principles. Diverse theories, concepts, and models in the new field of road ecology are integrated to establish a coherent framework for transportation policy, planning, and projects. Topics examined include:

  • foundations of road ecology
  • roads, vehicles, and transportation planning
  • vegetation and roadsides
  • wildlife populations and mitigation
  • water, sediment, and chemical flows
  • aquatic ecosystems
  • wind, noise, and atmospheric effects
  • road networks and landscape fragmentation
Road Ecology links ecological theories and concepts with transportation planning, engineering, and travel behavior. With more than 100 illustrations and examples from around the world, it is an indispensable and pioneering work for anyone involved with transportation, including practitioners and planners in state and province transportation departments, federal agencies, and nongovernmental organizations. The book also opens up an important new research frontier for ecologists.

About the author (2003)

RichardT.T. Forman is the PAES Professor of Landscape Ecology at Harvard University, where he teaches ecological courses in the Graduate School of Design and in Harvard College. His research and writing include landscape and regional ecology, road ecology, land-use planning and conservation, and spatially meshing nature and people in the land mosaic. Forman served on two National Academy of Sciences committees on surface transportation and the environment and began publishing road ecology articles in 1996. His books include Land Mosaics:The Ecology of Landscapes and Regions (Cambridge University Press, 1995) and Landscape Ecology Principles for Landscape Architecture and Land-Use Planning (Island Press, 1996). He is a fellow of the AAAS; served as vice president of the Ecological Society of America and the International Association for Landscape Ecology; has received medals and honors from Italy, Australia, France, the Czech Republic, China, and the United Kingdom; was named Distinguished Landscape Ecologist (USA); and received the Lindback Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching. He received a Haverford College B.S., a University of Pennsylvania Ph.D., and honorary degrees from Miami University, Harvard University, and Florida International University, and has taught at the University of Wisconsin, Rutgers University, and in Central and South America.