Abstract
The movement of animals on roads often causes a collision with vehicles. This not only results in the loss of animal population, but also in social losses - consequences of road accidents. This issue can be dealt with by restricting the movement of animals across roads - most commonly by fencing along roads in combination with construction of overpasses for safe crossing over roads. However, these measures also have their drawbacks - fragmentation of landscape, costs on construction and maintenance. These measures should be designed on the basis of an analysis of migration routes of animals, migration potential of an area (and thus increased movement of animals over a road), and on the basis of characteristics of the traffic flow on a given road. In 2011-2014, EDIP co. together with HBH Projekt have been working on a research project focused on the methodology for optimization of designing measures which should guide/regulate the movement of animals across the road. EVERNIA co. also participates in the project. The project is financially supported by the Technological Agency of the Czech Republic. The outcome will come in the form of a methodology which becomes a part of the regulations for designing roads.
Highlights
Migrations of animals at local, regional and higher than regional levels maintain balance between populations of animals, allow for the exchange of genetic information, even use of food sources and last, but not least they allow for the reactions of animals to changes in the environment and climate
Breaking a migration route by a construction of a road and the subsequent traffic causes stress to animals due to prevented freedom of movement, which may lead to two different situations
The success of crossing depends on the animal species, road category and traffic volume (EDIP, 2012)
Summary
Migrations of animals at local, regional and higher than regional levels maintain balance between populations of animals, allow for the exchange of genetic information, even use of food sources and last, but not least they allow for the reactions of animals to changes in the environment and climate. Animals crossing roads cause collisions with vehicles and losses in the population of migrating animals as well as social losses occurring due to road accidents. This issue can be dealt with by regulating animal movement over roads – most commonly by fencing the entire road section in combination with corridors for safe crossing of roads (ecoducts over roads, high capacity bridges, guiding stripes). Large financial resources are spent on the application of different measures to allow for animal migration over roads of different types. All of the three aforementioned points are closely related to the probability of a potential conflict, which, apart from the frequency of occurrence of different animals, is directly influenced by another factor – character of traffic flow ( the gaps between vehicles) at sites of potential collision of vehicles with migrating animals (EDIP, 2007)
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