Prioritizing human safety and multispecies connectivity across a regional road network
Abstract The intersection of wildlife and people on roads raises two critical issues: the barrier and mortality effects of roads on wildlife and risks to people from animal‐vehicle collisions (AVCs). Road mitigation decisions are typically made at the discretion of transportation departments that ar...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wiley
2021-02-01
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| Series: | Conservation Science and Practice |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.327 |
| _version_ | 1797659179697045504 |
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| author | Tracy S. Lee Tyler G. Creech Adam Martinson Scott E. Nielsen Andrew F. Jakes Paul F. Jones Ken Sanderson Adam T. Ford |
| author_facet | Tracy S. Lee Tyler G. Creech Adam Martinson Scott E. Nielsen Andrew F. Jakes Paul F. Jones Ken Sanderson Adam T. Ford |
| author_sort | Tracy S. Lee |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract The intersection of wildlife and people on roads raises two critical issues: the barrier and mortality effects of roads on wildlife and risks to people from animal‐vehicle collisions (AVCs). Road mitigation decisions are typically made at the discretion of transportation departments that are mandated to primarily address motorist safety. Therefore, prioritization of road sections for mitigation currently focuses on identification of spatial clusters of AVCs. We sought to understand if AVC clusters align with multispecies connectivity across roads to accurately identify multipurpose mitigation hotspots. We developed a decision‐support tool based on weighted priorities for mitigation planning across 7,900 km of roads over an 84,000‐km2 area of southern Alberta, Canada. To assess alignment, we built functional connectivity models for four focal species (prairie rattlesnake, grizzly bear, mule deer, and pronghorn) and a species‐neutral structural connectivity model. We integrated AVC risk and wildlife connectivity indices into Mitigation Priority Indices that varied the weighting of individual indices. Our results demonstrated poor spatial alignment between road sections of high motorist safety risk and those of high value for wildlife connectivity. Transportation planning would benefit from integrating motorist safety risk and wildlife management needs to prioritize mitigation neighborhoods along roadways. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T18:10:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5c5f3ab534ce42cb8f3080b6a8de9a54 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2578-4854 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T18:10:06Z |
| publishDate | 2021-02-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Conservation Science and Practice |
| spelling | doaj.art-5c5f3ab534ce42cb8f3080b6a8de9a542023-10-16T14:51:41ZengWileyConservation Science and Practice2578-48542021-02-0132n/an/a10.1111/csp2.327Prioritizing human safety and multispecies connectivity across a regional road networkTracy S. Lee0Tyler G. Creech1Adam Martinson2Scott E. Nielsen3Andrew F. Jakes4Paul F. Jones5Ken Sanderson6Adam T. Ford7Miistakis Institute, Mount Royal University Calgary CanadaCenter for Large Landscape Conservation Bozeman Montana USAAJM Environmental Inc. Calgary CanadaUniversity of Alberta Edmonton CanadaNational Wildlife Federation Missoula Montana USAAlberta Conservation Association Lethbridge CanadaMiistakis Institute, Mount Royal University Calgary CanadaUniversity of British Columbia Kelowna CanadaAbstract The intersection of wildlife and people on roads raises two critical issues: the barrier and mortality effects of roads on wildlife and risks to people from animal‐vehicle collisions (AVCs). Road mitigation decisions are typically made at the discretion of transportation departments that are mandated to primarily address motorist safety. Therefore, prioritization of road sections for mitigation currently focuses on identification of spatial clusters of AVCs. We sought to understand if AVC clusters align with multispecies connectivity across roads to accurately identify multipurpose mitigation hotspots. We developed a decision‐support tool based on weighted priorities for mitigation planning across 7,900 km of roads over an 84,000‐km2 area of southern Alberta, Canada. To assess alignment, we built functional connectivity models for four focal species (prairie rattlesnake, grizzly bear, mule deer, and pronghorn) and a species‐neutral structural connectivity model. We integrated AVC risk and wildlife connectivity indices into Mitigation Priority Indices that varied the weighting of individual indices. Our results demonstrated poor spatial alignment between road sections of high motorist safety risk and those of high value for wildlife connectivity. Transportation planning would benefit from integrating motorist safety risk and wildlife management needs to prioritize mitigation neighborhoods along roadways.https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.327animal‐vehicle collisionfunctional connectivitygrizzly bearhuman safetymule deerpronghorn |
| spellingShingle | Tracy S. Lee Tyler G. Creech Adam Martinson Scott E. Nielsen Andrew F. Jakes Paul F. Jones Ken Sanderson Adam T. Ford Prioritizing human safety and multispecies connectivity across a regional road network Conservation Science and Practice animal‐vehicle collision functional connectivity grizzly bear human safety mule deer pronghorn |
| title | Prioritizing human safety and multispecies connectivity across a regional road network |
| title_full | Prioritizing human safety and multispecies connectivity across a regional road network |
| title_fullStr | Prioritizing human safety and multispecies connectivity across a regional road network |
| title_full_unstemmed | Prioritizing human safety and multispecies connectivity across a regional road network |
| title_short | Prioritizing human safety and multispecies connectivity across a regional road network |
| title_sort | prioritizing human safety and multispecies connectivity across a regional road network |
| topic | animal‐vehicle collision functional connectivity grizzly bear human safety mule deer pronghorn |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.327 |
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