Fragmentation of landscapes and habitats is a major cause of the impoverishment of biodiversity in Europe. Transportation infrastructure, notably roads and railways, strongly contribute to the fragmentation. This is an important issue in infrastructure planning in the densely populated countries in Europe. Increasing attention is being paid to landscape fragmentation also in Sweden. Landscape fragmentation comprises the splitting of habitats and ecosystems in smaller and more isolated units. Habitat loss and isolation are important features of the complicated fragmentation process. Land-take for transportation infrastructure destroys habitats of animals and plants. Infrastructure and traffic create barriers to animal movement and plant dispersal in the landscape. Other effects are disturbance caused by pollution and noise. Traffic also kills many animals. This publication gives an overview of transportation and landscape fragmentation in Europe and Sweden. The report reviews on-going research as well as planning procedures and methods. Measures to strengthen the ecological functions in the landscape are described. The effectivity of ecoducts and other fauna passages are discussed, and follow-up methods and results are presented. Only an interdisciplinary approach involving planners, economists, engineers, ecologists, landscape architects, etc. can provide all the necessary tools for addressing fragmentation successfully. The approaches need to be integrated at all levels of the transportation network. (Author/publisher) This document is also available at http://www.vti.se/EPiBrowser/Publikationer/R530A.pdf
Abstract