Despite evidence suggesting that road traffic is a major threat to biodiversity loss, very little is known about its actual impact on wildlife populations in South Africa. Globally, road density and traffic volumes are increasing, and although huge budgets are devoted to the construction and upgrading of roads, there is little or no allocation to mitigation measures for protecting fauna in most countries, particularly Africa. Further, no global standardised protocol exists for the rapid assessment of roadkill or the most economical and efficient approach for assessing roadkill rates. Using vehicle field trials, the reliability of detecting artificially deployed roadkill was assessed. Roadkill detection rates decreased significantly at speeds >50 km/h and were also significantly influenced by light conditions (i.e. detection success was greater when the sun was high) and the position of the roadkill on the road (i.e. smaller roadkill on verges were often missed). These results suggest that roadkill sampling was most effective between 1.5 hours after dawn and 1.5 hours before dusk and that driving at slower speeds (<50 km.h⁻ₑ) was required to detect roadkill. This protocol was implemented across three ecological seasons on a 100 km paved road and a 20 km unpaved road in the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area, Limpopo Province, South Africa. Driven daily over a 120-day period (three periods consisting each of 40 days), a total of 1,027 roadkill were recorded. These comprised 162 species from all terrestrial vertebrate groups with birds being the most commonly encountered roadkill (50% of all incidents). The high numbers of vertebrates identified as roadkill suggests that road traffic could have potentially unsustainable impacts on wildlife populations and hence the biodiversity of the area. Seventeen variables were identified as possible determinants of roadkill occurrence with season, rainfall, minimum and maximum temperature, habitat type, grass height, grass density, fence type and vehicle type significantly influencing roadkill numbers. Significantly more roadkill were detected on the paved road (9.91/100km) than on the unpaved road (1.8/100km) probably because of greater traffic volumes and the increased speed that vehicles travelled on the paved road. Warmer temperatures and increased rainfall in the preceding 24 hours also increased road mortality numbers as animals tended to become more active during these times. Interestingly, more roadkill was detected in open roadside habitats compared to dense roadside habitats on both the paved and unpaved roads and when grass on the roadside verge was of intermediate height. Open habitat possibly may provide a natural corridor for wildlife which ultimately end up on the road. Roadkill numbers increased when certain other physical barriers, such as cattle fences, were present, probably because these barriers were more penetrable than electric fencing. A series of mitigation measures are proposed to reduce the impacts of roads on wildlife in South Africa. These mitigation measures highlight the need to address the balance between the development of a country’s transport infrastructure and the conservation of its fauna. It is important that research on the impacts of roads becomes standardised to enable robust statistical comparisons which will provide a greater understanding of the potential threats to vertebrate biodiversity

No description available.

No description available.

Urbanisation and a growing global population have caused our road networks to expand rapidly in the past decades. The consequences of transport infrastructure for wildlife include traffic mortality, habitat loss and habitat degradation and the negative impact of a road extends far beyond the road itself. In Ireland, there are mitigation measures for wildlife mortality in place on all major roads. Mitigation measures can help reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions and increase habitat connectivity but need to be properly monitored and maintained following implementation. This study was carried out in collaboration with the Environmental Policy &amp; Compliance department at Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), a state agency in Ireland responsible for national road and public transport infrastructure. It applied various spatial and temporal analyses methods in order to ascertain how best to prioritise critical road sections and times for maintenance. The significance of the study is that recent site visits carried out in Ireland found that 66% of mitigation measures were of inadequate standard. The methods were applied to roadkill data taken over an eight year period on the M3 motorway in county Meath, Ireland. This case study was chosen as mitigation measures, such as underpasses and mammal underpasses, have been in operation since its’ opening in 2010. It was found that temporal analysis could provide an insight into whether roadkill was increasing or decreasing annually as well as what months were most recommendable to carry out maintenance. The spatial analysis began with using Ripley’s K-statistics to first determine whether or not clustering of roadkill was occurring along the study area. Four different methods of locating hotspots along a road network were then applied and compared; Malo’s method, 2D Hotspot Analysis using Siriema Road Mortality software, kernel density estimation using SANET and finally KDE+. The findings showed that, despite mitigation measures being in place, hotspots were still occurring indicating road sections experiencing higher numbers of roadkill than expected in a random situation. These sections could then be prioritised for maintenance. It was found that the KDE+ software in conjunction with the use of a roadkill data app was the most recommendable approach. It was also noted that that the app should be expanded to other road classes and rail. It is recommended that this be made a standard protocol, comparable on a national level, for the prioritisation of mitigation measures for maintenance. Finally, it was recommended that more public awareness about wildlife-vehicle collisions and mitigation measures be raised. In the future, the app could also be connected to GPS systems to warn drivers of critical road sections. If these methods and recommendations are applied to the Irish road network, a reduction in roadkill should be observed.

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Submitted by Izabel Franco (izabel-franco@ufscar.br) on 2016-09-12T20:08:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseSSD.pdf: 4196266 bytes, checksum: 852bdafbbad865e0ccb454503e54e11b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marina Freitas (marinapf@ufscar.br) on 2016-09-13T19:55:41Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseSSD.pdf: 4196266 bytes, checksum: 852bdafbbad865e0ccb454503e54e11b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marina Freitas (marinapf@ufscar.br) on 2016-09-13T19:55:50Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseSSD.pdf: 4196266 bytes, checksum: 852bdafbbad865e0ccb454503e54e11b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-13T19:55:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseSSD.pdf: 4196266 bytes, checksum: 852bdafbbad865e0ccb454503e54e11b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-06-12 / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / Roadkill and isolation of populations due to the barrier effect can be considered the main direct impacts of roads on wildlife. Mammals by behavioral, size and charisma features are one of the groups of vertebrates that require mitigation for mortality, as they are also among the most seriously injured on roads. An important approach to effectively mitigate roadkill on highways is to locate the points where roadkill are concentrated. The objective of this study was to evaluate the variation in mortality of mammals due to the duplication of the BR 101 highway south. In addition to the K Ripley aggregation analysis, were generated habitat suitability models (MAH) to identify favorable locations roadkill species, using the model functional groups for prediction of highway stretches with more chances to roadkill. It was recorded 21 taxa of mammals get hit, being the most abundant gender Didelphis (n = 721), followed by Cerdocyon thous (n = 108). The abundance of carcasses decreases between before and after the duplication (F 18.04 p = <0.001). Hotspots were not overlapped between the periods analyzed, indicating that some explanatory factor has changed over the work. Observing the variables that contributed most to the models for each functional group, we noted that there were differences in the most influential variables for each functional group in different periods. Of the nine generated models, we note that six variables contributed more than 20% in different models. There were differences between the periods before, during and after the duplication of the variables that contributed most or contribution value in functional groups. These differences may reflect the change in the distribution of roadkill among highway doubling periods. Both approaches demonstrated that there have been changes in the magnitude and distribution of roadkill in the period prior to the period after duplication. So a highway with two paviments differ from a highway with four paviments about how the mammals react in terms of movement and relationship to landscape. / A morte por atropelamentos e o isolamento de populações devido ao efeito de barreira podem ser considerados os principais impactos diretos das rodovias sobre a fauna silvestre. Os mamíferos pelas características comportamentais, tamanho e carisma são um dos grupos de vertebrados que necessitam mitigações para a mortalidade, visto que também estão entre os que mais morrem em rodovias. Uma abordagem importante para mitigar efetivamente os atropelamentos em rodovias é localizar os pontos onde os atropelamentos estão concentrados. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a variação da mortalidade de mamíferos em função da duplicação da rodovia BR 101 sul. Além da análise de agregação de K de Ripley, foram gerados modelos de adequabilidade de habitat (MAH) para identificar locais favoráveis a atropelamentos de espécies, usando no modelo grupos funcionais para a predição de trechos da rodovia com mais chances de atropelamento. Registrou-se 21 taxóns de mamíferos atropelados, sendo o mais abundante o gênero Didelphis (n=721), seguido de Cerdocyon thous (n=108). A abundância de carcaças diminui entre o antes e o depois da duplicação (F=18,04; p<0,001). Os hotspots não foram sobrepostos entre os períodos analisados, indicando que algum fator explicativo mudou ao longo da obra. Observando as variáveis que mais contribuíram com os modelos para cada grupo funcional, notamos que houve diferença nas variáveis mais influentes para cada grupo funcional nos diferentes períodos. Dos nove modelos gerados, notamos que seis variáveis contribuíram em mais de 20% em diferentes modelos. Houve diferença entre os períodos de antes, durante e depois da duplicação das variáveis que mais contribuíram ou do valor de contribuição nos grupos funcionais. Estas diferenças podem ser reflexo da mudança na distribuição dos atropelamentos entre os períodos da duplicação da rodovia. As duas abordagens demonstraram que houveram mudanças na magnitude e distribuição dos atropelamentos no período antes em relação ao período após a duplicação. Portanto uma rodovia com dois pavimentos funciona diferente de uma rodovia de quatro pavimentos em relação a como a mastofauna reage em termos de movimentação e relação com paisagem.

Road-kill of wildlife is common on Portland, Oregon's suburban fringe where development has increased road densities and traffic volume in rural areas. I identify the spatial and temporal patterns of black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus) deer-vehicle accidents (DVA) at the suburban/rural interface of developing northwest Clackamas County using deer carcass pickup reports for county maintained roads for 1997-2004 and Oregon Department of Transportation deer-vehicle accident reports for 1996-2004. No black-tailed deer DVA models exist in the literature. DVA increased 121% from 1997 to 1999 followed by a 26% decline by 2004. The initial DVA increase appears related to population growth and development into rural areas, an increase in the average daily vehicle-trip distance, and deer immigration from public lands. The subsequent decline appears related to DVA-induced decreases in deer populations, year-around hunting permits, growing predator populations, and fawning habitat loss. Temporal OVA patterns for black-tailed deer show a minor peak in June-July and a major peak in October-November. Forty-two percent of DVA occur during the rut/hunt months of September, October, and November. This pattern corresponds to the black-tail's annual cycle and resembles patterns reported for white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus). Weekly DVA increased from a low on Sunday to a high on Friday and Saturday. DVA showed two daily peaks at 0500-0700 and 1800-2200, corresponding to dawn and dusk when deer activity is highest. I identified 19 DVA hotspots with 16-27 DVA using CrimeStat III statistical clustering software. Hotspots occurring in rut/hunt months were separate from hotspots occurring in nonrut/nonhunt months. Similar to white-tailed and mule deer, black-tailed DVA hotspots commonly occurred where roads intersect or parallel water features, large forest blocks, and other areas of cover, or separate food sources from cover. Sixty-five percent of DVA occurred outside of hotspots with ≥ 10 DVA. Deer-vehicle accidents have important ecological and economic costs and are frequent on northwest Clackamas County roads. Additional research supported by multi-agency carcass pickup repo1ting and the acquisition of precise DV A locations using a Global Positioning System (GPS) is needed to better identify wildlife movement corridors.

Roads can affect animal movement, dispersal and population aspects (i.e., increasing non-natural mortality) of wild species. Direct road mortality and the barrier effect of roads are typically identified as one of the greatest threats to wildlife. In addition, collisions with large mammals are also a threat to human safety and represent an economic cost to society. Road ecologists worldwide, have used available georeferenced locations of wildlife-vehicle collisions to determine spatial distribution patterns along and the outcomes demonstrates that wildlife-vehicle collisions are not at random, but they are spatially clustered for vertebrate species. Researcher also have used new modelling tools, such as the Species Distribution Modelling (SDM), to orient decision processes on biological conservation as predictive roadkill models (RPM) to determine variables (e.g. landscape, road design, road traffic), that could explain the collisions of specific species. I analyzed roadkill data from toll road companies in São Paulo state during 2005 to 2014. In Chapter 1, I investigated whether maintenance personnel from toll roads companies correctly identified the species of the roadkilled wild mammals on these roads. In Chapter 2, I estimated the roadkill numbers of wild medium and large sized mammals for paved roads (~6,500 km) in São Paulo, based on roadkill data from toll road companies. In Chapter 3, I used SDM approach to generate RPM for eight mammal species on all paved roads in São Paulo state, and I ran roadkill hotspot analysis to identify critical road sections for specific species or animal groups. In Chapter 4, I explored, for the first time in Brazil, the effects of animal-vehicle crashes on human safety on paved roads in São Paulo State, and I estimated the costs of these animal-vehicle crashes to society, and summarized the legal perspectives with regard to liability and associated financial compensation for animal-vehicle collisions. The chapters were specifically planned and designed to understand, in a broad perspective, the different implications related to mammal- vehicle collisions: biological conservation, human safety and economics. The outcomes from each chapter show practical recommendations so that environmental and transportation agencies in São Paulo state can work with planning and priority to reduce mammal-vehicle collisions. This should ultimately result in a road system with improved human safety, reduced unnatural mortality for both domestic and wild animal species, safe crossing opportunities for wildlife, and reduced monetary costs to society. / As rodovias e o tráfego podem afetar o movimento, a capacidade de dispersão dos indivíduos e aspectos populacionais (e.g. aumento de mortalidade não natural). A mortalidade direta causada por atropelamento e o efeito de barreira nas rodovias são tipicamente identificados como uma das maiores ameaças à vida selvagem. Além disso, as colisões com mamíferos de grande porte também são uma ameaça à segurança humana e representam um custo econômico para a sociedade. Os pesquisadores especializados em Ecologia de Estradas de todo o mundo utilizam locais georreferenciados das colisões envolvendo animais para compreender os padrões de distribuição espacial. Os resultados demonstram que as colisões envolvendo animais não são aleatórias, mas são espacialmente agrupadas para espécies de vertebrados. Os pesquisadores também usam novas ferramentas de modelagem, como a Modelagem de Distribuição de Espécie (MDE), para orientar processos de decisão sobre conservação biológica como modelagem preditiva de atropelamentos para determinar variáveis (por exemplo, paisagem, design de rodovias, volume de tráfego), que poderiam explicar os atropelamentos. Nesta tese, eu analisei dados sobre atropelamentos oriundos de diferentes concessionárias de rodovias no estado de São Paulo durante o período de 2005 à 2014. No Capítulo 1, investiguei se os inspetores de tráfego das concessionárias identificavam corretamente as espécies de mamíferos silvestres atropelados nessas rodovias. No Capítulo 2, eu estimei o número de atropelamentos de mamíferos silvestres de médio e grande porte para todas as rodovias pavimentadas em São Paulo, com base em dados de atropelamentos de concessionárias (~6.500 km). No Capítulo 3, usei a abordagem MDE para gerar modelos de predição de atropelamentos para oito espécies de mamíferos silvestres em todas as rodovias pavimentadas no estado de São Paulo, e executei análise de pontos críticos de atropelamentos para identificar seções críticas de rodovias para espécies específicas ou grupos de animais. No Capítulo 4, explorei, pela primeira vez no Brasil, os efeitos de acidentes envolvendo animais na segurança humana em rodovias pavimentadas no Estado de São Paulo, bem como calculei os custos desses acidentes para a sociedade e resumi as perspectivas legais em matéria de responsabilidade civil e compensação financeira associada às colisões envolvendo animais em rodovias. Os capítulos foram especificamente planejados e executados para entender, em uma perspectiva ampla, as diferentes implicações relacionadas às colisões envolvendo veículos- automotores e mamíferos em rodovias: i) conservação biológica, ii) segurança humana e, iii) economia. Os resultados de cada capítulo apresentam recomendações práticas para que as agências ambientais e de transporte no estado de São Paulo possam trabalhar com planejamento e prioridade para reduzir colisões envolvendo mamíferos. Isso deve resultar em um sistema rodoviário mais seguro para os usuários, com menores índices de mortalidade de animais, implementação de oportunidades seguras de travessias para a fauna e redução dos custos financeiros para a sociedade.

Submitted by Erika Demachki (erikademachki@gmail.com) on 2018-06-12T17:15:52Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Sílvio Lacerda de Oliveira - 2018.pdf: 2843635 bytes, checksum: 10cdaad09799e2e22b93daaf020ae3aa (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2018-06-13T10:42:27Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Sílvio Lacerda de Oliveira - 2018.pdf: 2843635 bytes, checksum: 10cdaad09799e2e22b93daaf020ae3aa (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-13T10:42:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Sílvio Lacerda de Oliveira - 2018.pdf: 2843635 bytes, checksum: 10cdaad09799e2e22b93daaf020ae3aa (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-04-30 / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Goiás - FAPEG / Road Ecology is a scientific discipline that studies the effects of transport’s infrastructure such as roads, railways and canals on the ecosystem. Ecological effects including habitat destruction and fragmentation, increased erosion and pollution, and, particularly disturbing, the roadkill, which can be highly impacting populations of low-density species such as endangered species, having the potential to significantly affect biodiversity. Even with a considerable increase in recent studies on the subject, there are large gaps in knowledge about the effects of highways, and especially on how these effects affect animal populations, man, and ways to minimize or mitigate environmental impacts. These gaps are especially worrying in countries such as Brazil, which opted for a road modal and thus, presents an extensive network of highways. Brazil even develops research and publishes on road ecology, being the third country that contributes most to the world scientific production, but there is a predominance of roadkill studies and a low number of studies on mitigation measures, and roadkill studies are lacking standardization in the methodology adopted by the researchers. In this study, the detection rate of animals of different taxonomic classes was analyzed using different tracking speeds, and it was observed that the speed of 5 km.h-1 is the one that best serves the purpose of pointing to the actual trampling rate. Then within road ecology, several problems affect the human being, but traffic accidents are considered a neglected public health problem, especially in developing countries. There is a need to understand the factors contributing to the aggravation of traffic accidents, and as a contribution to this understanding, this study investigated automobile accidents with runway exit with or without collision in the vegetation of the domain strip. It was found that tree collision increases the probability of mortality (3.16 times) and severity of injury in accidents when vehicles left the roadway. / Ecologia de estradas é uma disciplina científica que estuda os efeitos de infraestruturas de transporte como estradas, ferrovias e canais sobre o ecossistema. Efeitos ecológicos que incluem a destruição e fragmentação do habitat, aumento da erosão e poluição, e, particularmente preocupante, o atropelamento animal(AA), que pode ser altamente impactante para populações de espécies que existem em baixas densidades, como as ameaçadas de extinção, tendo potencial para afetar significativamente a biodiversidade. Mesmo com um aumento considerável de estudos recentes sobre o tema, existem grandes lacunas de conhecimento sobre os efeitos das rodovias, e principalmente sobre como esses efeitos afetam as populações animais e o homem. Essas lacunas são especialmente preocupantes nos países como o Brasil, que optou por um modal rodoviário e assim, apresenta uma extensa rede de rodovias. O Brasil até desenvolve pesquisas e publica sobre ecologia de estradas, sendo o terceiro país que mais contribui com a produção científica mundial, mas há uma predominância de estudos sobre AA e baixo número de estudos sobre medidas mitigadoras, e os estudos sobre AA pecam pela falta de padronização na metodologia adotada pelos pesquisadores. Neste estudo é analisado o índice de detecção de animais de diferentes classes taxonômicas utilizando diferentes velocidades de monitoramento, sendo observado que a velocidade de 5 km.h-1 é a que melhor atende o propósito de apontar a real taxa de atropelamento. Ainda dentro de ecologia de estradas, vários problemas afetam o ser humano, mas os acidentes de trânsito são considerados um problema de saúde pública negligenciado, principalmente em países em desenvolvimento. Há necessidade de compreender os fatores que contribuem para agravamento dos acidentes de trânsito, e como contribuição para essa compreensão, este estudo investigou acidentes automobilísticos com saída de pista com ou sem colisão na vegetação da faixa de domínio. Constatou-se que a colisão com árvore aumenta a probabilidade de mortalidade (3,16 vezes) e gravidade da lesão em acidentes em que os veículos saíram da pista nas rodovias.

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