The Environment and Landscape in Motorway Design

The Environment and Landscape in Motorway Design
Author: Guochao Qian
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 512
Release: 2014-06-11
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1118332954

The construction and operation of highways has a significant impact on the environment. While such impact is impossible to avoid, modern highways are constructed and landscaped to minimise these impacts as far as possible. Good landscaping minimises the impact on those living or working close to the highway, while at the same time regenerating the natural landscape disturbed during construction. Using as its background the successful landscape design of the Nanjing-Hangzhou Expressway in Jiangsu Province, China, which opened to traffic in 2007, Highway Landscape Design includes reference to all aspects of the landscaping of highways, including interchanges, embankments, central reservations, bridges, service and toll station areas, and drainage systems. Appropriate consideration is given to the negative impact on the surrounding environment during the process of construction and it discusses the ecological evaluation and conservation strategy for the highway route. China is in some respects at the forefront of highway landscape design as a result of rapid growth and development coupled with the financial resources to implement major infrastructure works, and the concepts, technologies and methods developed for this Expressway provide valuable experience for sustainable development strategies for such infrastructure.

Critical Landscape Planning During the Belt and Road Initiative

Critical Landscape Planning During the Belt and Road Initiative
Author: Ashley Scott Kelly
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2021
Genre: Human geography
ISBN: 981164067X

This open access book traces the development of landscapes along the 414-kilometer China-Laos Railway, one of the first infrastructure projects implemented under China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and which is due for completion at the end of 2021. Written from the perspective of landscape architecture and intended for planners and related professionals engaged in the development and conservation of these landscapes, this book provides history, planning pedagogy and interdisciplinary framing for working alongside the often-opaque planning, design and implementation processes of large-scale infrastructure. It complicates simplistic notions of development and urbanization frequently reproduced in the Laos-China frontier region. Many of the projects and sites investigated in this book are recent "firsts" in Laos: Laos's first wildlife sanctuary for trafficked endangered species, its first botanical garden and its first planting plan for a community forest. Most often the agents and accomplices of neoliberal development, the planning and design professions, including landscape architecture, have little dialogue with either the mainstream natural sciences or critical social sciences that form the discourse of projects in Laos and comparable contexts. Covering diverse conceptions and issues of development, including cultural and scientific knowledge exchanges between Laos and China, nature tourism, connectivity and new town planning, this book also features nine planning proposals for Laos generated through this research initiative since the railway's groundbreaking in 2016. Each proposal promotes a wider "landscape approach" to development and deploys landscape architecture's spatial and ecological acumen to synthesize critical development studies with the planner's capacity, if not naive predilection, to intervene on the ground. Ultimately, this book advocates the cautious engagement of the professionally oriented built-environment disciplines, such as regional planning, civil engineering and landscape architecture, with the landscapes of development institutions and environmental NGOs.

Assessing and Managing the Ecological Impacts of Paved Roads

Assessing and Managing the Ecological Impacts of Paved Roads
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2006-01-22
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0309100887

All phases of road developmentâ€"from construction and use by vehicles to maintenanceâ€"affect physical and chemical soil conditions, water flow, and air and water quality, as well as plants and animals. Roads and traffic can alter wildlife habitat, cause vehicle-related mortality, impede animal migration, and disperse nonnative pest species of plants and animals. Integrating environmental considerations into all phases of transportation is an important, evolving process. The increasing awareness of environmental issues has made road development more complex and controversial. Over the past two decades, the Federal Highway Administration and state transportation agencies have increasingly recognized the importance of the effects of transportation on the natural environment. This report provides guidance on ways to reconcile the different goals of road development and environmental conservation. It identifies the ecological effects of roads that can be evaluated in the planning, design, construction, and maintenance of roads and offers several recommendations to help better understand and manage ecological impacts of paved roads.

Handbook of Road Ecology

Handbook of Road Ecology
Author: Rodney van der Ree
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 562
Release: 2015-06-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1118568184

Winner of the IENE Project Award 2016. This authoritative volume brings together some of the world’s leading researchers, academics, practitioners and transportation agency personnel to present the current status of the ecological sustainability of the linear infrastructure – primarily road, rail and utility easements – that dissect and fragment landscapes globally. It outlines the potential impacts, demonstrates how this infrastructure is being improved, and how broad ecological principles are applied to mitigate the impact of road networks on wildlife. Research and monitoring is an important aspect of road ecology, encompassing all phases of a transportation project. This book covers research and monitoring to span the entire project continuum – starting with planning and design, through construction and into maintenance and management. It focuses on impacts and solutions for species groups and specific regions, with particular emphasis on the unique challenges facing Asia, South America and Africa. Other key features: Contributions from authors originating from over 25 countries, including from all continents Each chapter summarizes important lessons, and includes lists of further reading and thoroughly up to date references Highlights principles that address key points relevant to all phases in all road projects Explains best-practices based on a number of successful international case studies Chapters are "stand-alone", but they also build upon and complement each other; extensive cross-referencing directs the reader to relevant material elsewhere in the book Handbook of Road Ecology offers a comprehensive summary of approximately 30 years of global efforts to quantify the impacts of roads and traffic and implement effective mitigation. As such, it is essential reading for those involved in the planning, design, assessment and construction of new roads; the management and maintenance of existing roads; and the modifying or retrofitting of existing roads and problem locations. This handbook is an accessible resource for both developed and developing countries, including government transportation agencies, Government environmental/conservation agencies, NGOs, and road funding and donor organisations.

A Guide for Achieving Flexibility in Highway Design

A Guide for Achieving Flexibility in Highway Design
Author:
Publisher: AASHTO
Total Pages: 138
Release: 2004
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1560512598

Context-sensitive solutions (CSS) reflect the need to consider highway projects as more than just transportation facilities. Depending on how highway projects are integrated into the community, they can have far-reaching impacts beyond their traffic or transportation function. CSS is a comprehensive process that brings stakeholders together in a positive, proactive environment to develop projects that not only meet transportation needs, but also improve or enhance the community. Achieving a flexible, context-sensitive design solution requires designers to fully understand the reasons behind the processes, design values, and design procedures that are used. This AASHTO Guide shows highway designers how to think flexibly, how to recognize the many choices and options they have, and how to arrive at the best solution for the particular situation or context. It also strives to emphasize that flexible design does not necessarily entail a fundamentally new design process, but that it can be integrated into the existing transportation culture. This publication represents a major step toward institutionalizing CSS into state transportation departments and other agencies charged with transportation project development.

Landscape Infrastructure

Landscape Infrastructure
Author: Ying-Yu Hung
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2012-11-05
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 3034611544

Infrastructure is a much discussed topic within the field of landscape architecture. It regards the entire urban and rural space as a network that calls for an integrated planning and urban design approach. Natural and man-made infrastructures are viewed as forming a single, overarching whole. The book examines this robust and ecologically sustainable approach with essays by well-known experts in the field. It also documents 14 international case studies by SWA landscape architects and urban designers, among them the technologically innovative roof domes for Renzo Piano’s California Academy of Science in San Francisco, the restoration of the Buffalo Bayou in Houston, and several master plans for ecological corridors in China and Korea. Other projects develop smart re-use concepts for railroad tracks that no longer serve their original purpose, such as Kyung-Chun railway in Seoul or Katy Trail in Dallas. All projects are described extensively with technical diagrams and plans. The publication offers ideas for reinventing, repurposing, and repositioning infrastructure as a viable medium for addressing issues of ecology, transit, urbanism, and habitat.

Road Ecology

Road Ecology
Author: Richard T.T. Forman
Publisher: Island Press
Total Pages: 496
Release: 2003
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9781559639330

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.