Road Ecology in Practice: Building Resiliency of Urban Ecosystems through Informed Road Network Planning

Road Ecology in Practice: Building Resiliency of Urban Ecosystems through Informed Road Network Planning

Outline What is road ecology? Why is road ecology important? TRCA and road ecology application Peel Road Ecology Study Moving forward

What is Road Ecology? The study of road impacts on ecological systems and processes as well as appropriate mitigation Wildlife-vehicle collision and risks to public safety Link to sustainable transportation planning process Connectivity for all mobile species in the landscape

Source: http://www.theworldgeography.com/2012/06/ Connectivity Enhancement

Connectivity Enhancement

Outline What is road ecology? Why is road ecology important? TRCA and road ecology application Peel Road Ecology Study Moving forward

Why is road ecology important?

Why is Road Ecology Important? Cumulative impacts of road compromise wildlife population persistence Especially in vulnerable systems (e.g. urban ecosystems) Impacts of Roads and Traffic Influence on ecological function and resiliency

Existing Natural Cover Resilient ecosystem? Forest Meadows Wetlands

Existing Natural Cover & Roads Compromised resilience? Forest Meadows Wetlands

Why is road ecology important? Natural heritage objectives and policies Protecting investments into natural heritage Effective use of infrastructure funds Increasing support from broader public and decision makers

Outline What is road ecology? Why is road ecology important? TRCA and road ecology Peel Road Ecology Study Moving forward

Peel Road Ecology Study Goal: To assist transportation managers make strategic and proactive decisions to protect & enhance wildlife connectivity when designing new and expanded road projects

Project Objectives 1. To develop a systematic framework to identify the ecologically strategic locations for enhancing wildlife connectivity 2. To provide planning level mapping tool highlighting the strategic locations 3. To provide mitigation and monitoring recommendations for pilot study area.

Project Tasks Enhancing connectivity for whom? 1. Identify target group of wildlife and focal species 2. Identify habitat requirement 3. Map habitat patches Connectivity for which movement types? 4. Connectivity modeling for different scales of movement How can connectivity be enhanced? 5. Identify ecologically strategic locations for mitigation 6. Recommend mitigation options for pilot study area

Task 1 Identify target group and focal species Wetland forest guild Spring peeper (Pseudacris crucifer) Need to move between wetlands and forests seasonally Mass movement so mass road-kill Migration and dispersal movements Surrogate for other wildlife with similar requirements e.g. wood-frogs

Task 2 Identify habitat requirement Statistical analysis on Long Term Monitoring Plots (LTMP) data on presence and absence of species Literature and expert s knowledge Wetlands with 40% forest cover within 400m and large wetland complexes = Preferred core habitat

Task 3 Map habitat Preferred core habitat patches

Two levels of analyses Task 4 Landscape Connectivity Modeling 1. Local connectivity analysis 2. Regional connectivity analysis

Task 4 Local Connectivity Analysis Mapping habitat networks Functioning mosaic of habitat patches (D eon et al. 2006) Accounting for species movement ability Migration = Seasonal = 300 m Dispersal = Longer term = 1km Wetland-Wetland Wetland-Forest 300m 1km

Task 4 Local Connectivity Analysis Further refined tool to quantify local connectivity Created ArcGIS 10 based interactive query tool for prioritization Quantified level of inaccessibility of a habitat patch 100% inaccessible

Wetland size = all sizes Forest size = all sizes Across road = Yes Percent of total forest = 50% Monitoring data = Not required Wetland size = all sizes Forest size = all sizes Across road = Yes Percent of total forest = 50% Monitoring data = Required Flexible but systematic prioritization tool that can be guided by multiple objectives for managing wildlife connectivity Wetland size = 10 ha Forest size = all sizes Across road = Yes Percent of total forest = 50% Monitoring data = Not required Larger habitat Habitat Network Forest Wetlands Connections Roads Wetland size = all sizes Forest size = all sizes Across road = Yes Percent of total forest = 75% Monitoring data = Not required Inaccessibility

Predictive modeling based on a circuit theoretic approach (McRae et al. 2008) Based on circuit theory, graph theory, and random walk theory Takes landscape characteristics (resistance) and distance between habitat patches into consideration to quantify probability of movement Current density as a measure to reflect probability of movement Identifies bottlenecks Task 4 Regional Connectivity Analysis

Task 4 Regional Connectivity Analysis To quantify regional connectivity important for dispersal movements Coarser predictive model using a circuit theoretic approach (McRae et al. 2008) Quantify the relative contribution of every location in the landscape to overall connectivity among all habitat patches

Task 4 Regional Connectivity Analysis To quantify regional connectivity important for dispersal movements. Coarser predictive model using a circuit theoretic approach (McRae et al. 2008) Quantify the relative contribution of every location in the landscape to overall connectivity among all habitat patches Current density Low High

Task 5 Identifying Strategic Locations Ecologically strategic areas = Overlap of regional and local connectivity priorities Roads are further classified into priority gradient based on the percent forest across road ~ 25% of area and 12% of road length is within the "habitat network

Next Steps Intended to be decision support tools to complement other relevant information in the planning process Validation of the model outputs through field assessment required to inform detailed mitigation designs Further consultation with Peel underway to finalize the study and the report

Outline What is road ecology? Why is road ecology important? TRCA and road ecology application Peel Road Ecology Study Moving forward

Moving forward Road ecology in science and practice has advanced significantly over the past decade Concepts critical for ecological resilience and species survival, especially in urban ecosystems. Link to sustainable transportation and community building process for overall human well-being Operationalize it into transportation and land planning process

Thank you Project Contact: Namrata Shrestha, Ph.D., Landscape Ecologist Research & Development Section, TRCA Phone (416) 661-6600 x 5782, Email: