program book - iene2018.info · rijkswaterstaat, dutch ministry of infra-structure and water...

International ConferenceCrossing borders for a greener and sustainable transport infrastructure

PROGRAM BOOKSeptember 10-14, 2018Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Welcome ��1Conference organisers ��2General information ��3Conference at a glance ��4Keynote speakers ��8Full presentations �� 10Lightning talks �� 22Poster presentations �� 38Workshops �� 51Special sessions �� 64Floor plan Evoluon �� 67

CONTENTS

COLOPHON

More information about the IENE 2018 International Conference: www.iene2018.info

For specific questions about the conference, contact us through: [email protected]

More information about IENE and the activities of the network: www.iene.info

For specific questions about IENE, contact the secretariat through: [email protected]

Do you want to become a member of IENE? Visit: www.iene.info/become-a-member

IENE 2018 International Conference – Program bookEditor: Edgar van der Grift, Wageningen Environmental Research, NetherlandsPublisher: IENETranslation services: MOSOMLayout and design: Studio Nico SwaninkPrinting: DPP, HoutenISBN 978-91-639-8713-7© 2018This Program book can also be downloaded through: www�iene2018�info

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WELCOME

Adam HoflandRijkswaterstaat, Dutch Ministry of Infra-structure and Water ManagementChair Organisation Committee

Edgar van der GriftWageningen University and ResearchChair Program Committee

Anders SjölundSwedish Transport AdministrationChair IENE Steering Committee

“Crossing borders for a greener and sustainable transport infrastructure”

The Organization Committee chose for “Crossing borders…” as a central theme of IENE 2018, because this is what habitat defragmentation is all about, both literally and figurative-ly� It is impossible to establish and maintain sustainable populations of flora and fauna without crossing any borders, particularly where these populations are divided by transport infrastructure� Cross-sectoral cooperation and collab-oration between experts of different disciplines is also essential in this re-spect and an example of crossing bor-ders� This often means leaving behind one’s own familiar way of working and thinking� The IENE 2018 International Conference aims to take a step in this direction by giving more attention to ecological engineering and providing architects, engineers, contractors, and designers the opportunity to present their vision and expertise�

It all comes down to connectivity� The IENE international conferences are a perfect platform to get connected, to exchange the current state of research, knowledge and practical experience between the sectors of environment and transport, between scientists and practitioners to gain new insights and learn new ways of working� In a world that is changing faster than ever, using a platform like the IENE inter-national conferences is only natural� By connecting research and practical ex-periences we are better able to prevent, mitigate and compensate the impacts of the fast growing networks of trans-port infrastructure, and in such a way that it can contribute to halt the decline of biodiversity worldwide� Economics and ecology should not paralyze each other, but find their synergy� As the chairmen of the IENE Steering Committee, IENE 2018 Organization

Committee and IENE 2018 Program Committee we are very proud with the state of the art input of so many pro-fessionals working on transportation ecology from all over the world� We are happy to welcome participants from literally all corners of the globe; from Canada to Australia and from Brazil to Japan� It is hopeful to see so many borders are already crossed so far� We sincerely hope that you will have an inspiring time during the IENE 2018 Internation-al Conference and that you will add lots of people to both your profes-sional and personal network� Not only people in your own field of expertise but especially professionals in other disciplines who can provide you with new insights that will help you make your own work more effective� Be inspired, be connected! Enjoy IENE 2018!

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CONFERENCE ORGANISERS

IENE 2018 is made possible by the following host organisations:

Organisation CommitteeAdam Hofland (chair), Rijkswaterstaat, Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (Netherlands)Camiel Meijneken, ProRail (Netherlands)Katja Claus, Vlaamse Overheid, Departement Omgeving (Belgium)Marleen Moelants, Vlaamse Overheid, Agentschap Wegen & Verkeer (Belgium)Gerlies Nap, Provincie Noord-Holland (Netherlands)Wiel Poelmans, Provincie Noord-Brabant (Netherlands)

Program CommitteeEdgar van der Grift (chair), Wageningen University & Research (Netherlands)Andreas Seiler, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Sweden)Clara Grilo, Federal University of Lavras (Brazil)Rodney van der Ree, Ecology and Infrastructure International Pty Ltd (Australia)Marcel Huijser, Western Transportation Institute (USA)

IENE Steering CommitteeAnders Sjölund (chair), Swedish Transport Administration (Sweden)Adam Hofland, Rijkswaterstaat, Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (The Netherlands) Andreas Seiler, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Sweden)Carme Rosell, Minuartia wildlife consultancy (Spain)Elke Hahn, Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (Austria)Lazaros Georgiadis, Biologist and Environmental consultant (Greece)Marita Böttcher, Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (Germany)Tony Sangwine, Highways England (UK)Yannick Autret, Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy (France)

Technical support groupPINO Communicatie, Evenementen en Congressen (Netherlands); www�pino�nl Lourien Verweij, PINO (Netherlands)Pieter Schure, PINO (Netherlands)Isabelle Cleusters, PINO (Netherlands)

Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management

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GENERAL INFORMATION

Conference venueThe conference takes place in the Evoluon�Address: Noord-Brabantlaan 1a, 5652 LA Eindhoven, +31 40 250 46 20�You can fi nd the fl oor plan of the Evoluon at the inside of the back cover of this Program Book�

Registration deskThe registration and conference information desk is located at the entrance of the conference building� The registration desk will be staff ed during the following moments:Monday, September 10, 16:00 –19:30Tuesday, September 11 08:00 –19:30Thursday, September 13 08:00 –20:00Friday, September 14 08:00 –14:00

Networkapp: where the IENE 2018 community meetsNew feature of the IENE 2018 conference is the use of a conference app in which participants, speakers and sponsors can contact each other� The Networkapp combines online communication with live meetings� It creates more interaction before, during and after the conference between participants, speakers and exhibitors� The app also contains all the practical information about the IENE 2018 conference: program, speakers, sessions, exhibitors, map, directions, etc� Anyone with a smartphone or tablet can download this app, even a desktop version of this app is available�

How it (net)works1� Install Networkapp

Go to get�networkapp�eu for the correct version for your iPhone or Android device

2� Register via LinkedIn or email3� Enter your personal code4� Post a quest, chat and contact other

participants�

IENE Awards 2018IENE recognizes and awards outstanding eff orts made to reduce the detrimental eff ects of transport infrastructure on nature and enhance its potential for a positive infl uence� The IENE Award comprises a public recognition and does not include any grants� The awards are given in two variants:

• The IENE Personal Award: appreciates outstanding engagement and special achievements made by individuals that are not necessarily related to a particular activity�

• The IENE Project Award: appreciates extraordinary work accomplished by initiatives, activities or plans�

In addition to these awards, a third award will be given during the confer-ence:• The IENE 2018 Best Poster

Presentation Award: appreciates high-quality poster presentations�

While the fi rst two awards are granted by the IENE Awards Committee, the third award will be given to the candidate that receives most votes by the conference participants� All participants receive a voting ticket and instructions how to vote during registration� The IENE 2018 Awards will be announced during the Conference Dinner, September 13� For more information: www�iene�info/iene-awards/

Conference languageThe conference language will be English� The session “Completion Dutch Defragmentation Program (MJPO)” will be in Dutch, but with simultaneous translation in English�

AWARDS

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CONFERENCE AT A GLANCE

16:30 – 18:00 Meeting Updating COST 341 HandbookOrganiser: Carme Rosell, Minuartia, SpainRoom: Pluto; by invitation only

17:00 – 18:00 Registration open – Room: Entrance EvoluonExhibitors set-up – Room: Dome, first floorPosters set-up – Room: Dome, Ring 1 and 2

18:00 – 19:30 Welcome ReceptionRoom: Restaurant, first floor

Dinner on your own

MONDAY September 10

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8:00 – 9:15 Registration open – Room: Entrance EvoluonPosters set-up – Room: Dome, Ring 1 and 2

9:15 – 10:00Plenary

Opening session – Welcome remarksRoom: Philips Hall

10:00 – 10:30Plenary

Keynote 1: Connecting the dots to re-connect ourselvesIgnace Schops, Regionaal Landschap Kempen en Maasland, BelgiumRoom: Philips Hall

10:30 – 11:00Plenary

Keynote 2: The impact of infrastructure lighting: Spectrum dependent effects on behaviour and density of species in natural habitatKamiel Spoelstra, Netherlands Institute of Ecology, NetherlandsRoom: Philips Hall

11:00 – 11:30 Coffee Break / Visit Sponsor Exhibits / Visit posters

11:30 – 13:00Parallel sessions: Full presentations

MJPO: Planning, imple-menting and eva luating the Dutch Defragmentation ProgramRoom: Philips Hall

Road impacts: How individuals, communities and populations are affectedRoom: Foyer

Mitigation performance 1: Effectiveness of measures in reducing roadkill and barrier effectRoom: Jupiter

13:00 – 14:30 Lunch Break / Visit Sponsor Exhibits / Visit posters


NRA in the spotlightRoom: Philips Hall

Animal-vehicle collisions: Roadkill, hotspots and possible solutionsRoom: Foyer

Mitigation performance 2: Effectiveness of measures in reducing roadkill and barrier effectRoom: Jupiter


16:30 – 18:00Plenary

Poster SessionRoom: Dome, Ring 1 and 2

18:00 – 19:30Plenary

IENE General AssemblyRoom: Philips Hall

Dinner on your own

20:00 – 22:00 WSDOT documentary: Mitigation research I-90 Snoqualmie Pass, Washington State, USAOrganiser: Anthony P� Clevenger, Western Transportation Institute, USARoom: Pollux; open to all participants

Meeting Collaboration CEDR and IENEOrganiser: Anders Sjolund, Swedish Transportation Agency, SwedenRoom: Saturn; by invitation only

TUESDAY September 11

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7:30 – 18:30 Field tripsAll buses will depart from the parking lot of EvoluonBoarding starts 30 minutes prior to departure; buses will depart promptly

Departure and estimated return times:Field trip 1: National and Regional Defragmentation around the Eindhoven Area 9:00 – 17:45Field trip 2: Defragmentation of the Naardermeer marshes 8:00 – 18:00Field trip 3: Dunes reconnected 8:00 – 18:00Field trip 4: Biesbosch National Park 9:00 – 17:30Field trip 5: Maashorst 9:15 – 17:00Field trip 6: Defragmentation in Dutch-German Heidenaturpark 8:15 – 17:30Field trip 7 Defragmentation through ecological corridors and passage ways 8:30 – 18:15Field trip 8: The Kempen: Where landscape and infrastructure cross borders 8:00 – 18:00Field trip 9: Brussels: The capital of Belgium and Europe where nature also is (a)LIFE 7:30 – 18:30Field trip 10: Hedwige and Prosper Polder CanceledField trip 11: Hike in The Gooi area 9:00 – 17:00Field trip 12: Hiking in Oisterwijkse Forests and Kampina 9:00 – 17:30

Dinner on your own

18:30 – 20:30 Roads to a Resilient Future: A teaching game for exploring environmental and socioeconomic trade-offs associated with infrastructureOrganiser: Nirmal K� Bhagabat, World Wildlife Fund, USARoom: Jupiter; open to all participants

WEDNESDAY September 12


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8:00 – 9:00 Visit Sponsor Exhibits / Visit posters

9:00 – 9:15Plenary

Opening & AnnouncementsRoom: Philips Hall

9:15 – 9:45Plenary

Keynote 3: Through the lens of time: Long-term research integrating behavior, landscape ecology and conservation along the Trans-Canada HighwayAnthony P� Clevenger, Western Transportation Institute, USARoom: Philips Hall

9:45 – 10:00 Break

10:00 – 11:00 Parallel sessions: Lightning talks

Crossing borders in strategic plan-ning: Models, toolboxes, web platforms and appsRoom: Foyer

Defragmen- tation initiatives: Opportunities and challen gesRoom: Pollux

Research tech-niques: What is new?Room: Neptune

Impact of roads on species, communities, populations and ecosystemsRoom: Venus

Road verges: Biodiversity potential and dealing with invasive speciesRoom: Jupiter

Performance evaluations of mitigation worksRoom: Saturn



Transportation policies for greener infrastructureRoom: Philips Hall

Road verges: Biodiversity potential and dealing with invasive speciesRoom: Foyer

Mitigation performance 3: Effective-ness of measures in reducing roadkill and barrier effectRoom: Saturn

13:00 – 14:30 Lunch Break / Visit Sponsor Exhibits / Visit posters

14:30 – 15:30 Parallel workshops

Global Wild-life-Vehicle Con-flict Reporting Systems Room: Jupiter

De-fragmentis-ing waterways Room: Foyer

Civil engi-neering meets ecological engineering in the designing processRoom: Grand Café

How to address barrier effects of railways? Impact factors and guild specific impact assessment due to different types of railwaysRoom: Saturn

Going off-road:New partnership arrangements towards biodi-versity-friendly management practices for green vergesRoom: Dome, Ring 4

Worldwide knotweed:A blueprint for preventing or terminating knotweedRoom: Neptune


16:00 – 17:00Parallel sessions: Lightning talks

Animal-vehi-cle collisions: survey techniques, hotspot analyses and mitigation successRoom: Foyer

Crossing borders in our way of working: Knowledge exchange and collaborationRoom: Neptune

Mitigation projects and animal responsesRoom: Saturn

Designing and maintain-ing greener transpor-tation infrastructureRoom: Venus

Planning for biodiversity and green infrastructure developmentRoom: Pluto

Wildlife crossing structures: Implemen-tation and innovation Room: Jupiter

New directions in transporta-tion ecology: What is on the horizon?Room: Pollux

17:00 – 17:15 Break

17:15 – 18:45Plenary

Completion Dutch Defragmentation Program (MJPO)Invited speakersPresentations in Dutch, but with simultaneous translation in EnglishRoom: Philips Hall

18:45 – 19:00 Break

19:00 – 21:00 Conference Dinner & IENE AwardsAwards will be announced by Elke Hahn, chair of the IENE Awards CommitteeRoom: Dome

THURSDAY September 13

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8:30 – 9:30 Visit Sponsor Exhibits / Visit posters


CEDR Roads and Wildlife Manual: A new handbook for practitionersRoom: Philips Hall

Roads and bats: Impacts, mitigation and monitoringRoom: Foyer

Canalized waterways: Restoring habitat and connectivity for aquatic speciesRoom: Neptune

Crossing borders: New approaches towards green and sustainable transport infrastructureRoom: Jupiter


11:30 – 12:30Parallel workshops

Helping communities connect with their local wildlife / Involving citizens to monitor and create support for wildlife crossingsRoom: Dome, Ring 4

Evaluation of international policy on environmen-tally sustaina-ble trans-portation infrastructure in an era of rapid global expansionRoom: Jupiter

Data for conservation:Towards the exchange of roadkill and wildlife observations in EuropeRoom: Foyer

KDE+ work-shop: New approaches to WVC hotspot iden-tificationsRoom: Venus

Avenues and other trees in rural landscapes: How to maximise their ecological and social benefits as Green Infra-structureRoom: Grand Café

Crossing borders between ecological planning and engineering technology to achieve faster approval procedures and better species and habitat protectionRoom: Saturn

Challenges for assessing mitigation effectiveness: Is there an ideal study design?Room: Neptune

12:30 – 12:45 Break

12:45 – 13:15 Closing SessionRoom: Philips Hall

13:15 – 14:00 Lunch / Visit Sponsor Exhibits

14:00 – 16:00 Project meeting TRIEKOLOrganiser: Jan-Olaf Helldin, SLU, SwedenRoom: Pluto; by invitation only

Departure

FRIDAY September 14


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KEYNOTE SPEAKERSWe are happy to welcome the following keynote speakers at the IENE 2018 conference:

Ignace Schops is a Belgian environ-mentalist, Director of the Belgian NGO Regionaal Landschap Kempen en Maasland (RLKM), President of EUROPARC federation - the largest network on natural heritage in Europe - full member of the EU chapter of the Club of Rome, full member of the Rewilding Europe Circle and council member of the largest nature con-servation organization in Flanders, Natuurpunt� Ignace was awarded with the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2008, better known as the Green Nobel Prize for his contributions to the establishment of the Hoge Kemp-en National Park, the first National Park of Belgium� Since 2008 he was selected as ASHOKA fellow, a world leading social entrepreneur� Due to his international work on biodiversity and social entrepreneurship he became an Honorary Doctor at the Hasselt University in 2011� In 2013 he became

a member of the Climate Leadership Corps of Al Gore and later that year he was decorated as the “Commander of the Order of the Crown” by the Belgian King Filip� The title of his keynote presentation will be: Connecting the dots to re-con-nect ourselves� For thousands of years we depend on the vital services of the ecosystems of our planet� Since we entered the era of the Anthropocene our increasing ecological footprint is causing severe problems� The effects of Climate Change and Biodiversity loss are daily reminders that the di-versity and the variety of life is falling apart� We are losing our comfort zone! So we need a system change� We need to reflect, rethink and harmonize our behavior and our relationship with the planetary boundaries and trans-late them into a language everybody can understand and join the essential change� Following nature’s design� In

a densely populated region like North-west-Europe we face many problems due to fragmentation� We are lacking real connectivity: for men and for animal and plant species� The way we harmonize transportation and nature can give direction towards a sustain-able future� Is it possible to connect the dots and re-connect ourselves? Yes, we can! ■

Ignace Schops

Kamiel Spoelstra is a behavioural ecologist, and specializes on the im-pact of anthropogenic activity on natu-ral habitat� He graduated at the Univer-sity of Groningen (NL), and continued with postdoc positions at Princeton University (US) the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology (DE) and Wageningen University� He currently works as a researcher at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW, NL), and is in-terested in the possibilities for mitigat-ing human impact on ecosystems, in particular of (infrastructure) illumina-tion� Recent changes in lighting tech-nology offer promising possibilities for reducing impact, most importantly

the capability for producing custom light spectra� Over the last seven years, Kamiel has run a long-term, exper-imental large-scale field study and dedicated field and laboratory exper-iments� These studies cover effects of light on the density of species, and at the individual effects on behaviour and physiology – and consequently on individual fitness� Kamiel is specifically interested in how light at night affects the spatial and temporal behaviour of nocturnal species, and how different species groups interact� Kamiel enjoys the application of new automated data collection systems and writing soft-ware for processing data� Furthermore,

he recognizes the power of citizen sci-ence based research and has organized courses to train volunteers in field work with mammals� ›

Kamiel Spoelstra

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Tony Clevenger obtained his under-graduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley� His early involve-ment in wildlife research was focused primarily on carnivore ecology, which led him to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he studied black bear ecology for a Master’s Degree (1986)� A continued interest in bears, a desire to travel, and recognizing lack of research on Eurasian brown bears, he devel-oped a cooperative research project between Spain and the US in 1985� The 3-year project turned into a Doctoral degree in Zoology from the Univer-sidad de León (1990) and 11 years researching southern European brown bears and small carnivores in the Balearic Islands� In 1996, he moved to Canada and began research on, at that time, a dozen wildlife underpasses in Banff National Park, Alberta� The last 10 years Tony has worked with colleagues in Latin America providing training courses in road mitigation practices to government agencies and consultan-cies and look forward to continuing in that direction� Since 2002, he has been a research wildlife biologist for the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University, while re-siding near Banff National Park� He has published over 70 articles in peer-re-viewed scientific journals and co-au-thored three books, including Road Ecology: Science and Solutions� When not in his office or doing fieldwork, Tony can be found in the backcoun-try hiking, skiing, or in pools, lakes or oceans swimming long distances� The title of his keynote presentation

will be: Through the lens of time: Long-term research integrating behavior, landscape ecology and conservation along the Trans-Canada Highway� Canada’s Rocky Mountain front harbors the richest diversity of large mammals remaining in North America� This landscape is among the continent’s last remaining undisturbed natural areas and provides a critical trans-bound-ary linkage with the United States� Maintaining landscape connectivity throughout the ecoregion has been a key conservation strategy� Regional scale connectivity is the prime ob-jective, however, securing local-scale connections across highways are equally important and necessary for landscape connectivity to be achieved� Banff National Park and its environs represent one of the best testing sites of innovative highway mitigation in the world� The Trans-Canada Highway (TCH) bisects Banff and Yoho Nation-al Parks and has been identified as a major landscape stressor� Beginning in 1982, Banff National Park embarked on a phased-mitigation program that would span 30 years and result in 44 crossing structures built on 82 km of highway bisecting a UNESCO World Heritage Site� From 1996 to 2014, Tony directed long-term research assessing the impacts of highways and performance of mitigation measures designed to reduce fragmentation of wildlife populations and increase landscape connectivity� His research evolved from the basic questions of: Do wildlife use the crossing structures and what

attributes facilitate passage? And do the measures reduce road-related mortality of wildlife? Our non-invasive genetic approach to whether the Banff crossings have restored demographic and genetic connectivity was a logical and necessary next step� From that work, he demonstrated that crossings are capable of restoring movements, gene flow and demographic connec-tivity, thus are functional at a higher ecosystem level� Recently he identified a key mechanism of demographic and genetic connectivity, i�e�, how to move breeding females across road barriers� By ensuring that key ecolog-ical processes are connected, Banff’s highway mitigation is arguably one of Canada’s greatest conservation success stories� ■

Anthony P. Clevenger

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

The title of his keynote presentation will be: The impact of infrastructure lighting: spectrum dependent effects on behaviour and density of species in natural habitat� Infrastructure lighting has increased dramatically over the last decades, and continues to increase�

Its presence has a profound effect on many – especially nocturnal – species� The illumination of infrastructure may particularly be problematic, as linear il-lumination may amplify fragmentation of natural habitat� The change from traditional to LED lighting opens up the

possibility to mitigate impact� Kamiel will present the outcome of a unique long-term experimental study on the impact of artificial light in natural habi-tat� The results provide important tools to limit the impact of light at night along infrastructure on ecosystems� ■

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Tuesday / 11:30 – 13:00 Room: Philips HallMJPO: Planning, implementing and evaluating the Dutch Defragmenta-tion Program

Moderator: Nico Jonker, Province Noord-Holland, Netherlands

MJPO: The founding and future of a national defragmentation programme

Adam Hofland (Rijkswaterstaat, Depart-ment Programmes, Projects, and Mainte-nance, Netherlands)

After almost 15 years, the defragmenta-tion programme MJPO is about to finish� This presentation will demonstrate the organisational successes and risks that come up when founding, managing and executing a massive programme such as the MJPO and its future� The presentation will focus on the following topics: (1) A brief history: setting up the programme and finding funds; (2) Dealing with political changes and parliamentary as well as media attention; (3) Success factors and risks of program management; (4) The start of a network: cooperation between government, universities, and contractors�

Monitoring the progress of execution of the Dutch National Defragmentation Program within the Dutch railways: A multi-annual analysis of the amount of planned, changed and laid out measures

Camiel Meijneken, Louis Latorre Geurts (ProRail, Netherlands)

ProRail, the Dutch railroad authority, has been involved in the Dutch National Defragmentation Program (MJPO) since the start� Within this program 145 new fauna-passages were foreseen, 116 were actually built� When we analyse and visualize this on a geographic level, we discovered that, especially within the range of the small measures, it was not possible to build the intended fauna-

passage at most locations� The primary reason for this is the lack of needed space beneath the railroad tracks and above the local (ground)water levels� Other reasons are the absence of permis-sion from landowners or the withdrawal of promised (co-)financing�

Many roads to cross - Evaluating the economic costs and ecological benefits of the habitat defragmentation programme for Dutch infrastructure

Frans J. Sijtsma, Eelke van der Veen (Uni-versity of Groningen, Netherlands); Arjen van Hinsberg (Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, Netherlands)

In this paper, we evaluate the economic costs and ecological benefits of the Dutch habitat defragmentation programme (MJPO)� In the MJPO programme, 300 million Euro was spent in the period 2004-2018 to make many roads easier to cross by animals� We especially aim to make progress on the measurement of biodiversity effects of greener transport infrastructure� We apply a triangulation approach to estimate biodiversity impacts in a variedly rich manner and use a specially designed software tool to calculate biodiversity impacts in a systematically structured way�

Restoring biodiversity and tackling defragmentation in the Province of Noord-Brabant

Wiel Poelmans (Province of Noord-Brabant, Netherlands)

Provinces are entirely responsible for the restoration of biodiversity� Around 2,600 measures are proposed in the Province of Noord-Brabant to restore the approximately 1,100 threatened species in the province� This is a tremendous challenge� A three-way strategy has been developed to achieve this goal� The National and Provincial Executives have executed a defragmentation programme

for their road network� These days, species such as beavers and badgers are spreading again across the Province of Noord-Brabant, as a result of nature policy and defragmentation� Otters are expected to spread as well� Therefore, new defragmentation programmes are inevitable�

The Green Connection (‘De Groene Schakel’), a solution for infrastructure and nature

Arend van Dijk, Maarten Broos (Province Noord-Holland, Netherlands)

How does an infrastructural project result in quality improvement of nature, an integral solution for infrastructure and environment, better traffic flow, a fast bus connection and a continuous nature area? The infrastructure project ‘HOV in ‘t Gooi’ bundles traffic flows and realises the nature connection ‘Groene Schakel’ to connect the isolated natural areas in ‘Gooi’ and ‘Utrechtse Heuvelrug’�

Tuesday / 11:30 – 13:00 Room: FoyerRoad impacts: How individuals, communities and populations are affected

Moderator: Fernanda Zimmermann Teixeira, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil

Understanding the population effects and individual behavioural response of Barn Owls Tyto alba to major road networks to inform mitigation require-ments

John Lusby, Michael O’Clery, Olivia Crowe, Shane McGuinness (BirdWatch Ireland, Ire-land); Vincent O’Malley, Sarah-Jane Phelan (Transport Infrastructure Ireland, Ireland)

Mortality on roads is a significant cause of death and contributing factor in the decline of Barn Owl populations� Despite knowledge on the abiotic factors which

FULL PRESENTATIONS

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influence collision, effective mitigation to reduce impacts of roads on Barn Owl populations remain outstanding� We assessed behavioural responses of Barn Owls to roads alongside data on mortality patterns� The movements of breeding Barn Owls, assessed using GPS technology, indicate that roadsides are an important foraging resource� Therefore, this study provides new insights on Barn Owl behaviour in relation to roads which can help to inform mitigation solutions� indicate that roadsides are an important foraging resource� This study provides new insights on Barn Owl behaviour in relation to roads which can help to inform mitigation solutions�

Multi-species gene flow across several large-scale transportation infrastruc-tures

Remon Jonathan, Sylvain Moulherat, Jérémie H. Cornuau, Lucie Gendron (Ter-rOïko, France); Murielle Richard, Michel Ba-guette, Jérôme G. Prunier (CNRS-Université Paul Sabatier, Station d’Ecologie Théorique & Expérimentale, France)

We investigated how six types of Large-scale Transportation Infrastructures (LTIs) in southwestern France affected gene flow in four terrestrial species (snakes, amphibians, butterflies, and beetles)� All species, except butterflies, were affected by at least one LTI� We determined that roads were the most detrimental type of LTIs� A motorway and a railway influ-enced gene flow in the two vertebrates� A gas pipeline impeded gene flow in the beetle, and a power line had no impact on any species� We indicate that species-specific mitigation measures on infrastructures are required�

Life trait-based predictions of road-kill risk for birds and mammals in Brazil

Manuela González-Suárez (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, School of Biologi-cal Sciences, University of Reading, UK); Flávio Zanchetta Ferreira, Clara Grilo (Departamento de Biologia, Setor de

Ecologia, Universidade Federal de Lavras, Brazil)

We identified general patterns associ-ated with road mortality and generated predictions to understand spatial and species-level risks in Brazil� We used trait-based random forest regression models to explain road mortality rates for 170 bird and 74 mammalian species� We found that higher road mortality rates are related with body mass, earlier maturity ages, habitat generalism for birds and mammals� Spatial predictions identified high potential road mortality risk in Amazonia for birds and mammals, and high risk in Southern Brazil for mammals� We also found potential vulnerability to road mortality of several understudied species currently listed as threatened by the IUCN�

Assessing the contribution of road traffic to declines in British bird popula-tions

Sophia Caroline Cooke, Andrew Balmford (University of Cambridge, UK); Paul Donald (Birdlife International, UK); Alison Johnston (Cornell University, USA); Stuart Newson (British Trust for Ornithology, UK)

In the last forty years, many bird species have suffered severe declines across Great Britain, thought to be primarily a result of agricultural intensification� However, there is a strong correlation between these declines and increases in road traffic levels� Many studies have identified negative effects of roads on birds, via mechanisms such as avoidance of noise and light pollution, and collision mortality� However, no island-wide quantification of impacts on populations has been attempted yet� This research aims to undertake that quantification and estimate the impact of possible future changes in road density and traffic levels across Britain�

Road and edge effects on a small mammal community in tropical forest fragments in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

Simone R. Freitas (Universidade Federal do ABC, Brazil); Everton Constantino (Universi-dade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil); Marcos M. Alexandrino (Department of Mathemat-ics, Institute of Mathematics and Statistics, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil)

This study aims to: (1) evaluate the effect of roads on small mammal abundance, considering roads around the studied forest fragment; and, (2) evaluate which is more relevant to explain small mammal abundance in forest fragments: road effect, edge effect, or habitat area� The study area was a 10,000 hectares human-modified landscape, situated in southeastern Brazil� Road and edge effects were more relevant to explain the abundance of small mammals than habitat area� Because of the low traffic at the study site, we believe that barrier effect is the main road effect associated with small mammal abundance�

Tuesday / 11:30 – 13:00 Room: JupiterMitigation performance 1: Effective-ness of measures in reducing roadkill and barrier effect

Moderator: Marguerite Trocmé, Federal Road Office, Switzerland

Life and death along the highway: A study of badgers using GPS-collars andwildlife cameras

Jaap L. Mulder (Bureau Mulder-natuur-lijk, Netherlands); Nico Jonker (Provincie Noord-Holland, Netherlands)

Badgers were studied along a highway, using GPS-collars and wildlife cameras� Mortality on the road was high on the unfenced part, and low on the fenced part of the highway� Badger group territories were lined up on both sides of the highway� Badger tunnels under

FULL PRESENTATIONS

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the highway were especially used during spring, only to ‘sniff out the neighbours’� Tunnels under lower grade roads were used on a daily basis� Badgers can survive in densely populated parts of the Neth-erlands thanks to measures that prevent their death on the roads�

Road mortality mitigation: The effectiveness of Animex fencing versus mesh fencing

John C. Milburn-Rodríguez, Jeff Hathaway (Scales Nature Park, Canada); Kari Gunson (Eco-Kare International, Canada); Dean Swensson, Steve Béga (Animex Internation-al, United Kingdom)

Fencing is one of the most effective miti-gation measures used to reduce roadkill however, little research is known about what materials work best to exclude herpetofauna from roads and there are a lot of concerns surrounding the safety and effectiveness of mesh fencing� This research attempts to fill this gap of knowledge and evaluates the effective-ness of mesh and Animex fencing by investigating their suitability to be used as solutions to protect wildlife near roads�

Effect of artificial light on wildlife use of underpasses

Arianna Scarpellini (Stockholm Universi-ty, Sweden); Kylie Soanes (Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub, Threatened Species Research Hub, National Environmental Science Programme, School of Ecosystem and Forest Science, University of Mel-bourne, Australia); Théresa Jones (The Behaviour and Evolution Group, School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Australia); Manisha Bhardwaj (Department of Ecology, Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet, Sweden); Rodney van der Ree (Ecology and Infrastructure International Pty Ltd / School of Biosciences, University of Melbourne, Australia)

This study investigated the response of terrestrial wildlife to artificial lighting at four underpasses in southeast Australia�

The animals’ response to artificial lights was monitored with camera traps before, during, and after treatments� Artificial light reduced the mean crossing frequency of red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) at one site� No immediate negative effects of light treatment were found on eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus) or swamp wallabies (Wallabia bicolor), although their mean crossing frequency decreased following the second light treatment� These findings demonstrate variation in species as well as in sites in the wildlife response to nocturnal lighting�

Traffic noise and light as potential explanations for suppressed use of wildlife crossing structures

Amy Collins, Annabelle Louderback- Valenzuela, Mia Guarnieri, Parisa Farman, Fraser Shilling (Road Ecology Center & Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, USA); Benjamin Banet, Harrison Knapp, Travis Longcore (School of Architecture, Spatial Sciences, and Biological Sciences, Univer-sity of Southern California, USA); Winston Vickers (Wildlife Health Center, University of California, USA)

Wildlife crossing structures (WCS) over or under highways are proposed as a solution for road-related habitat frag-mentation and wildlife collisions� To test the efficacy of WCS, road-related negative impacts that could cause animals to avoid WCS, such as noise, need to be considered� We found that traffic noise caused a measurably lower use of WCS use among sensitive species� We found some indication of traffic light effects, but more research is needed� Adequate screening of nearby habitat from noise and light effects could increase WCS use�

Why wildlife-warning reflectors do not work and how they can still be useful

Jens-Ulrich Polster (Technische Universität Dresden, Chair of Wildlife Ecology and Management, Germany); Christoph Schulze

(Technische Universität Dresden, Chair of Traffic and Transportation Psychology, Ger-many); Sven Herzog (Technische Universität Dresden, Chair of Wildlife Ecology and Man-agement / Göttingen and Dresden Institute of Wildlife Biology, Germany)

The biological effectiveness of wild-life-warning reflectors (WWR) concerning different animal species will be studied� Therefore, the reflection characteris-tics of nine WWR’s were measured in a lighting lab, and a literature review on animal vision and colour perception was conducted� Based on this information, the WWR’s visibility for wildlife animals was simulated� Except for concrete situa-tions, the tested WWR’s show a relatively low amount of optical reflection within its typical application field� Compared to other, for example, visual, acoustic, and olfactory stimuli in the situation of crossing a road by a wild animal, the effect is assumed to be negligible� However, an unknown effect on the driver cannot be excluded and may be the basis for positive results of long-term practical studies�

Tuesday / 14:30 – 16:00 Room: FoyerAnimal-vehicle collisions: Roadkill, hotspots and possible solutions

Moderator: Toine Morel, Rijkswater-staat, Netherlands

Managing the timing and speed of vehicles reduces wildlife-train collision risk

Casey Visintin, Rodney van der Ree, Nick Golding, Michael A. McCarthy (University of Melbourne, Australia)

We created a modelling framework to assist managers to assess, plan and operate transportation systems intending to minimise wildlife-transport collisions� Our use of readily-available data and open-access software enables a wide-spread application of these methods� We studied train collisions with kangaroos in Australia to demonstrate our methods�

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Influence of lunar cycle on amphibian roadkill

Frederico Mestre, Helena Lopes, Tiago Pinto, Luís Guilherme Sousa, António Mira, Sara M. Santos (UBC – Conservation Biology Lab / CI-BIO-UE – Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, Pole of Évora – Research Group in Applied Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Évora, Portugal)

Amphibians are one of the groups most vulnerable to mortality on roads. We aimed to assess the influence of the lunar cycle on the number of amphibians killed on the road. Our results confirmed previous studies, that more amphibians are killed on roads during rainy and warmer nights. Lunar effects on number of roadkill were also detected for three species, although these effects were species-spe-cific. Differences between species in the response to moonlight may be due to species’ ecology and differences perceived in predation risk. Our work provides information to improve the timing of some temporary mitigation actions.

Animal-vehicle collision hotspots and assessment of mitigation measures in Lithuania

Andrius Kučas, Linas Balčiauskas (Nature Research Centre, Laboratory of Mammalian Ecology, Lithuania)

Identification of animal-vehicle collision (AVC) hotspots is a most essential step for the effective application of mitigation measures� Identifying the most important sites for animal crossing mitigation measures should be based on yearly AVC hotspot (short significant road sections) recurrence� Location-based hotspot recurrence analysis will provide more stability to AVC mitigation measures than just risk for the drivers index alone�

Animal-vehicle collisions: Improvement of regression models with the use of cluster analysis

Richard Andrášik, Michal Bíl, Jiří Sedoník

(CDV – Transport Research Centre, Czech Republic)

We present an idea on how to solve certain issues connected with the appli-cation of crash-prediction models� In general, two principal types of traffic crash causes exist: “global” and “local” causes� The local causes induce the formation of clusters, spatially distinct places with crash concentrations along roads, whereas the global causes do not� We further demonstrate that traffic crashes, which were caused by global causes, only occur spatially randomly along roads�

Wildlife-vehicle collisions: What do we know and what should we aim for?

Andreas Seiler (Swedish University of Agri-cultural Sciences, Department of Ecology, Grimsö Wildlife Research Station, Sweden)

Wildlife-vehicle collisions are on the rise despite numerous attempts to mitigate the problem� Why have we not succeeded so far to reduce collision numbers and what should we do better? How much can we expect to achieve and what new methods should be in focus in future? I discuss these questions and attempt to provide answers based on international literature and 50 years of accident statistics in Sweden�

Tuesday / 14:30 – 16:00 Room: JupiterMitigation performance 2: Effectiveness of measures in reducing roadkill and barrier effect

Moderator: Gerlies Nap, Province Noord-Holland, Netherlands

How road mitigation can reduce road kill: a meta-analysis

Trina Rytwinski, Lenore Fahrig (Carleton University, Canada); Kylie Soanes (University of Melbourne, Australia); Jochen A.G. Jaeger (Concordia University Montreal, Canada); C. Scott Findlay (University of Ottawa, Canada); Jeff Houlahan (University of New Brunswick

at Saint John, Canada); Rodney van der Ree (Ecology and Infrastructure International / University of Melbourne, Australia); Edgar A. van der Grift (Wageningen Environmental Research, Netherlands)

We present the first meta-analysis of the effectiveness of road mitigation measures in reducing road kill� Overall, mitigation measures reduce road kill by approximately 40% compared to controls� Fences, with or without crossing structures, reduce road kill by 54%� We found no detectable effect on road kill of crossing structures without fencing� Relatively expensive mitigation measures reduce large mammal road kill much more than inexpensive measures� There are insufficient data to answer many of the most urgent questions that road planners ask about the effective-ness of road mitigation measures� The complete paper available in PLoS One 2016 11(11): e0166941, doi:10�1371/journal.pone.0166941�

How effectively can we mitigate the barrier impacts of roads on wildlife movement? A global assessment and meta-analysis

Kylie Soanes (The University of Melbourne, Australia); Trina Rytwinski, Lenore Fahrig (Carleton University, Canada); Jochen Jaeger (Concordia University Montreal, Canada); C. Scott Findlay (Institute of the Environment & Ottawa-Carleton Institute of Biology, Canada); Jeff Houlahan (University of New Brunswick at Saint John, Canada); Fernanda Teixeira (Federal University of Mi-nas Gerais, Brazil); Aurora Torres (German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, Germany); Rodney van der Ree (Ecology and Infrastructure International, Australia); Edgar van der Grift (Wageningen Environ-mental Research, Netherlands)

Evaluating the effectiveness of road miti-gation is critical if we are to ensure that conservation goals are met, and financial investments have been worthwhile� We assessed the global evidence for the effectiveness of mitigation intended

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to reduce the barrier effect of roads on wildlife using meta-analysis� While more than 400 studies focused evaluating barrier mitigation, fewer than 50 studies evaluated effectiveness� The lack of comparison with ‘unmitigated’ data is a key factor limiting our ability to evaluate the effectiveness of wildlife mitigation, leaving us unable to answer some of the most pressing questions asked by road planners and agencies�

Fences and beyond: The importance of addressing fence-end effects in road-kill reduction studies

Edgar A. van der Grift (Wageningen Envi-ronmental Research, Wageningen Universi-ty and Research, Netherlands)

Roads may result in increased mortality of wildlife through wildlife-vehicle collisions� Fencing appears to be one of the more effective ways to reduce such road-kill� Most studies, however, do not address possible fence-end effects, i�e� elevated road-kill immediately adjacent to fence-ends� If such effects occur the effective-ness of fences in reducing road-kill may be overestimated� We demonstrate the importance of data collection at fence-ends in evaluation studies to make correct infer-ences about road mitigation effectiveness�

Prioritizing road sections for wildlife fencing: Lengths, thresholds, and trade-offs

Ariel Spanowicz, Jochen A.G. Jaeger (Con-cordia University, Department of Geogra-phy, Planning and Environment, Canada); Fernanda Zimmermann Teixeira (Road and Railroad Ecology Lab, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil)

Wildlife fencing is the most effective mea s ure for reducing roadkill� To deter-mine optimal locations for fencing we explored how the choice of scales and confidence levels affects the results of a roadkill hotspot analysis� Our study shows how identifying roadkill hotspots, warm spots, and cold spots at multiple

scales allows for a more comprehensive approach for prioritizing road sections for wildlife fencing� We propose an Adaptive Fence Implementation Plan to prioritize road sections and discuss the existence of thresholds in the total length of fencing needed, the importance of considering the fence-end effect, and the FLOMS trade-off: “Few-Long-Or-Many-Short fences”�

Effectiveness of wildlife fencing and crossing structures in reducing collisions with large mammals and providing habitat connectivity for deer and black bear along US Hwy 93 North, Montana, USA

Marcel P. Huijser, Elizabeth R. Fairbank, Jere-miah P. Purdum, Tiffany D.H. Allen (Western Transportation Institute, Montana State University, USA); Whisper Camel-Means (Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes, USA); Amanda R. Hardy (National Park Ser-vice, Biological Resources Division, USA)

We investigated the effectiveness of wildlife fences and wildlife crossing structures in reducing collisions with large mammals and providing habitat connectivity for deer and black bear� Large-mammal vehicle collisions were substantially reduced, but since large mammal-vehicle collisions increased in the unmitigated road sections, we conclude that historic wildlife-vehicle collision data are not a good predictor for collisions after highway reconstruction� We also found that deer and black bear highway crossings remained similar or increased after highway reconstruction�

Thursday / 11:30 – 13:00 Room: Philips Hall Transportation policies for greener infrastructure

Moderator: Lars Nilsson, Trogon Consulting, Sweden

Influencing international transpor-tation policy and practice for more wildlife-friendly roads

Rob Ament (Western Transportation Insti-tute, Montana State University, USA)

In 2016, the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) launched the Connectivity Conservation Specialist Group (CCSG) and charged it with developing a new conservation area for the world’s governments – Connectivity Conservation Area (CCA). There was a need identified to assure the adverse impacts of roads and rails on CCAs be addressed. Thus, a Transport Working Group has formed to advise and provide guidance on addressing the impacts of transportation infrastructure on such issues as wildlife movement and mortality within CCAs. This is believed to be the first green transport group ever formed by the IUCN to develop systemic guidance.

Environmental impact assessments: When to monitor the effects of imple-mented plans and programs?

Håvard Hjermstad-Sollerud, Astrid Brekke Skrindo (Norwegian Public Roads Admin-istration, Climate, and Environmental Assessment Section, Norway)

Environmental impact assessments are an essential tool for sustainable road development� Their ability to do so rests on understanding the effects of imple-mented plans and programs (e�g�, road development)� This requires studies with high-quality results, something that is often lacking in studies on the environ-mental effects of single road develop-ment projects� We believe the solution to this problem is determining first the suitability of a road development project for research, using criteria that define the possible study complexity� This gives information about the type of needed research, and if the project is suited for research in the first place�

Frontiers for conservation: Targeting European borders as conservation areas

Fernando Ascensão (CIBIO/InBio, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos

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Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Portugal); Marcello D’Amico (Department of Environ-mental Chemistry, Institute of Environmen-tal Assessment and Water Research IDAEA (CSIC), Spain), Rafael Barrientos (Departa-mento de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad de Alcalá, Spain); Eloy Revilla (Department of Conservation Biology, Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC), Spain); Henrique M. Pereira (German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany)

It is widely known that political borders should not hamper wildlife� Conservation actions involving several countries are known to bring large-scale benefits to nature while helping to resolve social and political conflicts� We provide an assessment of the potential for European political borders to function as funda-mental conservation and connectivity areas� We do this by evaluating and comparing the number and size of roadless areas within countries and along their borders� We further discuss how focusing on conservation action at borders can form a ‘win-win’ situation with advantages for both biodiversity and human peace�

Integrating road ecology into wind-turbine ecology in Ontario, Canada

Kari E. Gunson (Eco-Kare International, Canada)

In 2012, the Ontario Government gave Gilead Power approval to build an industrial wind farm that included nine turbines and associated access roads� However, Ostrander Point has the Threatened Blanding’s Turtle that occurs along the last undeveloped shoreline of Lake Ontario� The Prince Edward County Naturalists appealed the decision and won because the turbines will cause severe and irreversible harm to the turtle� The case was based on the fact that roads would increase road-kill, predation, and poaching� They won this case on road ecology science alone� It is a testament to

the fact that policy and science for wind ecology is only beginning�

Road networks in Latin America: Research efforts, mitigation and policy towards better governance

Anthony P. Clevenger (Western Transpor-tation Institute, Montana State University, USA); Fernando Pinto, Clara Grilo (Departa-mento de Biologia, Setor de Ecologia, Federal de Lavras, Brazil); Alberto Gonzalez Gallina (Instituto Nacional de Ecologia, Mexico); Diego Varela (Instituto de Biologia Subtrop-ical, Centro de Investigaciones del Bosque Atlántico, Argentina); Juan Carlos Jaramil-lo Fayed (Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Aplicadas,Instituto Tecnológico Metropoli-tano, Colombia); Andreas Kindel (Road and Railroad Ecology Group, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil); Fernanda Teixeira (Environmental Systems Analysis and Mod-eling Graduate Program, Federal University of Minas Gerais; Road and Railroad Ecology Group, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil); Daniela Araya (Panthera, Costa Rica); Esmeralda Arevalo (Universidad Latina de Costa Rica, Costa Rica); Juan Carlos Bravo (Wildlands Mexico, Mexico); Tom Langen (Departments of Biology & Psychology, Clarkson University, USA); Coral Pacheco, Juan de Dios Valdez (Depto de Biologia, Universidad Juarez Autonoma de Tabasco, Mexico); Esther Pomareda (Centro de Rescate Las Pumas, Costa Rica); Celso Poot (Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Centre, Belize); Adriana Rico (Instituto de Ecología, Universi-dad Mayor de San Andrés, Bolivia)

Growing highway construction in Latin America has generated increasing interest in research, technology transfer and new policy frameworks� Our aim is to showcase research efforts and different partnerships working towards road mitigation and better governance� We present results of an extensive literature review of effects of roads in Latin America� National networks are forming to change practices and policies� Mitigation projects are growing exponentially throughout Latin America� Lessons learned from model projects will be presented� We

conclude by identifying future challenges and needs for improving national and transboundary planning, policies and frameworks in a rapidly changing Latin American landscape�

Thursday / 11:30 – 13:00 Room: FoyerRoad verges: Biodiversity potential and dealing with invasive species

Moderator: Rodney van der Ree, Ecology and Infrastructure International Pty Ltd, Australia

Can linear transportation infrastructure verges constitute a corridor and/or a habitat for insects in temperate landscapes?

Sylvie Vanpeene (IRSTEA mediterranean ecosystems and risk research unit, France); Romain Sordello, Anne Villemey (UMS 2006 Patrimoine Naturel AFB-CNRS-MNHN, France)

The potential of habitat or corridor for biodiversity of linear transportation infrastructure (LTI) verges for biodiversity remains controversial� That is why we performed the first synthesis of evidence about their potential as a corridor and/or habitat for insects in temperate landscapes� Meta-analyses revealed that insect abundance was similar in LTI verges than in compared habitats, and sometimes even higher (pollinators and primary consumers in non-highway road verges)� In addition, the characteristics of the surrounding landscape seemed to influence on LTI verge biodiversity� Finally, a knowledge gap was identified regarding the role of the corridor of LTI verges�

Rare and endangered species in railway station dry grassland areas

Magnus Stenmark, Karin Norlin (Ecocom AB, Sweden)

Among the Swedish 1,400 railway stations, a majority has been surveyed for biodi-versity potential� The results include a list

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of more than 2,000 species of insects and vascular plants having their habitat in these dry grasslands� About 100 of these are nationally red-listed species, mainly of bees, beetles, butterflies and vascular plants� The survey has also included a method identifying and ranking sites based on nature conservation values� High-ranked railway grasslands are subject to specific biodiversity action plants�

Effects of management regimes associated with maintenance mowing along Hungarian roadside verges on ground-dwelling snails, slugs (Gastropoda), and arthropods (Osiscidea: Isopods, Araneae, Carabidae)

András Weiperth, Ildikó Szivák, Blanka Gál, Miklós Puky† (MTA Centre for Ecological Research); Diána Vona-Túri (Eötvös József Reformated Education Centre, Hungary); Tünde Szmatona-Túri (Forestry, Agricultural and Game Management Training School and Student Hostel of Mátra, Hungary); János Farkas (Department of Systematic Zoology and Ecology, Eötvös Loránd Uni-versity, Hungary); Balázs Kiss, Ferenc Kádár (Centre for Agricultural Research, Hungar-ian Academy of Sciences, Plant Protection Institute, Hungary)

The primary objectives of our study were to research the effect of different inten-sities of maintenance mowing manage-ment on the assemblage composition and the diversity of four ground-dwelling taxonomic groups along main roads� We hypothesised that regular mainte-nance has a positive effect on diversity, and is explained by the intermediate disturbance hypothesis� We also studied the impact of verge types and seasons on adequate maintenance intensity for the community composition and the diversity of four taxa together� We hypothesised that the native status and vegetation structure of verge types and sampling seasons would influence the optimal maintenance intensity�

Expansion of alien invasive plants along the roadside: A remote sensing approach

Patrícia Miguel Rocha Lourenço (Univer-sidade de Évora, Portugal); Ana Cláudia Teodoro, João Pradinho Honrado, José Alberto Gonçalves, Mário Cunha, Rui Mou-ra, Neftalí Sillero (Universidade do Porto, Portugal)

Invasions by alien species are among the most important threats to ecosystems and human well-being. Remote sensing is an important tool to assess and monitor the dynamics of invasive plant species along the roadside. Here, we aim to characterise the spatial and temporal distribution of invasive plant species iden-tified along the roadside, in one of the main transport/energy corridors linking Portugal to Spain. To identify the invasive plant species along the roadside, we conducted two sequential classifications by using multi-temporal aerial photos from 1995, 2010 and 2016. In general, the invasive plants’ species increased between 1995 and 2016.

Estimating the invasion risk to the German railway system for 123 invasive alien species

Marion Leiblein-Wild, Sabrina Michael (German Federal Railway Authority (EBA), Germany); Pia Bartels (Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt), Germany); Michael Below (German Railways (DB AG), Germany); Daniel S. Esser (German Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG), Germany); Oliver Tackenberg

We developed a methodology to estimate the invasion risk of 123 invasive alien species (IAS) to the German railway system based on ecological traits, railway-specific traits, and occurrence data� Combining the methodology with performing a comprehensive literature survey, we created datasheets and risk assessments for all IAS� For IAS with a very high invasion risk, additional infor-mation on potential health risks, possible

damage to the railway system, and management measures were gathered� The results are essential for defining management priorities and identifying prospective measures for preventing and mitigating the introduction and spread of IAS via the transportation system�

Thursday / 11:30 – 13:00 Room: SaturnMitigation performance 3: Effectiveness of measures in reducing roadkill and barrier effect

Moderator: Marcel Huijser, WTI, USA

An evidence-based approach to road mitigation for small vertebrate species

Silviu Petrovan (Conservation Science Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK)

This is a large review of multiple projects undertaken in the UK and Europe since 2013 in relation to the strategic planning and monitoring of effectiveness for road mitigation structures for small fauna species of conservation concern�

Effectiveness of road mitigation for common toads (Bufo bufo) in the Netherlands

Fabrice G.W.A. Ottburg, Edgar A. van der Grift (Wageningen Environmental Research, Wageningen University and Research, Netherlands)

The impact of roads and traffic on amphibian populations is the result of amphibian road mortality� Measures have been developed to prevent road mortality� Although such measures are frequently applied across the world, only a few studies have evaluated their effectiveness in reducing road kill and facilitate safe movements across roads� This study focus on the effectiveness of mitigation measures taken for a common toad population on a local road in the central part of the Netherlands�

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Standardized methods for amphibians at roads: Identifying critical road sections and evaluating mitigation measures

Jan Olof Helldin (Calluna AB / Swedish Biodiversity Center, SLU, Sweden); Ulrika Lundin, Anders Sjölund (Swedish Transport Administration, Sweden)

We present standardized national method protocols to identify road sections where current impacts on amphibians are critical and need to be mitigated, and to evaluate the effectiveness of amphibian mitiga-tion measures� The method standards are intended to secure that results from different projects are comparable on national (Swedish) scale, and that they reach required quality�

The suitability and use of green bridges by herpetofauna within the Veluwe district, The Netherlands

Richard P.J.H. Struijk (RAVON Foundation, Netherlands); David C. Broek

We investigated the suitability of green bridges for seven species of herpe-tofauna on five Dutch green bridges in the Veluwe district by comparing reptile densities on green bridges with surrounding suitable habitat� No signifi-cant differences in densities were found� Walls of tree stumps often being present on green bridges showed to be of strong significant interest to reptiles in compar-ison to open less-structured areas� Capture-mark-recapture techniques revealed individual movements of Lacerta agilis, Anguis fragilis, Natrix helvetica, Coronella austriaca and Epidalea calamita on a green bridge(s) itself, though full crossings have only been found once in N. helvetica and E. calamita�

Amphibian and reptile highway crossings worldwide: A state of the practice review and gap analysis

Tom Langton (Herpetofauna C I Ltd., United Kingdom); Antony P. Clevenger (Western

Transportation Institute, Montana State University, USA); Robert Fisher, Cheryl Brehme (United States Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center, USA)

A programme is underway in California, USA, for the State Road Authority CALTRANS, to develop Best Management Practice Guidelines for road crossings for amphibians and reptiles by 2020� We examined a) passage construction and use, b) passage environmental variables and c) barrier construction and use for 52 English language studies, concerning 125 individual taxa from mainly Europe, North America, South America and Australasia� Of the 75 reptile and 50 amphibian species or sub-species involved, snakes, lizards and frogs each represented about 20-25% of total taxa with 13 salamander & newt taxa, eight toad, five turtle and two tortoise�

Friday / 9:30 – 11:00 Room: Philips HallCEDR Roads and Wildlife Manual: A new handbook for practitioners

Moderator: Kylie Soanes, The Universi-ty of Melbourne, Australia

Integrating wildlife into Europe’s national road network

Vincent O’Malley (Transport Infrastructure Ireland, Ireland); Ander Sjolund (Trafikver-ket/The Swedish Transport Administration, Sweden)

Investment in road infrastructure involves extensive discussions between various stakeholders which may result in the implementation of expensive mitigating actions� Therefore, it is crucial that such actions are cost-efficient� The Conference of the European Directors of Roads (CEDR) transnational research call focused on ensuring the latest best practice related to wildlife was adopted during the develop-ment of road infrastructure� This pres-entation covers the output of the research projects as well as the development of the new wildlife handbook for NRAs�

Procurement – The relevance of the CEDR Roads and Wildlife Manual for road engineering

Eugene J Obrien (School of Civil Engi-neering, University College Dublin (UCD) / Roughan & O’Donovan Innovative Solutions (ROD-IS), Ireland); Ciaran Carey, Seamus MacGearailt, Barry Corrigan (Roughan & O’Donovan Innovative Solu-tions (ROD-IS), Ireland)

The Conference of European Directors of Road identified the need for insight in how procurement practices consider ecological mitigation measures and how outcome-based procurement might influence the results for nature� This presentation will describe the content of Chapter 4 of the CEDR Roads and Wildlife Manual, ‘Procurement and Performance Indicators’� Beginning with a review of the relevant Harmony and SAFEROAD results, which formed the basis of the Manual chapter, the presentation will then outline procurement approaches of road mitigation� Methods to achieve effective measurable outcomes that facil-itate wildlife crossings are then discussed�

Road mitigation for bats

Morten Elmeros (Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Denmark)

Roads may have a detrimental impact on bat populations by increasing mortality rates, fragmentation and habitat degradation and destruction� A range of measures has been constructed on roads to reduce their impact on bats� However, many uncertainties still exist regarding the bats’ use of the measures and their effectiveness� The effectiveness varies between bat species and sites� However, potentially suitable mitigating interventions are available if the mitiga-tion measures are carefully chosen and designed� The CEDR Manual provides recommendations and outlines key points to consider when to mitigate road impact on bat populations�

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Road maintenance guidelines to improve wildlife conservation and traffic safety

Carme Rosell (Minuartia wildlife consul-tancy / Department of Evolution Biology, Ecology and Environmental Science, Uni-versity of Barcelona, Spain); Heinrich Reck (Institute for Natural Resource Conservation (INR), Germany); Jan Olof Helldin (Calluna AB / Swedish Biodiversity Center, Sweden); Andreas Seiler (Swedish University of Agri-cultural Sciences, Grimsö Wildlife Research Station, Sweden); Eugene O’Brien (Roughan & O’Donovan Innovative Solutions, Ireland); Marina Torrellas, Albert Cama (Minuartia wildlife consultancy, Spain); Edgar A. van der Grift (Wageningen Environmental Research, Netherlands)

Road maintenance practices are a funda-mental factor to guarantee long-term effectiveness of measures constructed to reduce habitat fragmentation and hazards to road users and wildlife, enhance biodiversity, and reinforce European Green Infrastructure� Based on interviews with road maintenance profes-sionals from 11 European countries, a literature review, and a workshop, a set of guidelines for the maintenance of roads and their surroundings from an ecolog-ical perspective have been produced and included in the CEDR Roads and Wildlife Manual� Road managers are recom-mended to adopt a flexible strategy and a lifecycle approach to identify the most appropriate BMPs�

CEDR Roads and Wildlife Manual: Road mitigation strategies and monitoring

Edgar A. van der Grift (Wageningen Envi-ronmental Research, Wageningen Universi-ty and Research, Netherlands)

Road agencies and conservation organ-isations are currently investing large amounts of money in developing and implementing numerous mitigation strategies and techniques� However, what is the most effective mitigation strategy? Should we focus on reducing wildlife

mortality due to vehicle-wildlife colli-sions? Is increasing road permeability for wildlife the better option, or should we consider doing both? Are the measures we take effective in reducing road impacts? What is the best way to evaluate mitigation performance? All these questions are addressed in the ‘Roads and Wildlife Manual’, recently published by the Conference of European Directors of Roads (CEDR)�

Friday / 9:30 – 11:00 Room: FoyerRoads and bats: Impacts, mitigation and monitoring

Moderator: Lazaros Georgiados, Biologist and Environmental consultant, Greece

What drives the spatial distribution and temporal persistence of bat road kill hotspots?

Denis Medinas, João Tiago Marques, António Mira (CIBIO-UE – Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources. Pole of Évora / InBIO – Research Network in Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology / UBC – Conservation Biology Lab, Department of Biology, University of Évora, Portugal)

Many hotspots change locations annually, while others tend to persist� There is little about the factors of these variations� We evaluate the spatiotem-poral persistence of bat road kill aggre-gation during three years in a Mediterra-nean landscape� Our results showed that persistent hotspots are usually located on road segments crossing areas of higher vegetation productivity where bat activity tends to be higher� We show that vegetation productivity can be used to predict bat road kill locations� Therefore, this broadly available remote sensing information can be used to minimise the impact of roads�

Predicting bat diversity, abundance and movements in road projects – Evaluation of a habitat suitability model

Johnny de Jong, Gesa von Hirschheydt (Swedish Biodiversity Centre, SLU, Sweden); Oskar Kindvall (Calluna AB, Sweden)

Road planning requires a good knowledge of potential conflicts with conservation values� In this presenta-tion, a habitat network model for bats is demonstrated� The model is based on publicly available geographical data and takes several important aspects of bat population ecology into account� It can be used to make predictions on bat abundance, distribution and movements� The model was evaluated in the field by bat surveys during summer 2017, and the result and future development of the model will be discussed�

Ecological effectiveness and implemen-tation of hop-overs for bats: a case study on the N356

Margriet Krijn, Yde van der Heide, Mark Koopmans, Eddy Wymenga (Altenburg & Wymenga ecolo-gical consultants, Nether-lands)

The N356 road crosses the small-scaled bocage landscape of the northern part of Friesland which is an important area for bats� Therefore, mitigation measures such as hop-overs were needed� To design effective ecological constructions being feasible concerning planning and construction, a system engineering approach was used� Ecologists were involved at an early stage of the process and moni-toring continued throughout the process� Monitoring showed that bats frequently use the con-structed hop-overs� Additionally, agreements on operation and maintenance were made� This ap-proach helps to communicate effectively and additionally facilitates to test hop-overs on ecological functionality�

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A road-effect zone for insectivorous bats not caused by lack of insects

Manisha Bhardwaj (University of Mel-bourne, Australia / SLU, Sweden); Kylie Soanes, Jose Lahoz-Monfort (University of Melbourne, Australia); Lindy Lumsden (Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Australia); Rodney van der Ree (Ecology and Infrastructure Internation-al Pty Ltd, Australia)

We evaluated the road-effect zone (REZ) for insectivorous bats and nocturnal flying insects to understand the influence prey availability has on the impacts of roads on predators� We surveyed bat activity and insect biomass along eighteen transects that were perpendicular to three freeways in southeast Australia� Although bat activity decreases with proximity to the freeway, insect biomass does not change� This suggests that prey availability isn’t the primary factor behind the REZ for bats, and the influence of other factors (e�g�, traffic disturbance, a gap in the canopy) should be evaluated to mitigate the impact of roads on bats�

Recent innovations in threatened microbat mitigation on road projects in New South Wales, Australia

Josie Stokes (Roads and Maritime Services, Australia)

Bridge and culvert replacement projects can result in local extinctions of threat-ened microbats through habitat loss� To mitigate this, we have conducted studies on roosting and breeding habitats to incorporate habitat design features into new and existing structures� This pres-entation provides details of the evolution of microbat mitigation in NSW, highlights recent innovations on road projects, and points out lessons learned during construction of permanent roosting and breeding habitat on new concrete bridges� We report on ecological moni-toring that demonstrates successful uptake and breeding events in purpose-built permanent microbat habitat�

Friday / 9:30 – 11:00 / Room: NeptuneCanalized waterways: Restoring habitat and connectivity for aquatic species

Moderator: Fabrice Ottburg, Wageningen Environmental Research, Netherlands

Restoration and optimising ecological connectivity in the North Sea Canal Region

Arjen Kikkert (Rijkswaterstaat, Netherlands)

Since 2012, eight authorities around the North Sea Canal have joined in a part-nership to improve fish migration� In this region, diadromous species used to be common� However, as a result of habitat fragmentation amongst others, a severe decline in stocks has been noted� After several joint projects, the partnership has now started a large-scale three-year monitoring program in which the focus is on species that used to be common in the local water systems� The program aims to contribute to more sustainable water management, an increase in species diversity and more stable ecosystems�

Ecological value of constructed shallow water zones along a navigable canal: A case study from the canal Ghent-Bruges

Andy Van Kerckvoorde (Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Belgium)

A case study of constructed shallow water zones along the navigation canal Ghent-Bruges (located in the northern part of Belgium) is presented� The shallow water zones provide appropriate conditions for establishment of native herbaceous helophyte vegetation and willow shrubs but are of little importance for rooted aquatic plant species� Lower oxygen values were observed during summer and autumn in the shallow water zones compared to the fairway� Mitigation measures for naviga-tion impacts can increase biodiversity and ecological processes in navigable canals and are useful for waterway managers,

policy-makers and technicians in future bank engineering projects�

Adjusted tidal sluice management, an easy way to improve the upstream migration of glass eels in Flemish waterways (Belgium)

Jeroen Van Wichelen, David Buysse, Claude Belpaire, Johan Coeck (Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Belgium); Kristof Vli-etinck (The Agency for Nature and Forests, Belgium)

Tidal sluices form a significant challenge for the growing phase (glass eels) of the critically endangered European eel during their upstream migration towards their freshwater growth areas� We present the effectiveness of adjusted tidal sluice management (slightly opening the floodgates at flood tide) as a mitigation measure� In this way, we were able to demonstrate that this cheap and easy applicable technique is a valuable tool for the management and restoration of this enigmatic species�

Pumping stations and the ‘migration road’ towards safer pumps for the criti-cally endangered European eel

David Buysse, Jeroen Van Wichelen, Raf Baeyens, Ine Pauwels, Ans Mouton, Johan Coeck (INBO – Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Belgium)

The impact of pumping stations on eel (Anguilla anguilla L�) populations is poorly understood� Eel mortality was studied after downstream passage through four different types of pumps and pump sizes on three lowland canals in Belgium� A propeller pump, Archimedes screw pumps, de Wit Archimedes screw pumps, and a fish-friendly screw pump� Based on the condition of the fish and injuries sustained, maximum mortality rates were calculated� To achieve escapement targets set in the eel management plan, we need fish-safer pump designs and effective PS bypass solutions�

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Friday / 9:30 – 11:00 Room: JupiterCrossing borders: New approach-es towards green and sustainable transport infrastructure

Moderator: Anders Sjolund, Swedish Transport Administration, Sweden

Crossing borders between roads agencies and building companies, for a greener and sustainable transport infrastructure

Victor Loehr (Rijkswaterstaat, Netherlands); Jan Willem Burgmans, Bas Bakker (Hei-jmans, Netherlands)

Ecological measures in Dutch highway constructions are largely identified and selected by government agencies� Two major highway expansions used a new approach where traditional borders between government agencies and building companies were crossed, and building companies were challenged during the tender to identify ecological measures� Tendering building companies conducted landscape-level analyses with highly-skilled personnel and submitted plans that added significant ecological value to the projects� The early timing of collaboration between ecologists and civil-engineers contributed to innovation and mutual understanding, benefiting all project phases� Two highway expansions have been constructed, and several future projects will follow the same approach�

‘Structure-Permeability-Index’ to assess highway alignments

Marguerite Trocmé (Federal Road Office, Switzerland); Kim Krause (Kaden & Partner AG, Switzerland)

Using data accumulated through the monitoring with infrared cameras of 96 crossing structures on two highway stretches, a structure-permeability index was developed� The index uses easily available data combining structure type and dimensions, Corinne land-use of surroundings, traffic noise mapping

and traffic levels during night-time on the structure� The index showed an excellent correlation to number of wildlife crossings on the structures and can be used in the future to rank struc-tures suited for retrofit or upgrading for wildlife�

A user-friendly computer platform to assess the impact of transport infra-structure on wildlife: a case study with the Eurasian lynx in France

Sarah Bauduin, Laetitia Blanc, Cyril Bernard, Arzhela Hemery, Olivier Gimenez (CEFE, France); Anaïs Charbonnel, Estelle Germain (CROC, France); Luc Chrétien, Alain Morand (CEREMA, France); Christophe Duchamp, Eric Marboutin (ONCFS, France); Stephanie Kramer-Schadt (IZW, Germany); Fridolin Zimmermann (KORA, Switzerland)

The terrestrial transportation network is getting denser, which increases collision risks with wildlife� Focusing on lynx in France, we develop an operational tool that managers can use for decision making and land-use planning� Together with stakeholders, we built a spatially-ex-plicit individual-based model to predict extinction risks and assess the impact of transport infrastructures� This model was implemented in a user-friendly computer platform� We adopted a participatory approach to ensure the smooth appropri-ation of this platform by stakeholders� Our contribution fills a gap between academic research, the stakes of land planning, lynx conservation and the needs of transport infrastructures stakeholders�

On-Board cameras reveal wildlife responses to approaching trains

Andreas Seiler, Linda Höglund (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Depart-ment of Ecology, Grimsö Wildlife Research Station, Sweden); Mattias Olsson (Enviro-Planning AB, Sweden); Pär Söderström, Anders Forsberg (SJ AB, Rolling Stock Division, Sweden); Anders Sjölund (Swedish Transport Administration, Sweden)

Wildlife-train collisions are a growing concern� However, conventional measures to mitigate the problem are rare and very expensive� To better under-stand how wildlife responds to trains and how they could be warned to avoid collisions, we conducted onboard video recordings of animals within the rail corridor� Our results suggest that animals most often respond appropriately and in time, but that they need time to detect the train� We conclude that measures that would help to increase the detectability of the train by wildlife could be useful in reducing ungulate-train collisions�

Changing driver behaviour in Protected Areas of South Africa

Wendy Collinson (Endangered Wildlife Trust, South Africa); Courtney Marneweck (School of Biology and Environmental Sciences, University of Mpumalanga, South Africa); Innocent Buthelezi (Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa); Harriet Davies-Mostert (Centre for Wildlife Management, University of Pretoria, South Africa)

The Endangered Wildlife Trust has strived to raise public awareness of the impacts of roads on biodiversity through media campaigns, extensive social media platforms and by engaging with relevant stakeholders� Initially our attention was focused on road impacts on wildlife outside of protected areas, since traffic volume is higher and collisions are often more visible and more threat-ening to human life� However, reports from various social media platforms have indicated huge public concern for wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC) inside protected areas� Consequently, in 2017 we initiated an assessment of driver behaviour within Pilanesberg National Park in South Africa�

FULL PRESENTATIONS

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Thursday / 10:00 – 11:00 Room: FoyerCrossing borders in strategic planning: Models, toolboxes, web platforms and apps

Moderator: Jan Olof Helldin, SLU, Sweden

Wildlife collisions on Dutch railways: Improving decision making and strategic planning of mitigation measures using machine learning techniques and data visualization tools

Jaspert de Vries, Camiel Meijneken, Laurens Koppenol (ProRail, Netherlands)

Every year there are approximately 1,500 reported animal related interferences on the Dutch railways� These distur-bances often cause delay in travel time for passengers and is mostly fatal for animals� The goal of this project was to use advanced analytics to promote effective decisions making to prevent wildlife collisions� Using multiple data analyses tools a dashboard was created to provide insights in historical data of animal-collisions and time dependent patters� Machine learning techniques were used to predict railroad segments with a high risk of an animal related inter-ference for the upcoming month�

Validation of the ecological connec-tivity model Circuitscape using GPS-data

Lisa Maria Sjölund (Sweco Position, Swe-den); Andreas Seiler (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden)

We simulated animal movements using the ecological connectivity model Circuitscape� To make the model reliable, we used GPS-data from different species to validate Circuitscape� For this, we looked at their movement patterns and how to use different biotopes�

Multi-level wildlife distribution models in the planning of green infrastructure

Jaanus Remm, Piret Remm, Kertu Jaik (Re-wild OÜ / University of Tartu, Estonia)

In the presentation, we will demon-strate last years’ experience of planning wildlife mitigation measures for Estonian roads and railways, and discuss future perspectives� We have developed a novel approach to separate the site, landscape, and regional level effects in models of species occupancy� The goal is development and integration of these multi-level models of wildlife species landscape, and habitat use in procedures of spatial planning and infrastructure development� The intention is to cross the border between basic science and real-life implementations� This means transferring knowledge between ecolo-gists, engineers, decision makers, interest groups, and the general public�

The harmonisation of ‘Grey’ and ‘Green’ Infrastructure in South-East Europe: Introducing the GreenWeb platform

Radu Mot (Zarand Association, Romania); Lazaros Georgiadis (Infra Eco Network Europe, Greece); Antonios Mazaris (De-partment of Ecology, School of Biology at Aristotle University, Greece); Cristian Remus Papp (WWF Danube Carpathian Programme / Babes-Bolyai University, Romania); Niki Voumvoulaki (Egnatia Odos SA, Greece)

On-going economic development in South-East Europe, especially the growth of linear transportation infrastructure, generates additional pressure on nature� This development demands urgent action, ensuring the least possible negative impacts on the environment� A network of professionals from a variety of sectors is developing the GreenWeb Platform, aiming for proactive engagement and dialogue with all stakeholders� In this way, they can secure ecological connectivity ensuring the coherence and ecological

functionality of areas with high biodiver-sity value while developing linear trans-portation in South-East Europe�

Implementation of the Wildlife Friendly Roads Toolbox for Central America

Esther Pomareda García, Esmeralda Aréva-lo Huezo, Daniela Araya-Gamboa (Vías Amigables con la Vida Silvestre, Costa Rica)

For developing countries in Central America, it is essential to harmonize the relationship between infrastructure development and biodiversity conser-vation� The impact of roads on wildlife is scarce� In Costa Rica, even with a lot of information generated, few measures have been implemented in road devel-opment projects� To address this need, an Environmental Guide “Wildlife Friendly Roads” was developed� Technical Guidelines are at the core of this toolbox� Currently, the Guide is used as a reference on the scientific study of different roads that are going to be improved, hired by the Ministry of Transportation�

Automating Wildlife-Vehicle Conflict Tracking

Fraser M. Shilling, David P. Waetjen, Kathryn Harrold (Road Ecology Center, University of California, USA)

Wildlife-vehicle conflicts (WVC) impact society and wildlife communities and are among the most observable and spatially extensive of ecological and safety impacts� WVC data are critical for planning WVC-reduction projects, but often when data collection occurs, it is incomplete, inconsistently collected, and difficult to verify� To address this problem, we developed automated approaches for collecting and analyzing WVC data: One periodically retrieves crash data from an online incident reporting system maintained by the California Highway Patrol (CHP)� We also developed an easy to use smartphone app for casual users to upload images of carcasses resulting from WVC�

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Agouti: A platform for processing and archiving imagery from road crossing

Patrick A. Jansen (Wageningen University, Netherlands); Jim Casaer (Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Belgium)

Camera traps and video surveillance systems are standard tools for monitoring road-crossing structures� The informa-tion can potentially be used to address essential questions in road ecology, but this requires that the monitoring and image processing is standardized and that images and data are archived and made available to scientists� We present the web-based platform Agouti that was designed to accomplish this, show how it is being used to manage the monitoring of wildlife crossings the Netherlands and Belgium, and invite other organizations involved in monitoring wildlife crossings to use this platform so that information can support road ecology�

Thursday / 10:00 – 11:00 Room: PolluxDefragmentation initiatives: Opportunities and challenges

Moderator: Katja Claus, Flemish Gov-ernment, Belgium

Impact of road-infrastructure on the environment. A question of partici-pation and cooperation?

Wim Van Isacker, Griet Celen (Vlaamse Landmaatschappij, Belgium)

The construction of a highway inev-itably has a negative impact on the surrounding environment of the highway� The correct use of an environmental impact analysis can help to make design choices and define mitigating measures necessary to limit this impact to an acceptable level� By using a long-term process of participation and cooperation, it is possible to shift the mindset from a “negative” highway with all sorts of negative impacts to the environment, to a “positive” project improving the quality

of life and establishing a future-proof environment in the surroundings�

Environmental possibilities and challenges in early-stage transport planning in a Swedish metropolitan context

Sofia Eckersten, Berit Balfors, Ulrika Gun-narsson Östling (Royal Institute of Technol-ogy, KTH, Sweden)

This study aims to identify key issues contributing to the development of strategies for integrating environmental measures in transport planning in a Swedish metropolitan context� We hypothesise that transport planning lack effective strategies in order to meet environmental objectives and climate goals� Preliminary results show that major issues were to define system boundaries of the investigated area� Also, mandate and knowledge of involved actors affected the outcome� Our findings call for flexible strategies in order to meet the governance challenges of environmental issues in transport planning, which would contribute to valuable opportunities for smart infrastructural solutions�

Redesign from an ecological perspective

Jelle Vercauteren, Marijn Struyf (De Werkvennootschap, Belgium); Koen Maes (Sweco Belgium, Belgium)

From an ecological perspective, the redesign of the Brussels ring road is crossing borders between engineers and ecologists� It is assessing the technical design from an ecological point of view and integrating the ecological findings into infrastructural works� It is searching and – hopefully – creating win-win solutions� It is trying to reconcile seemingly opposite positions and then noticing the common ground solution� It is the way to achieve a stronger, more positive, and future-proof design�

Otter road mortality in the Nether-lands: population impact and effective mitigation measures

Loek Kuiters, Hugh Jansman, Dennis Lammertsma (Wageningen Environmental Research, Netherlands)

The Eurasian otter as a mobile semi-aquatic species highly suffers from traffic collision� The impact of road mortality on population size and range was assessed by genetic monitoring of the population for over 15 years� With 20-25% of total population size, road mortality appeared to be substantial� Several mitigation measures have proven to be effective by reducing the number of casualties at hot spots� By periodically inspecting the most important risk zones, the national list of high-risk zones is updated and communicated with the responsible road managers with the request to take protective actions�

Steps towards an integrated mitigation strategy for a large carnivore roadkill hotspot in North-western Greece

Maria Psaralexi (Aristotle University, Department of Ecology, School of Biol-ogy, Greece); Yorgos Ili-opoulos, Eirini Chatzimichail, Yorgos Lazarou, Alexios Giannakopoulos, Athanasios Tragos, Ioan-nis Tsaknakis, Yorgos Mertzanis (Callisto - Wildlife and Nature Conservation Society, Greece); Maria Petri-dou (University of Ioan-nina, Department of Biological Applications and Technologies, Greece); Maël Guyon (Université de Montpellier II, Faculté des Sciences, Ingénierie en Ecologie et Gestion de la Biodi-versité, France)

We have identified the “Kleidi” area in northwestern Greece as a mammal roadkill hotspot via roadkill rec-ords and systematic field surveys and evidenced this sector’s importance as a critical linkage area for brown bears using a cost distance analysis� We have confirmed that the effectiveness of existing mitigation measures is poor and thus effective gene flow between two bear sub-populations

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may be compromised, and human safety is put at risk� To address the issue, Wildlife Warning Reflectors and wildlife warning signs are to be installed along these road segments, yet we discuss the need for more effective mitigation measures�

Implementation of the no-net-loss approach at the project ‘Outer Ring Parkstad Limburg’

Raymond Tilmans (Provincie Limburg, Clus-ter Natuur en Water, Netherlands)

The specific construction of a highway in the southern part of the Netherlands and the implementation of obliged mitigation and compensation measures give affected species the opportunity to continue to live in their current or adjacent habitat� Further measures have been carried out to establish a robust and durable green infrastructure� For these kinds of road projects, it is essential to not only focus on the road itself but also to search for chances to catalyse ecolog-ical projects in the surroundings of the road� This way, it is possible to implement the no-net-loss approaches, to create a green (European) network�

Mitigating the ecological impacts of transportation infrastructure: A compilation of global case studies

Rodney van der Ree (Ecology and Infra-structure International Pty Ltd / School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Australia)

A challenge in planning and designing roads, railways and other linear infrastruc-ture is that many engineers, planners and designers are not aware of the multitude of mitigation options because there is no single book containing real-life examples and case-studies to guide and inspire future projects� I am editing a book that brings together case studies of mitigation from around the world in an accessible style and format� This book will be published as an open access E-book, so that everyone, everywhere, can access it

at any time, for free� You can contribute by authoring a chapter or supporting the project financially�

Thursday / 10:00 – 11:00 Room: NeptuneResearch techniques: What is new?

Moderator: Andreas Seiler, SLU, Sweden

Patterns of road threat on a global scale: Using large datasets in transpor-tation ecology

Molly Grace (University of Oxford, England)

Meta-analyses have suggested characteris-tics that make animals vulnerable to roads (e�g�, slow reproduction) but consider only a fraction of the world’s species� I used large existing databases (The Red List of Threat-ened Species and AnAge) to investigate these trends on a global scale� Considering 5,430 mammalian species (124 families), I regressed the proportion of species within a family classified as road-threatened against average body mass, age at maturity, litter size, and longevity� Road threat was more pronounced in families with larg-er-bodied, longer-lived species and slower reproduction, highlighting how existing datasets can be used to confirm trends observed in transportation ecology�

How reliable are your data? Verifying species identification of road-killed mammals recorded by road mainte-nance personnel in São Paulo State, Brazil

Fernanda Delborgo Abra, Camylla Silva Pereira, Katia Maria Paschoaletto Micchi de Barros Ferraz (Laboratório de Ecologia, Manejo e Conservação de Fauna Silvestre (LEMaC) - ESALQ/USP, Brazil); Marcel Huijser (Western Transportation Institute - Mon-tana State Univer-sity, USA)

We investigated whether maintenance personnel correctly identified the species of road-killed mammals along toll roads in São Paulo State using two methods�

For method one we investi-gated 3,222 images and identification of road-killed animals� For method two we presented mammal s images to road maintenance personnel and asked them to identify the species� For method one we found that the maned-wolf, crab-eating-fox, European-hare, capybara, south-ern-ta-mandua, puma, ocelot, giant-anteater, and gray-brocket were correctly identified� For method two the maned-wolf, capybara, southern-tamandua, puma, ocelot, and giant-anteater were correctly identified� The data showed that non-experts usually correctly identified certain common, large, or highly recognizable species�

Better intelligent systems for mapping amphibian and small bird roadkill

Neftalí Sillero, Diana Guedes, Hélder Ribeiro (CICGE (Geo-Spatial Sciences Research Centre) – Prof. Manuel de Barros Astronom-ical Observatory, Faculty of Science of the University of Porto, Portugal)

Roads have multiple effects on wildlife� Monitoring roadkill is expensive and time-consuming� We developed a cheap and efficient system for detecting amphibians and small birds roadkill using computer vision techniques� The MS2 has a reduced size and energetic consump-tion and can be attached directly to the back of any car� We tested the MMS2 in three conditions: a control test with plastic models of amphibians and birds in a small road; a control test with collec-tion specimens of amphibians and birds; and a real test on a 30 km road survey in Southern Portugal�

Innovative road kill monitoring with speech recognition and route regis-tration

Diemer Vercayie, Marc Herremans (Natuur-punt, Belgium); Alex Kwak (Zostera IT & Consultancy, Netherlands)

Experience has shown that monitoring road kills with citizen scientists results in significant, reliable, and useful data if

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specific criteria are met� However, two issues are still hampering data collection and use: (1) for safety reasons, many countries put restrictions on the driv-er-use of smartphones, and (2) most citi-zen-science road kills monitoring projects gather opportunistic observations of road kill without information on search effort� Technological improvements for the existing wildlife observation app ObsMapp solved both issues, resulting in a state of the art app allowing broad public participation and gathering high-quality road kill data�

How to assess species crossing natural corridors through a new kind of wildlife sensors?

Pierre-Yve Courtine (Neavia Technologies, France); Louis Laurence (Environmental Ser-vice of Haute-Savoie Department, France)

Restoring a natural corridor while reducing the risks of collisions on a highly busy road were the main reasons why Haute-Savoie department decided to test new wildlife sensors designed by Neavia� Thanks to its collaborative approach, the proposed solution contributes to improving the knowledge of the wildlife species living in the latest wetland area of the Annecy lake, established as a natural reserve in 1974� Thanks to the effective support of the local hunting federation, the solution demonstrated its efficiency very quickly after its activation� Analysis of collected data will be presented during the session�

A new approach for monitoring fauna in eco-infrastructure: A win-win arrangement for an affordable continuous way of studying and evalu-ating

Kristin Van Laer (Dienst Duurzaam Milieu- en Natuurbeleid, Department of Sus-tainable Environment and Nature Policy, Belgium)

Working together with the university and proposing topics for internships makes

it possible to have a mutually beneficial arrangement for an affordable contin-uous way of monitoring and evaluation of fauna in eco-infrastructure� The theory is combined with practice and profes-sionals and volunteers can collaborate� Results are published on an open online project page� New observations provide the participants and all other interested parties with the most current informa-tion� By involvement, people have a stake in the effectiveness of defragmentation measures� Knowledge is acquired and disseminated thanks to this approach to working with students efficiently�

Assessing the effects of multiple environmental variables on aquatic biodiversity in highway stormwater ponds: Does metabarcoding improve the performance of traditional morpho-logical methods?

Zhenhua Sun, Ekaterina Sokolova, Sebast-ien Rauch (Chalmers University of Tech-nology, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Sweden); Sondre Meland (Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) / Nor-wegian University of Life Sciences, Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management, Norway); John E. Brittain, Svein Jakob Saltveit (Natural His-tory Museum, University of Oslo, Norway); Markus Majaneva, Torbjørn Ekrem (NTNU University Museum, Department of Natural History, Norway)

The freshwater ecosystems along the highways are subject to various traf-fic-related stressors, which reduce aquatic biodiversity� DNA metabarcoding has been promoted as a method to identify organisms to the species level and to increase taxonomic resolution, thereby facilitating a comprehensive understanding of the influence of environmental variables on aquatic biodiversity� In this study, this hypoth-esis will be tested in stormwater ponds by comparing the influences of several environmental variables on aquatic organisms identified using traditional morphology and DNA metabarcoding to

discern the differences between these methods�

Thursday / 10:00 – 11:00 Room: VenusImpact of roads on species, communi-ties, populations and ecosystems

Moderator: Elke Hahn, Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology, Austria

Forecasting the viability of Brazilian maned wolf populations in varying scenarios of road effects

Priscilla Barbosa, Alex Bager, Clara Grilo (Departamento de Biologia, Setor de Ecolo-gia e Conservação and Centro Brasileiro de Estudos em Ecologia de Estradas, Univer-sidade Federal de Lavras, Brazil); Nathan Schumaker, Kristin R. Brandon (Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, USA)

We evaluated the potential impacts of road mortality and fragmentation on the maned wolf population size and its spreading in Brazil� We developed a large-scale, mechanic, spatially explicit, individual-based forecasting model to generate quantitative estimates of the consequences of road mortality and fragmentation� These consequences influence the maned wolf population’s dynamics, size, and spreading� Our results suggested that even low road mortality rates result in severe population decline and might be altering the species range� We were also able to identify five locations with high road kill frequency, which can optimise future efforts for the species conservation�

Effects of habitat encroachment by roads on space use and movement patterns of an endangered vole

Nelson Horta Fernandes, Eduardo Fer-reira, Ricardo Pita, António Mira, Sara M. Santos (UBC – Conservation Biology Lab, Department of Biology, University of Évora, Portugal)

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This study aimed to assess the influence of habitat encroachment by roads on space use and movements of Cabrera voles (Microtus cabrerae), an Iberian endemism� Sixteen animals were radio-tracked in two habitat patches presenting different levels of habitat encroachment by roads� We found that individual home-ranges were significantly smaller in the patch more encroached by roads� These results suggest that habitat invasion by roads may critically affect space use and movement patterns of Cabrera voles�

Community analysis of microcrus-tacean in freshwater lakes adjacent a salted road in Norway

Sondre Meland (Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Norway); Thomas Correll Jensen (Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Norway); Mats Emil Sand, Synne Kleiven (University College of Southeast Norway, Norway)

In many countries road salt is applied to secure safe driving conditions� We hypothesised that the application of road salt on a Norwegian road have impaired the water quality and subse-quently microcrustacean communities in lakes adjacent the road� The preliminary results indicate that some of the lakes were chemically affected by road salt� The microcrustacean community analysis revealed no apparent road salt effect on the lakes’ ecology� The present research, together with a larger on-going moni-toring program on road salt have led to an increased awareness that road salt damages water bodies� Thus, mitigation actions have been initiated�

Different effects of the habitat structure under road bridges in a human-modified landscape in Hungary: Conservation hotspots or barriers to crayfish, fish, amphibian, and reptile species?

Blanka Gál (MTA Centre for Ecological Re-search, Danube Research Institute, Balaton Limnological Institute / Doctoral School of Environmental Sciences, Eötvös Loránd Uni-

versity, Hungary); Géza Gelencsér (Vox Vallis Development Association, Koppányvölgy Naturpark, / Doctoral School of Environ-mental Sciences, Szent István University, Hungary); Miklós Puky†, András Weiperth (MTA Centre for Ecological Research, Danube Research Institute, Hungary); Ildikó Szivák (MTA Centre for Ecological Research, Balaton Limnological Institute, Hungary); János Farkas (Eötvös Loránd University, Department of Systematic Zoology and Ecology, Hungary)

Our study aims to investigate the habitat functions of different types of streams under the road and railway bridges� Crayfish, fish, reptiles, and amphibian assemblages were surveyed beneath and around in fourteen bridges of four streams and one channel in Hungary� Our results presented that habitats under bridges affected aquatic, semi-aquatic and terrestrial species in different ways� In the case of strongly human-modified landscapes, several protected species have been detected only around the bridges� This result presented that aquatic habitats under bridges in a modified stream have a fundamental role in the conservation of native reophil species�

An assessment of the potential impacts of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Myanmar: risks and opportunities

Hanna Helsingen (WWF Myanmar, Myan-mar); Nirmal Bhagabati, Michele Dailey (WWF US, USA); Ben Milligan (University College, UK)

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is China’s strategy to boost connectivity and trade between China and a wide swath of Asia, Europe and Africa, with massive investments in infrastructure envisioned across the to be connected countries� WWF conducted an assess-ment highlighting the significant extent to which BRI road infrastructure could impact Myanmar’s rich biodiversity and selected ecosystem services, including disaster risk reduction and clean water

provisioning� We delineated illustrative realignments of the corridors based on potential costs and benefits of the development corridors� We provide recommendations for government and developers regarding the planning of BRI-related investments in Myanmar�

Road network development and forest fragmentation: An inter-state analysis

Deepika Mann, Girish Agrawal (Depart-ment of Civil Engineering, Shiv Nadar University, India); Pawan K. Joshi (School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India)

Road length in 2050 is estimated to increase globally by nearly 60%� Devel-oping countries, India being one, are expected to contribute to nine-tenth of this total� Therefore, understanding the consequences of introducing or expanding road network in sensitive eco-regions is crucial� Our study aims at understanding the complex interaction between road infrastructure develop-ment and ecology in forest landscapes of the central Himalayan foothills from 2000 to 2016 through spatiotemporal satellite data analysis� Results could indicate the correlation between the distance to roads and the percentage of non-forest areas and changes in forest fragmenta-tion pattern over 16 years�

Road impact assessment on the sound-scape of a Costa Rican rainforest using dominant frequencies

Oscar Ramírez-Alán (Escuela de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica); Mónica Retamosa Izaguirre (Instituto Internacional en Conservación y Manejo de Vida Silvestre, Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica); Victor Colino Rabanal (Department of Animal Biology, Faculty of Environmental Science, University of Salamanca, Spain)

We evaluated the impact of a road in the soundscape of a rainforest in Costa Rica using two acoustic indices�

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Thursday / 10:00 – 11:00 Room: JupiterRoad verges: Biodiversity potential and dealing with invasive species

Moderator: Carme Rosell, Minuartia, Spain

How can transport infrastructure habitats reduce habitat fragmentation in the landscape?

Tommy Lennartsson, Jörgen Wissman, J-O Helldin (Swedish Biodiversity Centre, SLU, Sweden)

We present a review and discussion of how transport infrastructure habitats (TIH) may reduce fragmentation of habitats� Fundamental issues are (1) which ecological functions TIH can provide in the landscape and thereby enhance landscape functionality, (2) the degree of similarity between TIH and surrounding habitats, and (3) how ecological functions and similarity can be improved by applying appropriate methods for construction and manage-ment of TIH� We propose that TIH consti-tute a diverse group of habitat types and that this ecological variation needs to be reflected in a proper palette of tools for the management and construction of TIH�

Biodiversity potential of transport infrastructure: A reconnaissance survey in the Netherlands

Theo van der Sluis, Bas Pedroli (Wagen-ingen Environmental Research, Nether-lands); Marieke de Lange (Rijkswaterstaat, Netherlands)

A quick scan of available GIS data of the Rijkswaterstaat assets compared with various maps of nature reserves and terrains with specific biodiversity values reveals that there is considerable potential for improvement of the biodi-versity values (both within the assets and in adjacent terrains)� This is especially true for wet ecosystems along rivers and canals� But also the drier habitats, such

as roadsides within the Rijkswaterstaat properties represent significant oppor-tunities for improving coherent nature networks and corridors� Priorities should be defined by taking into consideration biodiversity hotspots, an extension of specific habitats, and population growth of rare species�

To mow or not to mow? Public perception of urban roadside verge management

Olivia Richardson, Karl Evans, Philip Warren (University of Sheffield, UK)

In this study, we assess public perception of (I) a trial reducing mowing frequency of road verges on residential roads, (II) different hypothetical road verge management scenarios and (III) the ability of different road verge scenarios to support biodiversity, using face to face and postal questionnaires with residents in Sheffield, UK� While reducing the mowing frequency of road verges is a cost-effective management measure, this study shows that residents prefer frequently mown short grass, even though it is perceived by residents to be worse for biodiversity than other alterna-tive management scenarios�

Road verge maintenance: How to eradicate invasive species simultane-ously to promote species-rich, pollina-tion-friendly habitats?

Astrid Brekke Skrindo, Håvard Hjermstad-Sollerud, Arne Heggland (Norwegian Public Roads Administration, Climate and Environment Assessment Section, Norway)

Species-rich grasslands are essential to biodiversity and ecosystem services� The present loss of species-rich grass-lands makes it vital to conserve and promote novel habitat variants such as road verges� A significant challenge with maintaining species-rich road verges is their fine-scale spatial ecological heter-ogeneity� Therefore, it is important to

ask the following question: what kind of road verge-maintenance strategy both protects and promotes biodiversity? We will illustrate the Norwegian maintenance model by dividing the road verge into two different types and include the possi-bility for further adjustment�

Control strategies for Asian knotweed

Jo Laps (Departement Mobiliteit en Open-bare Werken, Belgium); Kevin Dewitte, Geert Haesaert (Universiteit Gent, Belgium); Marijke Thoonen (INBO, Belgium)

Verges are affected by the colonization of non-native invasive plant species� Big Asian knotweeds (species complex Fallopia) are among the most invasive plant species in Northwest Europe� The Flemish Agency for roads and traffic is responsible for reducing the spreading of it� A cost-efficient strategy for the management of the invasive plant during road construction and operation is being developed in collaboration with the Flemish Research Institute for Nature and Forest� A new method of chemical control is being tested in collaboration with the Ghent University because the use of glyphosate is more and more under discussion�

Biological control of Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica): A pilot project for the control of the invasive weed on railway infrastructure

Corinna Hecke, Michael Jungmeier (E.C.O. Institute of Ecology, Austria)

The Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica), an invasive plant species originally native to East Asia, has been spreading alongside railway infrastruc-ture of the Austrian Federal Railways Company (ÖBB)� The spreading is hindering railway construction, main-tenance, and operation� Since 2014, the ÖBB has implemented a pilot project, trying to fight this invasive plant species through intensive grazing by goats and sheep� In 2017, a monitoring system for

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the documentation of the effects of grazing on F. japonica was established� Interim results indicate that grazing, especially with an appropriate ratio and amount of sheep and goats, is considered to be a satisfactory method in controlling the Japanese knotweed�

Usefulness of power line right-of-way for wild bees and butterflies in agro - forestry landscapes

Denis François, Héloïse Blanchard, David Martinière (IFSTTAR, AME/EASE, France); Violette Le Féon, Bernard E. Vaissière, Mickaël Henry (INRA, UR 406, France); Eric Guinard, Jean-François Bretaud, Christophe Pineau (CEREMA Ouest, France)

The usefulness of power line right-of-ways for wild bees and butterflies was assessed in an agroforestry landscape in France� Comparisons were carried out between ROW sites in wooded areas (n = 31) and reference sites in open habitats as grasslands (n = 25)� Average species richness (bees and butterflies) and bee abundance appear statistically equivalent between ROWs and reference sites� ROWs provide nesting resources to bees, host some threatened species and contribute substantially to the regional pool of pollinating insects� Some similarities between bee communities suggest possible exchanges along forest ROWs and between ROWs and the surrounding landscape�

The achievements of the LIFE Elia-RTE project (2011-2017)

Jean-Francois Godeau (EcoFirst, Belgium)

The ‘LIFE Elia-RTE’ (2011-2017) project implemented seven innovative vegeta-tion management methods across 460 hectares of right-of-way along high-ten-sion lines (Belgium & France)� It enhanced cooperation with various local stake-holders (hunters, municipalities, forest administration) and Transport System Operators to combine electrical safety and biodiversity� It resulted in enhancing

the area and the quality of natural habitats (e�g�, 100 hectares of Natura2000 habitats) and the populations of rare or threatened species� Additionally, 270 hectares of forest edges were created or managed properly�

Thursday / 10:00 – 11:00 Room: SaturnPerformance evaluations of mitigation works

Moderator: Wiel Poelmans, Province Noord-Brabant, Netherlands

Prevention of wildlife-vehicle colli-sions: An evaluation of odour repellent effectiveness

Michal Bíl, Richard Andrášik, Zuzana Křivánková, Jiří Sedoník (CDV – Trans-port Research Centre, Czech Republic); Tomáš Bartonička (Masaryk University, Department of Botany and Zoology, Czech Republic)

Wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC) pose a safety issue in many countries� Collisions with large mammals result in numerous deaths and severe injuries to animals, property damage and injuries to car passen-gers� Therefore, the effectiveness of possible safety measures needs to be investigated� We examined the effective-ness of odour repellents with respect to reduction of WVC� The Before-After-Con-trol-Impact study design was applied to control both the effect of odour repel-lents and the expected nat-ural variation in wildlife populations at the monitored sites over time� We found out that a WVC de-crease accounting for 26-43 % can be expected at treated sites�

TSonic devices effectiveness in keeping wildlife off the road

Diana Guedes, Hélder Ribeiro, Neftalí Sillero (CICGE – Prof. Manuel de Barros Astronom-ical Obser-vatory, Faculty of Science of the University of Porto, Portugal)

The increasing development of linear

infrastructures affects wildlife in many ways� Mitigation measures are being applied to the species more vulnerable to roadkill, but there is little proof about their effectiveness� Here we tested an alternative measurement to reduce road and electrocution mortality with sound or ultra-sound devices that are activated when motion is detected� We tested two devices to discourage mice from approaching roads and consequently reduce the number of vehicle-collisions and, in parallel, we tested two devices to dissuade and monitor large birds in and on electrical lines�

Evaluating the success of wildlife crossing structures using genetic approaches and an experimental design: Lessons from a gliding mammal

Kylie Soanes, Peter Vesk (The University of Melbourne, Australia); Andrea Taylor, Paul Sunnucks, Silvana Cesarini (Monash Univer-sity, Australia); Rodney van der Ree (Ecology and Infrastructure International, Australia)

We evaluated the success of wildlife crossing structures for an arboreal mammal using a before-after compar-ison, and the use of genetic techniques� We found that the freeway was not a complete genetic barrier, with a strong effect evident at only one site� However, we also found that installing a crossing structure at the location with a strong barrier effect restored gene flow within just 5 years of mitigation� Our study high-lights the importance of using genetic techniques not just to evaluate the success of road-crossing structures for wildlife, but also to guide their placement within the landscape�

Using eDNA metabarcoding to evaluate the effect of nature-friendly banks as mitigation measures for fish

Jelger Herder, Jan Kranenbarg (Reptile, Amphibian and Fish Conservation, Neth-erlands); Alice Valentini (SPYGEN, Savoie Technolac, France); Nico Jonker (Provincie Noord-Holland, Netherlands)

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In the Netherlands alone, 2,500 km of nature-friendly banks (NFBs) have been constructed since 2009 to mitigate for heavily defended banks� We evaluated the effects of NFBs on fish in a large canal� Besides traditional methods eDNA-me-tabarcoding was used, a new innovative method based on the identification of DNA that species leave behind in their environment� The eDNA-metabarcoding method will be explained in detail and results of the study on the NFBs will be presented� Furthermore, we give recom-mendations for further use and imple-mentation of the eDNA-metabarcoding method, for example in evaluating the effectiveness of fish-passages�

Wildlife crossings in Poland: A source of data for placement and effectiveness evaluation process

Karolina Danuta Jasińska, Dagny Krauze-Gryz, Joanna Werka, Piotr Kowal (Depart-ment of Forest Zoology and Game Manage-ment, Warsaw University of Life Sciences WULS-SGGW, Poland)

Based on the questionnaires sent to managers of public roads, we analysed the methods used to choose the placement of wildlife crossings (over- and underpasses for medium and big mammals)� We also evaluated their effectiveness� The survey concerned over 3,500 crossings� Wildlife crossing struc-tures placement in Poland was chosen mostly on quite rough data� The pre-in-vestment monitoring was conducted in only half of the planned crossings� However, post-investment tracking was performed more often� Almost all big and medium mammals, excluding brown bear, used 95% of crossings�

A journey to success: How to identify high-risk roads, plan and monitor amphibian tunnels

Marcus Arnesson, Daniel Segerlind (Ecocom AB, Sweden)

We have identified potential conflict road

parts, where amphibian species face the risk of being killed during road crossing� In a field survey we identified and clas-sified which of these roads are of high priority for securing a safe amphibian passage� In 2017, amphibian tunnels were established on two high priority roads� Our aim is to present and get input on our method of identifying, planning and monitoring these amphibian tunnels�

Green bridges in the dunes: Monitoring of wildlife bridges in Zuid-Kenne-merland

Vincent van der Spek (Waternet, Nether-lands); Dick Groenendijk (PWN, Nether-lands)

In the dunes of Zuid-Kennemerland, along the Dutch west coast, three wildlife bridges were built between early 2014 and spring 2018� The bridges connect protected dune grasslands and scrub habitats that were previously separated by two busy roads and a railway� Moni-toring started in 2014 and included vegetation, mammals, herpetofauna and different groups of insects� Results show that 17 out of 23 assigned key animal species for the Zuid-Kennemerland region were recorded within four years� Our monitoring results suggest that these bridges provide mitigation for ecological fragmentation of dune habitats�

Thursday / 16:00 – 17:00 Room: FoyerAnimal-vehicle collisions: survey techniques, hotspot analyses and mitigation success

Moderator: Clara Grilo, CDV – Transport Research Centre, Czech Republic

Comparative study of animal carcass survey methods on roads

Eric Guinard, Jean-François Bretaud, Luc Chevallier (Cerema Sud-Ouest, France); Lu-cille Billon, Ro-main Sordello, Isabelle Witté (UMS 2006 PatriNat, France)

Fauna casualties on Linear Transport Infrastructures (LTI) are potentially dangerous and cause eco-nomic damage� This underlines the need to detect the most important fauna mortality hotspots� But the scientific knowledge is incomplete concerning carcass surveys methods efficiency on LTI� The aim of this study is to conduct comparative analyses on spatial distribution, taxonomic group numbers and composition of fauna mortality hotspots on LTI, with data obtained from two carcass survey methods: one conducted by an ecologist, one by patrollers� According to prelimi-nary results, these two survey methods seem to be complementary and could be used together to obtain more accurate data�

AVC data by volunteers and official crash data: a comparison based on three years of experience with reporting the appli-cation srazenazver.cz

Michal Bíl, Jan Kubeček, Richard Andrášik, Jiří Sedoník (CDV – Transport Research Centre, Czech Republic)

We present new developments connected with the animal-ve-hicle collision reporting application srazenazver�cz� We further provide a comparison between official data and data collected by volunteers to report their strengths and weaknesses�

Which factors are different between WVC hotspots with large mammals and randomly selected sites along roads?

Richard Andrášik, Michal Bíl, Jiří Sedoník (Transport Research Centre, Czech Repub-lic); Martin Duľa (Mendel University, Czech Republic)

The numbers of wildlife-vehicle colli-sions (WVC) are continually increasing in many European countries� A precise selection of high-risk locations on roads is therefore needed to effectively apply mitigation measures� First, we used the KDE+ method to identify these

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sites� Subsequently, we focused on determining the differences between significantly dangerous places and other locations where a WVC occurrence is still possible� We demonstrated a significant difference between the WVC hotspots and the randomly chosen WVC which do not form a spatial pattern� We found, in contrast, no significant difference when comparing hotspots of collisions with roe deer and wild boar�

Combined use of KDE+ software and empirical observation to identify animal-vehicle collisions’ hotspots in South Tyrol, Northern Italy

Filippo Favilli, Thomas Streifeneder (Eurac Research, Italy); Michal Bíl, Jiří Sedoník, Richard Andrášik (CDV – Transport Research Centre, Czech Republic); Peter Kasal, An-dreas Agreiter, Lena Schober, Philipp Sicher (Autonomous Province of Bolzano Adminis-tration, Department for Nature, Landscape and Spatial development, Italy); Lothar Gerstgrasser (Hunting Association of South Tyrol, Italy)

Animal-vehicle collisions (AVC) with red and roe deer in South Tyrol, Northern Italy, count some 700 cases per year� This amount of animal-vehicle collisions causes several socioeconomic, human health and ecological implications� In order to have an effective AVC prevention and reduction, a combined approach has been adopted� This approach has used empirical obser-vation of animal behaviour close to the roads, visual identification of ecological corridors and KDE+ statistical analysis on AVC data to identify the riskiest hotspots and define the most appropriate strate-gies to reduce/prevent AVC�

How citizen scientists and innovative construction design allow finding and mitigating hotspots in barn owl traffic victims

Jasja J.A. Dekker (Jasja Dekker Dierecolo-gie, Netherlands); Johan de Jong (Stichting Kerkuilenwerkgroep Nederland, Nether-lands)

Ringing data generated by citizen scientists allowed us to gain insight in barn owl traffic victims� The data was used to determine age, timing and origin of victims, and will be used together with data on breeding success, how determine how traffic mortality affects the population� Hotspots in victims are mitigated using an innovative construc-tion technique�

Wild vertebrate road kill on selected highways passing through four spatially isolated protected areas of Eastern Ethiopia

Getachew Mulualem Muche (Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute, Ethiopia); Wendy J. Collinson (Endangered Wildlife Trust, South-Africa)

Current research shows that highways have an adverse impact on road kill of wild vertebrate species� About 44 species of vehicular mortality were identified� Birds were the most impacted taxon in the surveyed highway� There are certain Endangered and Vulnerable species victimized by the vehicular casualties� Diurnal species constitute the highest figure of road kill� In contrary to several studies, nocturnal animals were less susceptible to the vehicular collision� The specific location of the highway was the highest wild vertebrate mortality site within the protected area relative to unprotected agricultural and semi-urban areas of Eastern Ethiopia�

Animal-vehicle collision and ecological connectivity in the Mont Blanc area: The role of local stakeholders in managing local human-wildlife conflict

Filippo Favilli, Prune Claire Giatti, Andrea Omizzolo, Thomas Streifeneder (Eurac Re-search, Italy); Aline Breton, Marion Guitteny (ASTERS, France)

Animal-vehicle collision (AVC) in the Mont Blanc region is a hot topic, although local stakeholders and the public sector have been working on mitigation techniques

through the years� Eurac research, in collaboration with ASTERS, has involved local stakeholders in developing what should become soon new forms of collaborations to manage the AVC conflict, in order to protect some of the prominent ecological corridors� The main objective was to discuss the issues and the measures for a specific area and also the best way to get the visions and the opinions of all the relevant stakeholders and of local populations�

Thursday / 16:00 – 17:00 Room: NeptuneCrossing borders in our way of working: Knowledge exchange and collaboration

Moderator: Camiel Meijneken, ProRail, Netherlands

Crossing borders between sender and recipient: Better communication and marketing for better wildlife corridors

Jan Guerke (Pro Natura, Switzerland)

In 2017 Pro Natura (Friends of the Earth Switzerland) started the campaign “Make way for wildlife!”� Our experience shows that practical projects are more likely to be successful if there is a master plan that includes the project itself as well as matching fundraising and communi-cation activities� Objectives : (1) Inspire other organisations to consider new ways to fund connectivity measures; (2) Support other organisations by providing them with a case study about the awareness-raising effects of political and educational projects� The revenue provides the financial basis for connec-tivity measures: purchase anti-tank obstacles and increase their value as wildlife corridors�

Monitoring together! Government and NGO monitoring arboreal crossings and underpasses on Costa Rican roads

Daniela Araya-Gamboa, Deiver Espino-za-Muñoz, Roberto Salom-Pérez (Panthera,

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Costa Rica); Juan Bonilla-Villalobos, Andrea Avila-Alfaro, Jesús Zamora-Hidalgo (Costa Rica Ministry of Transportation, Costa Rica)

In Costa Rica, development needs to be in balance with conservation� The roads are getting greener� The Ministry of transportations and Panthera started designing a monitoring protocol for arboreal crossings and underpasses� This has to be implemented as a mandatory feature in future projects� To test this methodology, we set up camera traps on arboreal crossings, underpasses, drainages, and in the forest on a new road� Through this joint monitoring, the Costa Rican government started to learn how to evaluate the use of infrastructure by wildlife and how to implement adjust-ments� Additionally, they learned to test the methodology for the monitoring protocol that will be implemented when building new roads in the country�

TRANSGREEN Project: An example of cross-border cooperation in the Carpathian Mountains

Václav Hlaváč (Nature Conservation Agency, Czech Republic); Hildegard Meyer (WWF International, Danube-Carpathian Programme, Austria)

The project TRANSGREEN co-funded by the ERDF aims at enhancing the safety and environmental-friendliness of road and rail networks developed in the Carpathian region along the Trans-Euro-pean Network of Transport (TEN-T)� The project focuses on 4 pilot areas in Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine� Amongst others a handbook on the harmonization of wildlife and traffic and catalogues of measures for the 4 pilot areas will be produced� Activ-ities being carried out in the Beskydy pilot area located in the border area of the Czech and Slovak Republic will be presented as case study for cross-border�

Interdisciplinary language barriers that impact on the implementation of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan

Aoífe Bernadette McAleenan, David Wood-ward, Phillip Millar (Ulster University, School of Architecture and Built Environment, UK)

Different disciplines have their own languages with their own terminologies that have specific meaning and inter-pretations, which are different from the meanings and understandings in the natural use of the same words and phrases� In the case of road verge wildlife maintenance within the United Kingdom, we have engineers and environmen-talists talking two different disciplinary languages, that can create confusion and lead to the misunderstanding of essential processes� This study aims to break this “language barrier”; therefore, creating a more precise understanding between the two disciplines and a united objective�

A cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary approach to improving management of trees as Green Infrastructure

Piotr Tyszko-Chmielowiec (Foundation for Sustainable Development, Poland)

Trees are an essential part of Europe’s green infrastructure in urban and rural landscapes� They maintain biodiversity as habitats and ecological corridors� However, trees are among the least appreciated elements, often taken for granted by both society and tree managers� Since 2009, the Roads for Nature programme has worked in Poland with people and institutions respon-sible for trees to improve their skills and support a network of grassroots activists� An international support network was created� The new LIFE+ project Trees for Europe’s Green Infrastructure wants to improve the role of trees as green infrastructure through generating and disseminating better management practices�

Turning scientific knowledge into official technical recommendations

Fernanda Zimmermann Teixeira (Graduate Program in Environmental Systems Analysis and Modelling, Federal University of Minas Gerais / Road and Railroad Ecology Group, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil); Larissa Donida Biasotto, Larissa Oliveira Gonçalves, Bibiana Terra Dasoler, Júlia Beduschi, Andreas Kindel (Road and Railroad Ecology Group, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul / Graduate Program in Ecology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil); Gabriela Schuck, Giulia Barbieri (Graduate Program in Ecology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil)

As a strategy to improve the effectiveness of the decision-making process in envi-ronmental licensing of roads and railroads, we have developed workshops in Brazil in the past four years involving academia, environmental managers, transportation agencies, and environmental consultants� These workshops resulted in the defini-tion of sampling protocols and guidelines for mortality surveys and monitoring of mitigation effectiveness in the contexts of roads and railroads�

Common ground: When road author-ities and community groups actually work together

Darryl Jones (Environmental Futures Re-search Institute, Griffith University, Australia)

A major new motorway upgrade in Australia threatened to lead to familiar conflicts between road authorities and community groups� Instead, the planning team took the initiative of inviting repre-sentatives of local community and envi-ronmental groups to for an independent reference group� This group was involved in all aspects of the design and concep-tualisation of the works, resulting in a significant number of innovative perme-ability measures� This current project represents one of the most ambitious landscape-level road ecology collabora-tions yet attempted�

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Thursday / 16:00 – 17:00 Room: SaturnMitigation projects and animal responses

Moderator: Marita Bötcher, Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, Germany

The behaviour of wild mammals living in the vicinity of railway tracks in the field and forest landscape mosaic

Karolina Danuta Jasińska, Dagny Krauze-Gryz, Joanna Werka (Department of Forest Zoology and Game Management, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland)

The study aimed to determine the behaviour of animals living in the vicinity of railway tracks� We looked at their behaviour in different situations: when the train was approaching and when no train was approaching, and what factors influenced that behaviour� The study discovered that mammals didn’t avoid railway tracks� The way they used the tracks (and their vicinity) depended on a given species� Season, time of day and moon phase influenced the way the animals used the railway� When a train would approach, animals would escape, become alarmed or show no reaction at all� Only the moon phases influenced animal reactions to the train�

The dispersal route of wolf Naya from Germany through The Netherlands into Belgium: Insight from GPS-GSM telemetry on activity patterns and barrier crossings

Norman Stier, Vendula Meißner-Hylanová (T.U. Dresden, Forstzoologie, AG Wildtier-forschung, Germany); Hugh A.H. Jansman, Dennis R. Lammertsma (Wageningen Environmental Research, Netherlands)

A female wolf, Naya, was fitted with a GPS-GSM collar to study her activity pattern, habitat use, and interaction with prey species� Her dispersal route from Lubteener Heide (Mecklenburg-Vorpom-mern, Germany), through The Nether-

lands, and into Flanders, Belgium, will be presented, focussing on barrier crossing�

Innovative approaches to open the Afsluitdijk for fish

Roef Mulder (Province Fryslân, De Nieuwe Afsluitdijk, Netherlands); Sophie Lauwaars (Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Man-agement, Netherlands)

The Afsluitdijk is a barrier between the Wadden Sea and Lake IJsselmeer� National and regional parties are working together on innovative solutions to restore this connection� In two joint pres-entations, we will present current and new measures to facilitate fish migration� Current measures are the fish-friendly operation of the discharge sluices and ship locks, and the fish passage for small fish near the province of North Holland� A new measure is the construction of a Fish Migration River consisting of an estuary, with natural tidal influences and brackish habitats�

Reevediep a new connection between the River IJssel and the bordering lakes

Arjan Otten (Province Overijssel, Netherlands)

More space for water is created in the Room for the River project IJsseldelta to control the risk of flooding in the Kamp-en-Zwolle region due to climate change� A combination of two measures is used: the deepening of the summer bed of the river IJssel and the construction of a river bypass (Reevediep), which connects the river IJssel with the adjacent lakes� In the Reevediep more than 350 hectares of new nature is created, containing a new reed marsh (Natura 2000 area Veluwer-andmeren) and habitat for protective fish species (Weatherfish), Eurasian water shrew, and pond bat�

Tracking glass eels

Martijn Schiphouwer, Sanne Ploegaert, Edo Goverse (RAVON, Netherlands)

Glass eel recruitment is monitored in large citizen science projects at more than 40 locations by over 150 volunteers in the coastal regions to contribute to trends, gain knowledge on the timing of migration and to prioritise fish migration measures at barriers� The migration efficiency of fish passages for glass eels has been poorly documented� In 2017 VIE-tags (Visible Implant Elastomer) in a mark-recapture set-up were used for the first time in the Netherlands� This research indicated that migration efficiency of the fish passage in Scheve-ningen was low and therefore additional measures should be taken�

WiConNET: A large-scale multimodal wildlife-vehicle-collision mitigation project

Andreas Schalk, Rainer Schalk (iPTE Traffic Solutions Ltd, Austria); Michael Aleksa, Klemens Schwieger (Austrian Instituet of Technology, Austria); Martin Forstner (WWN Forstner, Austria); Alexander Frötscher (AustriaTech, Austria)

Austria is a leader in development and deployment of WVC avoidance (WVC-A) systems� It has led to a broad base of installed WVC-A roadside devices� The Austrian institutions gained about 20 years of insight into the applicability and limitations of passive and active WVC-A systems� In 2017, the relevant stakeholders (the government, road, rail and highway operators, wildlife experts, industry, and research) teamed up to create the WiConNET project� The WiConNET project is a WVC research and development project� However, it also includes a test and certification laboratory for WVC equipment and deploys 16 large test sites all across Austria�

WiConNET-Test sites: Validation Test sites across Austria for of wildlife- vehicle-collision mitigation systems

Florian Saliger, Thomas Schuh, Bernd Stigger, Martin Forstner, Andreas Schalk

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(ÖBB-INFRA, Austria); Rupert Gartler (ASFINAG, Austria)

The WiConNET is an extensive Wild-life-Vehicle Collision Avoidance (WVC-A) research and deployment project launched by all relevant Austrian stake-holders� The project is deploying 16 large test sites across entire Austria to evaluate the efficiency of its advanced Wildlife-Vehicle Collision Avoidance (WVC-A) systems� The test sites have been carefully selected to reflect most of the typical wildlife and environmental chal-lenges in Austria, and to cover the oper-ator’s requirements� Five national road sites, six highway sites, and five railway sites have been chosen� The efficiency of the WVC-A systems will be validated by accident statistics, by observation of the wildlife behaviour and video monitoring�

Thursday / 16:00 – 17:00 Room: VenusDesigning and maintaining greener transportation infrastructure

Moderator: Marleen Moelants, Flemish Government, Belgium

Designing a ring road, a landscape or both?

Luc Vander Elst (Vlaamse Landmaat-schappij, Belgium)

In redesigning the ring road, the planning for a broader ring road has been going on for years now� However, no final decision has been made� Since the northern part of the ring road is located on a deep level of the landscape, there is an opportunity to lower the ring road and connect the landscape on both sides above the lower ringroad� On one side, there is a Nature 2000 area, and on the other side, there is a significant agricul-tural area� Connecting those two parts would benefit both nature, biodiversity, and people� Should we only focus at mobility or should we go for multifunc-tional solutions that benefit everyone?

Improving the ecological quality of secondary waterways using the standard approach ‘Sustainable Civil Engineering’

Dineke Mulderij (Province of Noord- Holland, Netherlands)

The Province of Noord-Holland signed both the Green Deal GWW 2�0 and the Green Deal Infra-nature� In these deals, parties commit themselves to implement a standard approach to improve the sustainability of infrastructural projects� In the province of Noord-Holland, the standard approach was used to improve the ecological quality of secondary waterways in some shore protection projects� The approach resulted in a wide variety of measures, from simple contractual demands to selection criteria� In conclusion, the approach offers a useful and systematic method to improve sustainability in shore protection projects� However, the approach should ideally commence in the project’s study stage�

System certification for eco-friendly materials constructing a greener transport infrastructure: A way to gain knowledge and enhance quality crossing borders between stakeholders

Lien van Besien (Department of Environ-ment & Spatial Development, Belgium)

A way to create an ideal playground where nature can develop hand in hand with transport infrastructure is to work with eco-friendly materials� How can we enhance the quality of these materials, their application, and the architecture’s choice? A market analysis defined what kind of eco-friendly materials are used� Determining factors in the quality of these ‘living’ materials were listed and combined with the expe-rience that cooperation between all different stakeholders is essential� These findings resulted in the development of an eco-technical material care system (NTMB-zorgsysteem)� Using it enhances the spreading of knowledge�

Plastic Bridges: New materials for the integrated design of landscape and infrastructure

Nina-Marie Lister (School of Urban + Regional Planning, Ryerson University, USA); Robert Ament, Matthew Bell (Western Transportation Institute, Montana State University, USA); Marta Brocki (Ecological Design Lab, Ryerson University, USA)

This presentation highlights outcomes from a CoLaboratory held in Bozeman, Montana co-hosted by Robert Ament (WTI, Montana State University) and Nina-Marie Lister (Ecological Design Lab, Ryerson University)� The CoLab tested opportunities and generated prototyp-ical designs for crossing infrastructure built using recycled plastics, which have been widely adopted in pedestrian and bicycling bridge applications� Experts in the disciplines of structural and civil engineering, wildlife ecology, urban planning, and landscape architecture and design identified existing opportunities and barriers, both procedural and design-based, to the uptake and widespread adoption of plastic bridges for wildlife by planning and transportation agencies�

Crossing the ecofence of the Sonian Forest: joint management and maintenance of infrastructure

Andreas Baele, Yoeri Bellemans (Agentschap voor Natuur en Bos, Belgium)

In this presentation, we give an overview of the realised infrastructure and the elaborated joint management plan after the Life + OZON project (2013-2018) in the Sonian Forest (Flanders / Belgium)�

Creating a simple solution for a complicated situation: Maintenance of a diverse eco-infrastructure network (Niel, Belgium)

Isolde Aelvoet (Dienst Duurzaam Milieu- en Natuurbeleid, Province of Antwerp, Belgium)

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A new 1�5 km fauna passage is being created: including an amphibian wall, exit step, bat cellar, and various types of tunnels and vegetation� The fragmented ownerships involved make it difficult to manage this project as a whole� The Province of Antwerp engages itself to bring all stakeholders together and work out a detailed management proposal that will bring continuity and unity in the short and long term� To do this, it will define all necessary management and maintenance work in explicit, easy-to-use management leaflets� It will also look for a suitable partner and method to guide and implement the unified approach�

Evaluation of vegetation management in verges of Dutch highways

Peter-Jan Keizer (Rijkswaterstaat, Nether-lands); Paul Boddeke (Bureau Waarden-burg, Netherlands)

Management of the roadside vegeta-tion of Dutch highways aims at – next to traffic and safety requirements – an increase of the botanical value� 1600 plots were sampled during 16 years with 4 years interval, in roadside forests, ditches, but mainly grasslands� Roadside forests have low botanical value� In grassland and ditches non-pioneer ruderal (tall grass) species increased, but rarer species, indicators of nutrient-poor dry grassland, small herbs, the proportion of “flowering herbs” and botanical value decreased� Main cause of this seems to be an inaccurate management practice in the roadside vegetation�

Implementation of dynamic wildlife warning systems and the use for specif-ically selected (small) animals

Gert Hamberg (Traffic 2000 / Prowild, Netherlands)

In general, wildlife vehicle-collision(WVC) mitigation measures at ground level crossings are mainly taken to protect passing traffic, and secondary for the protection of animals� We will provide

information about the possibilities and steps to take in the procedure to implement dynamic wildlife warning systems with the main purpose to protect specifically targeted species� We also compare different detection methods and how to use them in particular circum-stances� Choosing the right configuration will lower maintenance costs and makes the system function well�

Thursday / 16:00 – 17:00 Room: PlutoPlanning for biodiversity and green infrastructure development

Moderator: Yannick Autret, Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, France

Infranature – Infrastructural collabo-ration and solutions yield more biodi-versity

Albert Vliegenthart (Dutch Butterfly Conser-vation, Netherlands)

Infranature aims raising biodiversity in a wide spectrum of infrastructures� This initiative is supported by NGOs, national companies and governments who work together on sustainable solutions for infra-structural developments, e�g� business models, contracts and regulations� The impact can be regarded as an optimum form of nature conservation, since this requires a change of culture and where the projects are just reflecting good examples� After two years the first transi-tion to biodiversity-based infrastructure reveals; better known as Infranature!

Creating landscape connectivity along present transport infrastructure: It takes more than just constructing a wildlife-crossing

Claude Eugen Steck, Annette Kohnen (Frei-burger Institut für angewandte Tierökolo-gie, Germany)

Germany aims at reconnecting large-scale wildlife corridors by removing

current barrier effects imposed by the national highway network� We contrib-uted to this project by evaluating two wildlife corridors in southwestern Germany� Landscape analyses revealed that only in one case mitigation measures would yield a long-term functioning ecological corridor for certain key species� Communication of our results to different stakeholders increased the acceptance and thereby the future effec-tiveness of the passage� We highlight that focusing on barrier removal alone is not sufficient, but incorporating the human dimension and surrounding landscape is necessary to ensure the long-term func-tionality of wildlife corridors�

Migration study of large mammals at highways in Slovakia

Michal Králik, Marek Sekerčák (HBH projekt spol. s r.o, Slovakia); Tomáš Šikula (HBH projekt spol. s r.o, Czech Republic)

Our migration study of large mammals at highways in Slovakia is resolving the absence of a comprehensive base for the definition of corridors at a national level� In this study, we also recommend meas-urements to reduce the overall impact of transport on the superior road infrastruc-ture and the mortality of the observed species� The species we observed were: bear, wolf, lynx, wildcat, elk, deer, roe deer, wild boar, mouflon and fallow deer�

Inserting ecological connectivity issues and defining ecological corridors in the framework of developing the Strategy for Biodiversity of the Region of Western Macedonia in Greece

Lazaros Georgiadis, Virginia Avgoustina-ki, Panagiotis Kokinidis, Elias Mouratidis (Managing Authority of Region of Western Macedonia, Greece); Elena Tsikardani, Giannis Karagiannis (Development Agency of Western Macedonia, Greece)

Developing the Strategy for Biodiversity of the Region of Western Macedonia in Greece and towards supporting ecolog-

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ical connectivity in interregional-national and transboundary level, a mapping implemented based on a combination of green and grey infrastructure zones and securing the ecological coherence between the Natura 2000 areas� The results showed the recognition of five main ecological corridors, seven crossing points between ecological corridors and roads and two high sustainable interest areas with needs of conflict level evaluations in a more ecosystem and holistic approach and identification of complementary environmental impacts of multiple development sectors�

Designing ecological corridors network for brown bears in Romania

Ancuta Fedorca, Georgeta Ionescu, Mihai Fedorca, Marius Popa, Ramon Jurj (Nation-al Institute for Research and Development in Forestry “Marin Dracea”, Romania); Mihai Daniel Niță, Ovidiu Ionescu (Transil-vania University of Brasov, Romania)

While development of highway infra-structure is vital to country’s economic development and prosperity, long-term conservation of the biodiversity can be achieved only by implementing success-fully mitigation measures and by harmo-nizing the sectorial policies for develop-ment with conservation strategies� The brown bear requires the use of extensive habitats due to their large home ranges�

Integration of an ecosystem service approach in national highway-planning and development in Pakistan: Opportu-nities and challenges

Khalid Farooq Akbar (University of Lahore, Pakistan)

Pakistan is going through an extensive program of road building that may have negative implications for its landscapes, ecosystems, and biodiversity� However, if this program is planned and executed based on an ecosystem service approach, it can help in building a sustainable road transport network, protection of

landscapes, safer roads, environmental conservation, and prosperity of local communities� This needs ecological road infrastructure for the planning, building, and managing of road schemes� This paper describes the opportunities, benefits, and challenges to the incorpora-tion of an ecosystem service approach in road development in Pakistan�

Green infrastructure, ecosystem services and road network in Spain

Víctor Colino-Rabanal (Department of Animal Biology, Faculty of Environmental Science, University of Salamanca, Spain)

I examine the relationship between the elements of GI, ES and road networks on the mainland of Spain� GI elements are those that will be included in the future Spanish Strategy: protected areas, critical areas for birds and mammals, river and coastal public domains, agricultural areas of high natural value, etc� GI elements have on average lower road densities� However, some essential landscape connectors show high road densities, especially river valleys and their riparian forest associated� The areas with a predominance of provision services show higher densities than those related to the supply of regulation and cultural services�

Identification and development of habitat defragmentation priority projects, within the Green Infra-structure Programme of Catalonia

Jordi Solina, Sergi Rasero, Paula Bruna, Antoni Sorolla (Ministry of Territory and Sustainability, Government of Catalonia, Spain)

Within the framework of the Green Infrastructure Programme of Catalonia, the Directorate General of Environmental Policies and Nature has adopted the objective of restoring ecological connec-tors affected by terrestrial transport infra-structures� We carried out cartographic analysis and fieldwork to identify critical areas and to define required actions�

Over 40 areas were identified for their defragmentation, and proposals were prioritised� Examples of some developed defragmentation actions are exposed�

Thursday / 16:00 – 17:00 Room: JupiterWildlife crossing structures: Imple-mentation and innovation

Moderator: Victor Loehr, Rijkswater-staat, Netherlands

Evidence-based development of a commercial arboreal wildlife bridge to prevent habitat fragmentation and isolation

Sophie Hughes (Animex International, Unit-ed Kingdom); Ian White (People’s Trust for Endangered Species, United Kingdom)

The ever-increasing global transport network has the potential to fragment and isolate habitats for arboreal wildlife, prompting the need for evidence-based, effective mitigation solutions� Although many arboreal wildlife bridges have been installed in the UK in the past, most have proven to be expensive or likely ineffective, highlighting the requirement for further research into a cost-effective and proven design� Here we explore the development of an affordable arboreal bridge that has been proven, through dedicated research, to effectively enable a broad range of arboreal species to traverse habitats fragmented by construction projects around the world�

Next generation of arched wildlife overpass – Yoho National Park, Canada

Terry M. McGuire (McGuire Consulting, Canada)

Twenty years after the first wildlife overpass on the Trans-Canada Highway in Banff National Park was constructed, the seventh wildlife overpass within Canada’s national parks has been constructed� This arch structure, along with four wildlife highway underpass

LIGHTNING TALKS

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crossings represent a continuation of the largest highway mitigation complex in the world as Parks Canada embarks on widening a further 48 kilometers of highway through Yoho National Park, Canada� This presentation explores designing, tendering and constructing what may be the largest 33 meter single span precast concrete arch wildlife overpass in the world as well as a look ahead to other planned mitigations�

Adaptation of drainage culvert for a jaguar underpass in a highway, in Guanacaste, Costa Rica

Esther Pomareda, Esmeralda Arevalo, Araya Daniela (Vias Amigables con la Vida Silvestre, Costa Rica)

Costa Rica has been improving its roads� For example, expanding the Northern Interamerican Highway from two to four lanes� One month after it was in operation, a jaguar was killed on the road� This location coincides with a drainage culvert� Camera traps were at the site, and months later another jaguar was detected� Currently, the government is planning to install a fence to prevent further wildlife road kills� This fence will also make sure that the animals use the drainage culvert as an underpass� It is important to highlight the efforts of researchers and the government in the adaptation of road infrastructure for wildlife passages�

Can ecoducts contribute to the coherence of large forest habitat?

Gerard Smit, Dimitri Emond, Jeroen Brand-jes (Bureau Waardenburg BV, Netherlands)

In the Netherlands, vast forest and heath habitats are fragmented by dense and intensively used infrastructure� Ecoducts are constructed to reconnect habitats intersected by highways� The observa-tion of multiple species in the first year after construction shows that the habitat at the ecoducts is quickly colonised when animals are present in the

surrounding habitat� Ecoducts facilitate the movements of fauna over highways for a wide range of species, contributing to the connectivity of forest and heath habitat�

Sleeper Fauna Passage

Gideon Vreeman, Rien Veldsink (Movares, Netherlands)

Amphibians live in areas with high water levels� These species also have high demands when it comes to dimensions of fauna tubes� This makes it hard to lift railway barriers for amphibians� Movares engineered a solution to this problem� When steel sleepers with an H profile replace standard sleepers, a plastic fauna passage can be slid in� This makes it possible to construct a fauna passage in and under de ballast bed� The Sleeper Fauna Passage (SFP) is compliant with railway maintenance and can withstand some influences surrounding the railway (such as passing trains, vibrations, and weather influences)�

Comparing the use of railway under-passes by wildlife before and after widening the passages

Stefan M. Suter (Institute of Natural Re-source Sciences, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland); Barbara Karwowska (WildLife Solutions WLS.CH, Switzerland); Esther Schweizer (Schweizer - Lebensraum für Wildtiere SLW, Switzerland)

Size and dimension of wildlife passages are still object of discussion� In our study two railway underpasses have been widened from 5 m up to 12 m and 15 m respectively� We monitored people and wildlife in the underpasses during one year before and four years after widening� Before widening, both underpasses were accessible to animals and people� After widening, both underpasses were still freely accessible for wildlife but in one of the underpasses the gravel road was removed and the environment naturally restored� This passage officially closed

for people� The widening and the access limitation for people have had positive effects on the wildlife use of the under-passes�

Upgrading existing drainage culverts to eco-tunnels and bat hibernacula, a multifunctional and cost-effective method?

Ben Van der Wijden (Brussels Environment, Belgium)

Five new bat hibernacula were constructed in Brussels in the last decade� Four were constructed under the railroad embankment in the Sonian forest� The structures were intensively monitored� Three hibernacula attracted hibernating bats of two species� At least two hibernacula attract swarming bats in autumn� Results of temperature surveys indicate that there is a gradual variation in temperature in the labyrinth� Small animals up to the size of a fox frequently use the structures that double as a small eco-tunnel� Ecologically upgrading existing underground drainage struc-tures proved a successful and cost- effective strategy�

Thursday / 16:00 – 17:00 Room: PolluxNew directions in transportation ecology: What is on the horizon?

Moderator: Tony Sangwine, Highways England, UK

The ecology of radical transport infra-structure innovation

Carmen Aalbers, Bas Pedroli, Michiel van Eupen (Wageningen University and Re-search, Netherlands)

Dutch planning has developed from comprehensive and strong spatial visions (Randstad, Green Heart), toward network governance in which especially market parties play an essential role� There are growing concerns about the implications of this approach for the quality of life of

LIGHTNING TALKS

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Dutch citizens� Will Dutch cities remain appealing in the long term? Especially car transport has a significant impact on the quality of life� What if we would start looking for alternative transport infrastructures? What does the tran-sition theory teach us about change? Are companies and investors willing to take charge of the development of a better quality of life in Dutch cities, while preserving high levels of mobility?

Adapting the inf7253rastructure to the surrounding landscape

Lars Nilsson (Trogon Consulting, Sweden); Anders Sjölund (Swedish Transport Adminis-tration, Sweden); Jan Olof Helldin (Swedish Biodiversity Centre/SLU, Sweden)

The Swedish Transport Administra-tion (STA) has decided on standards for adaptation of infrastructure to the surrounding landscape� It is the result of a 20-year development, initially aimed at a system for targets and indicators for ecological and cultural heritage values� By knowledge from research programs such as Triekol and the road ecology program of CEDR, STA could produce standards for a “landscape-adapted road or railway”� These standards are now in place�

Can we plan and build a ‘nature-neutral’ road?

Lene Sørlie Heier, Astrid Brekke Skrin-do, Kjersti Wike Kronvall, Håvard Hjermstad-Sollerud (Norwegian Public Roads Administration, Climate and Environ-ment Assessment Section, Norway)

The Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communication has given the initiative to elucidate if it is possible to plan, build, operate and maintain roads that are ‘nature-neutral’� However, what does ‘nature-neutral’ mean? The presenta-tion will present our approach to this new term, what it may include and our suggestion for the way forward�

Ecological infrastructure joins recreational bicycle bridge

Ruud van Gorkom (Provincie Noord-Hol-land, Netherlands)

On September 7, 2018, the Bicycle Bridge and Nature Connection Nigtevecht will be opened officially� This project produces double defragmentation� A recreational bridge has been built over the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal; an inte-grated tendering, design, and realisation of a bicycle bridge with a nature connec-tion over a crowded canal, an unpassable ecological barrier� However, there has been significant local resistance, and after an intensive citizen participation process, the location of the bridge could not be determined until 2013� The work has been put out to tender and has been executed for Best Value�

Avenues connecting across borders

Katharina Dujesiefken (Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland, Germany)

With this presentation, three examples are demonstrated of how bridges can be built between authorities, politicians, residents, and activists to find ways to preserve this endangered landscape element� (1) The planting of a cross-border avenue connecting Germany and Poland lets politicians and authorities agree that tree-lined roads in European countries represent shared European cultural and natural heritage; (2) With an Avenue Preservation Programme we demonstrate how to secure and develop avenues under the requirements of modern mobility; (3) With a cycle tour along the German Avenue Road, we carry the idea of the Avenue Preservation Programme through Germany�

Status of road ecology research in Africa: what more do we need to know?

Wendy Collinson, Harriet Davies-Mostert, Lizanne Roxburgh (Endangered Wildlife Trust, South Africa); Rodney van der Ree

(Ecology and Infrastructure International, Australia)

The science of road ecology is well-de-veloped in North America, Europe and Australia, but is only in its infancy in Africa, which is likely to experience rapid infrastructure development in the future� In this study, we provide a review of the state of road ecology in Africa, to inves-tigate the scale, scope and geographic extent of current knowledge, and identify gaps and priorities for future research� We used Web of Science to undertake a systematic literature search, generating a database of 210 peer reviewed papers related to aspects of road ecology across 38 African countries between 1954 and 2016�

A vision of sustainable infrastructure by 2050: A project in secondary school with students in the age of fifteen and sixteen in Sweden

Amanda Sjölund, Stefan Olsson (Åkerö skola, Sweden)

Sustainable development is an area that extends across many topics and central content in the school curriculum� It is important that today’s schoolchildren have a broad foundation and knowledge of sustainable development as it is them who are our future� The aim with the project is to use infrastructure as an instrument to provide students with knowledge and understanding of sustainable development, and addition-ally to create their own vision of how infrastructure can develop in the future� The project is thematic about the topics technology, as well as biology with a focus on ecology and the impact on biodiversity�

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Tuesday / 16:30 - 18:00 Room: Dome, Ring 1 and 2

[1] No net loss of biodiversity: tools for stakeholders?

Agnes Mechin, Sylvain Pioch (CEFE - Univer-sité Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, France)

Following international agreements on the need to halt biodiversity loss, many countries have implemented an envi-ronmental policy to reduce the impact of land development on biodiversity in accordance with the objective of No Net Loss (NNL) of biodiversity� We propose to define the particularity of usability and social acceptability in the case of ecolog-ical equivalence assessment method for stakeholders� We rely on a user-centred design in which users actively participate at each step in the method� We make an experimental test of this approach to identify a way to bridge the gap between research and action�

[2] Reduce impacts of the linear infra-structures of terrestrial transport on the amphibian populations (AMPHILTe)

Alain Morand, Luc Chrétien (Centre d’études et d’expertises sur les risques, l’environ-nement, la mobilité et l’aménagement, France)

The road network is getting denser and acts as a barrier for the amphibians, isolating more and more populations as well as increasing the risk of road mortality with vehicles� Within the research program 2017 ITTECOP, Cerema was selected to construct a European project ‘AMPHILTe’ over several years with different partners� This applied project takes into account the expe-riences and skills from different and diverse backgrounds, gathers a group of various stakeholders (public and private; NGOs – naturalists and citizens -, research scientists, managers of protected area, infrastructure managers and road/transport planning experts)�

[3] Challenges in realizing fauna

passages

Aldo Hoogenboom, Femke van Schie (Movares, Netherlands)

This presentation will not only discuss the challenges that may occur in the daily practice of engineering small fauna passages, but also possible solutions� In addition, the presentation will offer an insight into Dutch procedures, which can be applied to small fauna passages underneath railways�

[4] The historical co-evolution of river infrastructure networks and biodi-versity: findings from the French-German Upper-Rhine region and the Austrian-German Danube region

Andreas Huber, Manon Pons (European Institute for Energy Research, Germany); Jean-Nicolas Beisel (Laboratoire Image Ville Environnement, France); Sebastian Weber, Carine Granier (EDF - Centre for Hydro Engi-neering, France)

We present results from an interdisci-plinary project, which investigates the co-occurrence of biodiversity changes and the expansion of river infrastructures� Our empirical work focuses on three cross-border sites along the Upper Rhine and the Middle Danube, strongly shaped by human activities� We assess the changes of fish, alluvial forests and macroinverte-brates and put them in relationship with the growing networks of infrastructures� Our understanding of river infrastruc-tures as collections of linked artefacts, organised in networks and nodes, will help us in identifying potential adaptation measures, which hold the potential of reconciling the restoration of biodiversity and the operation of infrastructures�

[5] The French railway: Determination of the ecological potential of the SNCF land property for ecologic valuation

Anne Guerrero, Corinne Roecklin, Aman-dine Orsini (SNCF Réseau, France)

SNCF is a significant property owner with large infrastructure verges and right of ways along more than 38,000 km of railroads� This land property is mainly dedicated to railroad installations� However, a significant part of those land reserves does not have a technical vocation� We should ask the following question: how can those verges and land reserves, directly managed by an infrastructure operator, be used for direct implementation mitigation measures for biodiversity or possible valuation in favour of biodiversity? That is why SNCF Réseau pilots an exploratory study to identify the ecological potentials of its land reserves�

[6] Developing sustainable road verge habitats in Ireland

Aoife McAleenan, David Woodward, Phillip Millar (Ulster University, School of the Built Environment, Northern Ireland)

Sustainable infrastructure is designing in a way as not to lessen economic, social, and ecological development� However, when considering sustainable infrastructure, the economic and social processes can outweigh the environ-mental processes� By promoting the need to focus on environmental sustainability for the good of nature and men, we can bring a balance to sustainable develop-ment�

[7] Green bridges versus increased fragmentation

Arthur Ebregt (Het Loo Royal Estate, Neth-erlands), Eric Klein Lebbink (National Forest Service, Netherlands)

Defragmentation of the Veluwe (Natura 2000-area) by green bridges has a positive impact on populations of mammals, insects and reptiles� Integrated into a network of ecological corridors, it serves various goals and organisms� Fragmentation by major roads is solved, but problems with traffic on secondary roads needs increased attention� A

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greener transport infrastructure needs to be developed and implemented for these roads� Reducing the number of secondary roads in combination with speed limits and night closures is an appealing option� This approach does not only apply for the Veluwe, but for many other great green areas in Europe as well�

[8] Implications of ecological barriers on cross-border transport between India and its neighbours

Avanth Gunturu (Shiv Nadar University, India)

India’s cross-border trade has been minimal due to the hostile relationship it shares with its neighbours and the geography� This paper deals with the latter� The geographical features that make South Asia a subcontinent, lie on the borders of India� This acts as a major impediment to developing cross-border transport systems� This work deals with the implications of geography on transport and vice-versa�

[9] Ecological effects of pipelines: A case study of the Bailadila-Visakhap-atnam iron ore slurry pipeline

Avanth Gunturu, Girish Agrawal (Depart-ment of Civil Engineering, Shiv Nadar University, India)

Pipelines are generally considered the least destructive mode of transportation due to the lack of significant visible envi-ronmental impact� However, pipelines have multiple long-term impacts, the most critical being socio-economic disruption, landscape fragmentation, and soil and water pollution� This paper presents a pilot study of a proposed methodology to conduct preliminary environmental impact studies of the Bailadila–Visakhapatnam iron ore slurry pipeline segments, running through inaccessible areas�

[10] Safety by nature: development of erosion resistant and species-rich river dyke vegetation through adapted management

Bart Vandevoorde, Erika Van den Bergh (Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Belgium); Piet Thys (De Vlaamse Waterweg, Belgium)

Dykes are constructed as a flood control measure� Nowadays, this network of dykes shows a wide range of vegetation types, erosion resistance, and above-ground biomass� We researched the relationship between vegetation patterns and abiotic conditions� Species-rich grassland and species-rich Arrhenatherum-grassland combine the best erosion resistance with low maintenance cost and high ecological value� From there, we proposed to design and management guidelines to optimise the combined flood control and ecolog-ical functions of the dykes under accept-able maintenance costs� These guidelines have then been spatially specified in a proposed management plan for the dykes�

[11] Complementary use of statistics and simulations for assessing incident-risk with large wild mammals on a 3,500 km railway

Catherine de Roincé, Jérémie Cornuau, Syl-vain Moulherat (TerrOïko, France); Sébast-ien Maubon (SNCF Réseau, France)

From 2005 to 2016, in the Southwestern part of the French railway (3,500 km long), train incidents (wanderings and collisions) with large mammals have sharply increased� SNCF réseau has ordered TerrOïko to develop an analysis method including crossing data on the location of the incidents reported by the drivers and demographic and displace-ment simulated data of large mammals (SimOïko simulator) to map incidents hotspots� 85 hotspots were identified, making it possible to reduce the fine-scale investigations at 27% of the total network�

[12] Roadside Grass Collection: benefits and impacts on vegetation management

Christophe Pineau (Cerema Ouest, France); Isabelle Zdanevitch (INERIS, France); Léa Duffo (AILE, France)

In France, different maintenances of roadsides are implemented� In recent years, new types of equip-ment were built for mowing the verge and grass collection� Their aim is notably to generate renewa-ble energy by integra-tion of the residues into biogas plants� It was relevant to assess the benefits and limits of these new management processes to compare them with tradi-tional mowing� Therefore, an experi-mental monitoring protocol (Carmen) has been implemented on verges since 2015 to study the impact of each new mowing method on vegetation and road manage-ment (costs, pollution, bio-diversity, etc�)�

[13] Are movements across roads and their timing linked to the traffic load in the Red Deer?

Claude Fischer, Laurent Huber (University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland, Switzerland)

Traffic load and the timing of traffic peaks are likely to influence the fragmentation impact of roads as well as on the crossing behavior of animal species� Fifteen Red Deers were fitted with GPS collars to assess how regularly they would cross a road subjected to heavy traffic and if there was a temporal pattern in the timing of these crossings� Results showed that such a pattern was observable and that it linked to traffic load intensity�

[14] Biodiversity and wildfire prevention at Infra Transport Routes

Constantijn Kok (Safety region North- and East Gelderland, Netherlands)

Can we stop an uncontrolled wildfire? In the Netherlands, wildfires are an underes-


39

timated risk� The risk does not only apply to the large concentration of residential and recreational areas but should also be applied to the infrastructure that has been built crossing a nature reserve� Transport movements in highway and railway routes, among other things, increase the chance of the occurrence of a wildfire� The natural compartment borders often include broadleaved belts and thus form a natural stop line where a wildfire is supposed to stop� The aim is not only preventing wildfires but also increasing biodiversity and protecting vulnerable nature�

[15] U.S. Forest Service online Drought and Climate Galleries

Cynthia West, Dixie Porter, Erik Johnson, Nathan Walker (USDA Forest Service Office of Sustainability and Climate, USA)

In 2017, the USDA Forest Service developed online Drought and Climate Galleries to support environmental analysis of the risks and impacts from increasing temperature and drought� The Galleries include maps, tools, GIS layers, fact sheets, and other resources for natural resource specialists, managers, planners, GIS practitioners, and the public�

[16] WWW.ECOLOGICAL-NETWORK.EU and WWW.LEBENSRAUMVERNETZUNG.AT

Daniel Leissing, Horst Leitner (Büro für Wildökologie und Forstwirtschaft, Austria); Roland Grillmayer, Gebhard Banko (Um-weltbundesamt GmbH, Austria)

www�ecological-network�eu / www�lebensraumvernetzung�at is an online information portal provided by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Sustainability and Tourism which serves to provide existing geodata and further informa-tion on ecological networks and green infrastructure�

[17] Ecological permeability along and across traffic routes in an intermodal transport environment

Daniel S. Esser, Andreas Sundermeier (Ger-man Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG), Germany); Karl-Otto Nagel, Pia Bartels (Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt), Germany); Marion Leiblein-Wild (Federal Railway Authority (EBA), Germany)

We conducted a landscape-scale biodiversity study along an intermodal transport infrastructure network consisting of federal roads, railway lines, and waterways in a typical German low mountain landscape� The potential role of traffic-adjacent green corridors for the conservation of biodiversity was investigated� Here, we present the results of our analysis of intermodal similarity of the vegetation along transportation infrastructure� Our results emphasise the importance of intermodal deci-sion-making to maximise the efficiency of biodiversity promoting measures both in planning and maintenance of the whole transport infrastructure system�

[18] Eco-ducts in Dutch Dunes: Practical tips for construction work!

Dimitri Emond, Gerard Smit (Bureau Waardenburg, Netherlands)

Two green bridges have been built to improve the coherence within the dunes of Zuid-Kennemerland (Netherlands), a third green bridge is under construc-tion� The green bridges facilitate the movement of animals within a unique Dutch dune landscape� Construction workers have to account for the local presence of protected species, such as sand lizards and natterjacks� The design of the green bridges is targeted at the development of the Natura 2000 habitat Grey dunes and a good connection with the available habitat in the direct surroundings� The poster shows practical measures for the design and construc-tion, that function as examples for future projects�

[19] Evaluating the effectiveness of a wildlife overpass in restoring gene flow in a slow worm population

Edgar A. van der Grift, Arjen de Groot, Fabrice G.W.A. Ottburg, Hugh A.H. Jans-man, Ivo Laros (Wageningen Environmen-tal Research, Wageningen University and Research, Netherlands)

We studied the genetic structure of a slow worm population that is bisected by a motorway and railroad� We discovered that the motorway had been a genetic barrier; individuals from the western and eastern road verges belong to different genetic clusters� Individuals that were found on a recently constructed wildlife overpass seem to originate from the genetic cluster on the western side of the transport barriers� The genetic differences between the populations will allow for evaluating gene flow after slow worms have had sufficient time to reach and accept the overpass� Therefore, the genetic sampling will be repeated in 2020�

[20] Knotweed: a worldwide problem

Ellen Boontje (ProRail, Netherlands); Flor-ence van den Berg (IV-Infra, Netherlands)

The poster shows the threats of knotweed, but also the opportunities to treat it� It hopefully makes people more aware, that the contamination with knotweed should be taken care of!

[21] Road and ecological network inter-action: an analysis of ungulate road accident in the Province of Turin (Italy)

Eloisa Massobrio, Paolo Tizzani (Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy)

The expansion of the road network and the rise in vehicular traffic can cause interruptions of the ecological network, undermining its function� Consequently, in the last years, a significant increase in collisions with wildlife species has been registered, representing one of the most


40

significant causes of biodiversity decline due to human activity� In this study we evaluated the consequences of the road network expansion on the ecolog-ical connectivity in Province of Turin (Piedmont, Italy), using the distribution of road accidents with wild ungulates as an index to identify critical areas�

[22] Coordinated planning of connec-tivity for wildlife at a bundled motorway–railway corridor in Sweden

Kajsa Nilsson, Erik Dalman (Swedish Trans-port Administration, Sweden); Christoffer Ekström (Stockholm University / WSP, Swe-den); Jan Olof Helldin (Calluna AB / Swedish Biodiversity Center, SLU, Sweden)

The case of the East link railway line and the E4 motorway in Sweden illustrates the importance of coordinating wildlife connectivity planning across different infrastructures that are bundled together� In this presentation, we describe the planning approach and its output and point out some limitations of coordinated planning of bundled infrastructures�

[23] Evaluation of wildlife mortality and the effectiveness of animal under-passes in the Northern inter-American road, section Cañas-Liberia, Costa Rica

Esmeralda Arévalo-Huezo (Universidad Ulatina de Costa Rica-VAVS, Costa Rica); Alejandra Robledo-Bonilla (Asociación Or-nitologia de Costa Rica, Costa Rica); Esther Pomareda-García (Centro de Rescate Las Pumas, Costa Rica); Daniela Araya-Gam-boa (Panthera Costa Rica, Costa Rica)

The road infrastructure provides an essential basis for the proper functioning of all national economies� Therefore, they are considered as works that represent a wide range of economic and social benefits for the regions� These road projects allow the development of a population that is in constant growth with high demands� In addition, they allow improving the quality of life of the inhabitants� However, roads cause

large negative impacts on the environ-ment� Currently, roads are considered an important cause of anthropogenic disturbance and mortality of wildlife� The physical presence of roads creates new habitats in their vicinity, which can become ecological traps� They can also affect the biological and ecological processes of riparian systems as well as disrupting natural habitats and ecological processes�

[24] Bats overpasses, an insufficient solution to funnel bats crossing the road

Fabien Claireau (National Museum of Natural History, Center for Ecology and Conservation Sciences, France / Univer-sity of Greifswald, Zoology Institute and Museum, Germany / Naturalia environ-nement, France); Yves Bas, Jean-François Julien (National Museum of Natural History, Center for Ecology and Conservation Sciences, France); Sébastien J. Puechmaille (University of Greifswald, Zoology Institute and Museum, Germany); Benjamin Allegrini (Naturalia environnement, France); Chris-tian Kerbiriou (National Museum of Natural History, Center for Ecology and Conserva-tion Sciences / Biological Marine Station, France)

Roads have many negative effects on wildlife, including the prominent role as habitat fragmentation� Bats overpasses are among these proposed improve-ments intended to reduce the fragmen-tation� We studied three bats overpasses in France and developed an innovative method to characterize bat crossings� Our sampling design involved six pairs of acoustics recorders disposed on both sides of road� Our results suggest that crossings are more numerous at the overpass� However, the proportion of bat crossings in the commuting route remain of the same magnitude than crossings at the overpass, suggesting that overpasses do not fulfil the function of funnelling bats crossings�

[25] No effects of wildlife warning reflectors

Falko Brieger, Robert Hagen, Max Kröschel, Martin Strein, Rudi Suchant (Division of Wildlife Ecology, Forest Research Institute of Baden-Württemberg, Germany)

The comprehensive behavioural study demonstrates that wildlife warning reflectors are not a suitable preventive device for reducing vehicle-wildlife accidents� Blue semicircle reflectors did not cause changes neither regarding behavioural alteration of roe deer at the roadside in the presence of traffic nor in the long term concerning the frequency of road crossings in GPS-collared roe deer� In enclosures under controlled conditions roe deer exhibited the same behavioural patterns compared to roe deer close to roads� These results confirmed those of the field experiment� In addition, feeding experiments did show that blue is not a “warning color” for roe deer�

[26] A push for growth, a pull on the environment: Brazil’s highway plans and their environmental impact

Trevor Ray Tisler, Fernanda Zimmermann Teixeira, Rodrigo Affonso de Albuquerque Nóbrega (Institute of Geosciences – Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil)

Brazil’s current federal National Road System (SNV), built and planned segments, represents a failure in acknowledging the country’s ecolog-ical resources and areas of conserva-tion concern� However, given that the SNV is still undeveloped compared to developed country standards, Brazil has an opportunity to rethink its SNV and avoid making significant ecological blunders� Using geospatial data such as legally protected areas, official priority conservation areas, land cover classifi-cation, and human population density both highways and geographic areas posing environmental concern were identified� Preliminary results show that


41

approximately 44% of the SNV, built and planned, are in areas of significant ecological concern�

[27] How long should we survey road kills before taking action?

Júlia Beduschi, Bibiana Terra Dasoler, Larissa Oliveira Gonçalves, Andreas Kindel (Graduate Program in Ecology of Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil); Fernanda Zimmermann Teixeira (Graduate Program in Environmental Systems Analysis and Modelling of Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil); Ricardo Miranda Braga, Franciane Almeida (Sinhá Laurinha Non-Governmental Organization, Brazil)

Using thirteen years of road kill data, we analysed how long surveys should be carried out before applying mitigation measures, for two animal groups with different locomotion types� We quanti-fied the percentage of identified hotspots in the first year that was also present in the complete dataset and the percentage of new hotspots that emerged during thirteen years of accumulated data� We verified that more than 70% of all hotspots were already present in the first year of survey, indicating that mitigation measures could be applied based on a short-term survey, at least within similar landscape contexts and survey proce-dures�

[28] Multiple-criteria analysis for the definition of viability corridors for railroad expansion

Rodrigo A.A. Nobrega, Fernanda Z. Teixeira, Trevor R. Tisler, Icaro N. Souza, Marlon Fer-nandes, Adriana M. Costa, Ursula Ruchkys, Marcilla S. Pena (Graduate Program in Analysis and Modeling of Environmental Systems, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil); Fernanda F. Faria, Cecilia C. Almeida (VLI Logística, Brazil)

Predicting possible environmental impacts has the potential to anticipate mitigation solutions that minimise damages and costs in greener transport

infrastructure projects� We present the example of a partnership between the Federal University of Minas Gerais and the company VLI Logistica to improve the planning of the railroad expansion� We studied the environmental viability of a planned railroad with a multiple-criteria analysis� Different spatial layers were overlaid and integrated into this process and were modelled with decision rules based on the interpretation of legal regu-lations, on knowledge of environmental constraints, and socioeconomic, logistic, and market attractors�

[29] Integrating Multiple Methods for Tracking Shoreline Change Resulting from Sea Level Rise

Fraser M. Shilling (Road Ecology Center, Department of Environmental Science & Policy, University of California, USA); Erik Grijalva (Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of California, USA); Amy Collins (Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology, University of California, USA); Mui Lay, Susan Ustin (Land Air and Water Resources, University of Cal-ifornia, USA); Edwin Grosholz (Department of Environmental Science & Policy, Univer-sity of California, USA); Kimberly Andrews (Savannah River Ecology Lab, Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, USA)

Shoreline habitats and infrastructure are being negatively affected by sea level rise (SLR) and extreme events� There is very little or no current information available to shoreline agencies on fine temporal and spatial scale changes in shoreline ecosystems and infrastructure in response to SLR� We describe four inter-acting methods to monitor shoreline and infrastructure changes in response to SLR across a wide range of time and space scales� These techniques fill a critical gap in SLR assessment and can be used to validate commonly-used models of SLR threats to coastal systems and inform transportation decision-makers�

[30] Parkway A2: An integrated approach to nature and landscape

Gertjan Jobse, Reinoud Kleijberg (Arcadis, Netherlands); Jos Huisman (Rijkswaterstaat, Netherlands)

The case of the project A2 Het Vonderen – Kerensheide in the Province of Limburg in the Netherlands, is an example of an inte-grated approach to nature and landscape� By applying new standards, a highway that has been a significant barrier for decades will become part of the regional ecological and landscape network� Ecological principles, engineering and landscape architecture, are combined in designing mitigation works, using a parkway approach� The parkway functions as an ecological corridor that is in turn part of a larger environmental network� Barriers are reduced by the construction of two large wildlife passages�

[31] Evaluation of mitigation measures for a high-speed railway line with a strong amphibian challenge

Guillaume Testud, Dorothée Labarraque (Egis Structures et Environnement / PSL University, UMR 5175 CEFE, EPHE, Biogéog-raphie et Écologie des vertébrés, France) ; Claude Miaud (PSL University, Biogéogra-phie et Écologie des vertébrés, France)

To evaluate the efficiency of amphib-ians’ mitigation measures, a monitoring program was implemented along a French high-speed railway� Several amphibian species were marked with PIT-tag to measure: the use of wildlife crossing structures, and the population functioning in the newly created ponds’ network on both sides of the railway line� The crossing behaviour was studied with homing experiments, with marked indi-viduals released in tunnels equipped with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) antennas� The study aims at testing the effectiveness of the mitigation measures, to assess the long-term amphibian community viability in fragmented landscape�


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[32] Decision support tool for tidal river bank management: Towards a more sustainable riverbank protection

Gunther Van Ryckegem, Alexander Van Braeckel, Erika Van den Bergh (Research In-stitute for Nature and Forest, Belgium); Piet Thys (The Flemish Waterway, Belgium)

A decision support tool was developed for bank protection in the estuarine river the Sea Scheldt (Belgium)� Based on a set of criteria for different types of bank protection guaranteeing safety, safeguarding erosion-sensitive marshes and allowing natural tidal marshes to evolve, a complete bank protection map is compiled through automation in a geographical information system (ArcGIS)�

[33] Ecology in Practice: Improving infrastructure habitats along roads (EPIC ROADS) - A new CEDR project

Hans Martin Hanslin, Eveliina Kallioniemi, Johannes Kollmann, Annette K. Bär, Line Jo-hansen, Knut Anders Hovstad (Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Norway); Jörgen Wissman, Tommy Lennartsson (Swedish Biodiversity Centre, Sweden); Jan Christian Habel (Technische Universität München, Germany); Marcello D’Amico, Silvia Lacorte (Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, Spain)

A new CEDR funded project aims to provide a knowledge base and guide-lines for improved construction and maintenance of European transport infrastructure based on praxis-oriented knowledge syntheses� The EPIC ROADS project targets key questions on how HTI can promote biodiversity, ecosystem services and habitat connectivity in the landscape, as well as assessing potential negative effects related to HTI manage-ment and conditions� The approach is based on quantitative surveys of scientific studies and experience-based informa-tion across Europe, development and testing of a HTI classification system, and modelling of how landscape connectivity

for different organism groups is affected by roadside characteristics�

[34] The defragmentation programme for the provincial road network in the Province of Noord-Brabant (The Netherlands)

Hans van Zandvoort (Provincie Noord-Bra-bant, Netherlands)

The province of Noord-Brabant (The Netherlands) started a defragmenta-tion-programme for the provincial road network to solve the problem of habitat fragmentation due to transport infra-structure� Between 2001 and 2008, the province of Noord-Brabant has elimi-nated 216 bottlenecks� The approach resulted in a total of 385 different fauna facilities crossing the provincial roads�

[35] Small links make great chains: how imposed local eco-measures trigger an entire hinterland (Rupelstreek, Belgium)

Isolde Aelvoet (Dienst Duurzaam Milieu- en Natuurbeleid, Belgium)

Imposed local eco-measures trigger an entire hinterland (Rupelstreek, Belgium) to work on a large-scale defragmentation network� The poster gives an overview of all defragmentation initiatives and involved parties, ongoing studies, other opportunities, and missing links in the Rupelstreek�

[36] Permeability of roads for wildlife in the cross-border area Beskydy - Kysuce

Ivo Dostál, Josef Svoboda, Jiří Jedlička, Marek Havlíček (Transport Research Centre, Czech Republic)

The permeability of 1st and 2nd class roads was analysed in 38 locations distributed over the model area covering cross-border region between the Czech and Slovak Republic� The evaluation was based on traffic intensity patterns over

the time periods with emphasis on night time� The general results confirmed that 1st class roads included in European system have very limited permeability while other roads are more or less permeable for the major part of the night and with intensity around 1,500 vehicles per day even during the daytime�

[37] Dispersal potential of badgers and the importance of badger tunnels

Jaap L. Mulder (Bureau Mulder-natuurli-jk, Netherlands); Nico Jonker (Provincie Noord-Holland, Netherlands)

Badgers living along highway A27 near Hilversum, the Netherlands, were studied with GPS-collars� A total of 16 badgers were followed with such collars� Badgers lived in group territories on both sides of the highway� Sometimes badgers made excursions from their own territory, visiting neighbouring territories or making long exploratory trips� Such long trips illustrate the dispersal capacity of the badger, which is a conservative, sedentary species� Badger tunnels under highways, lower grade roads and railways allow the badgers to safely reach new habitat or other badger populations, thus securing gene flow�

[38] Online user-friendly management plans at a wide scale


An output of the LIFE Elia-RTE project is an open-source web platform containing useful documents for the future manage-ment of natural habitats, providing interactive web maps, the timing, and the description of management plans for 460 hectares of the right-of-way of the high voltage network� This tool allows a dynamic, comprehensive, and illustrated presentation of our achievements and is accessible for each of the vegetation management stakeholders as well as technicians of the operator company� The content contains databases that can be updated regularly�


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[39] Measuring bat activity in forest power lines right-of-ways

Jean-François Godeau (EcoFirst, Belgium)

A standardised monitoring of bats was set up in the context of forests right-of-ways of the high-voltage network� We found a variable but locally significant hunting activity� We could differentiate the usage of the R-O-W between hunting and travelling by analysing the types of ultrasound signals� Some rare species, targeted by the EU directives have been observed, pointing out the importance of open areas within forests� We propose new vegetation management strategies that can be implemented to increase the value of forest habitats for bats� The analysis process is developed with an open source environment to stimulate the sharing of experiences�

[40] Convincing significant indus-tries: A case study on the set up of a cost-benefit analysis and communi-cation tools under the high-voltage network


We have developed solutions for operators that ensure electricity supplying, preventing trees to touch the cables by saving money and increasing biodiversity� A cost-benefit analysis performed on actual data states that alternative methods of vegetation management in forests were (1�4 to 3�9 times on thirty years) cheaper than traditional ones� Since our conclusions were based on actual implementations on sites, we had examples to share with operators of other countries who provided inspiring feedback as well� The communication strategy of the LIFE Elia-RTE project allowed the exchange of seventeen companies and resulted in many meetings throughout Europe and farther�

[41] A six-lifestyle grid to interpret cumulatively (diffuse) impacts of high-speed railways (HSR) on wildlife-relationships (organism inter-actions / population-to-individual links)

Jean-Marc Fourès, Pierre Pech (Paris 1 Pan-theon-Sorbonne University, France)

Land transport infrastructures (LTI) impact biodiversity throughout their life� Strategic and scientific studies show three significant effects at a fine scale (road kill; barrier-effects; pollutions), while models show diffusion of direct, indirect, induced and cumulated effects� At a large scale, landuse-rolling looks poorly affected by LTIs, whereas these indisputably feed biodiversity-loss� Addi-tionally, we propose to show their cumu-lative effects on wildlife with a six-po-tential-life-interactions background plus two diffuse series of criteria: organism interactions (inter- / intra-specific) and population-organism links (‘learning’-pe-riods / lifetime), to identify what groups and species are most at risk around the recently constructed Bretagne – Pays-de-la-Loire High-speed railway (BPL-HSR)�

[42] Successful implementation of ecological measures in road construction: From burden to added value

Jeroen Mos (Combinatie Buitenring, Neth-erlands)

The implementation of ecological measures in a project organisation for the construction of a 26km ring road, resulted in less planning risks and failure costs, effective minimization of the impact on protected species and areas, contribution to a positive image of the organisation, support of environmental stakeholders and local communities and a more than satisfied client� Critical factors for success: proactive ‘hands-on’ experienced ecological support on all levels in the project organization, taking time to invest, involvement, respect and

recognize different interests within the organization, clear overall communica-tion skills, sharing ecological knowledge and enthusiasm�

[43] How river lampreys deal with the weirs, locks and fish passes in the fragmented river Scheldt, Belgium

David Buysse, Jeroen Van Wichelen, Lore Vandamme, Ans Mouton, Johan Coeck (INBO – Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Belgium)

In the highly fragmented cross border River Scheldt restoration actions are undertaken, such as the building of nature-like bypasses� In 2011 and 2012 forty-one adult river lamprey were followed during their upstream migration in the tidal and/or non-tidal part of the river using acoustic telemetry (Vemco)� The migration patterns in the river catchment and their behaviour at a tidal barrier, lock-weir complexes and fish bypasses (passage timing and delay) show that the disrupted water manage-ment of the river and in consequence of its barriers and bypasses are the key to (un)successful spawning migration in the catchment�

[44] valuation of green infrastructure along canals as aquatic habitat for fish populations

Sophie Vermeersch, Raf Baeyens, Nico De Maerteleire, Emilie Gelaude, Ans Mou-ton, Sébastien Pieters, Karen Robbere-chts, Jeroen Van Wichelen, Johan Coeck (Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), Belgium)

Ecological bank protection techniques are increasingly implemented in Flanders to achieve the objectives of the Water Framework Directive� In this study we evaluated the suitability of the resulting shallow water zones along the banks of canals as aquatic habitat for fish commu-nities, showing their importance for the survival of sensitive fish species� As such, a more comprehensive applica-


44

tion of green infrastructure should be considered to enhance the biodiversity in heavily modified and artificial waterways in Flanders�

[45] Modelling wildlife road kill hotspots in Flanders using citizen science data and surrounding landscape characteristics

Joris Everaert, Dirk Maes, Koen Van Den Berge, Frank Huysentruyt, Jan Gouwy, Jim Casaer, Ivy Jansen, Carine Wils, Toon Van Daele, Jeroen De Reu (Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Belgium)

We modelled wildlife road kill hotspots in Flanders using available road kill obser-vations and the surrounding landscape characteristics� We will use the final results of the model to update current guidelines and tools for road kill mitiga-tion�

[46] Evaluating the Egnatia Highway as case study of environmental policy on transport development towards securing ecological connectivity for wildlife in Greece

Lazaros Georgiadis (IENE, Sweden); Niki Voumvoulaki (Egnatia Odos SA, Greece)

The harmonized “grey” - “green” infra-structure coexistence is of tremendous importance in a developing world� Egnatia Odos SA and IENE evaluate the Egnatia Motorway with its Vertical Axes in Greece as such a case� The lessons extracted from its planning, construc-tion and operation in the last twenty years can be used in order to shape a roadmap of recommendations for policy and applied biodiversity conservation on ecological connectivity� This case designates a framework of factors that need to be taken into account when planning transportation projects, such as the dynamics of the wildlife species’ populations and especially their potential increase�

[47] Long-term studies of the impact of WVA on rare mammal species, advised in education and planning

Linas Balčiauskas, Jos Stratford, Laima Balčiauskienė (Nature Research Centre, Lithuania)

Officially registered wildlife-vehicle accidents focus on economic and human safety issues, not showing the real impact on mammal diversity and populations� We show different results through 11 years of observations of unregistered WVA across Lithuania and four years of constant monitoring on one road, emphasizing the impact on threatened or rare mammal species� We propose changes in WVA evaluation, involving citizen science activity and using road monitoring and long-term observation data in the planning of the road safety infrastructure, with the European bison and Eurasian otter as flagship species�

[48] Kill the killer

Magnus Per Anders Sjölund(Väg och Miljö AB, Sweden); David Brobäck (Trafikverket, Sweden)

The roadside spread of invasive species is a menace to biodiversity, both on a local and on a landscape level� Garden lupin (Lupinus polyphyllus) is among these species, aggressively spreading across large parts of Europe� Therefore, we need easy methods to put the proliferation of garden lupin to a halt, making this a critical study� Lime may be a solution since the species indicates to be a calcifuge� By using lime to raise the pH levels in the roadside soils, we hope to establish a level where regrowth of garden lupin is efficiently reduced�

[49] Artificial nighttime lighting influ-ences the use of wildlife crossing structures by insectivorous bats in Southeast Australia

Manisha Bhardwaj (University of Mel-bourne, Australia / SLU, Sweden); Kylie

Soanes (School of EcoSystems and Forest Sciences, University of Melbourne, Austral-ia); Jose Lahoz-Monfort (Quantitative and Applied Ecology Group, School of BioScienc-es, University of Melbourne, Australia); Lindy Lumsden (Wildlife Ecology, Arthur Rylah Institute - Department of Environ-ment, Land, Water & Planning, Australia); Rodney van der Ree (Ecology and Infra-structure International, Australia)

In this study, we evaluated the impact of light on structure use by insectivorous bats, using a before-during-after-con-trol-impact experiment� We monitored the level of bat activity under and above underpass bridges and culverts along a major freeway in Victoria, Australia� When lights were introduced, bat activity was lower under the structures but higher above the structures� This suggests that bats actively avoided the lit passageway, even if that meant potentially accessing ‘unsafe’ habitat such as a roadway� Where possible, lighting should be avoided around critical bat habitat and in crossing structures actively used by bats�

[50] What are we not seeing? Impacts of a short and narrow road on wildlife

Marcelo Magioli, Alex Bovo, Fernanda Abra, Renata Miotto, Victor Andrade, Adriana Nascimento, Maísa Martins, Katia Ferraz (Laboratório de Ecologia, Manejo e Conservação de Fauna Silvestre (LEMaC) - ESALQ/USP, Brazil); Marcel Huijser (Western Transportation Institute, Montana State University, USA)

We collected roadkill data along CPM road from 2010-2016, and we estimated roadkill variation along SP-348 by dividing the road into sections of 1, 5 and 10 km, and compared roadkill numbers and variation between sections, and roads� The average roadkill numbers in SP-348 was similar between different sections, but the variation number per kilometre decreased with longer sections� Spatial scale alone explained the high roadkill rate in CPM road when compared to SP-348� Therefore,


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even short and narrow roads can cause substantial damage to wildlife, and our results stress the need to look at these types of roads carefully�

[51] Scaling the importance of Roadless Areas to improve overall connectivity in Natura 2000 network

Maria Zomeni (School of Pure and Applied Sciences, Open University of Cyprus, Cy-prus); Maria Psaralexi, Nefta-Eleftheria Votsi (Department of Ecology, School of Biology, Aristotle University, Greece)

We propose a method which makes use of existing graph-based software and habitat availability metrics, to evaluate the synergistic potential of individual Roadless Areas (RAs) for improving the overall connectivity of Natura 2000� We examine study areas in Greece, Estonia and France and demonstrate which RAs have the potential to act as connecting elements (new potential habitat sites, links or stepping stones) among protected areas, improving overall connectivity in Natura 2000� The proposed method can be used as a tool to support decision-making in landscape planning and biodiversity conservation, in various geographical contexts and under different conserva-tion goals�

[52] The French railway: Between ecological transparency and security of railway circulations

Marine Le Lay (SNCF Réseau, France)

The collisions with wildlife cause approx-imately 200,000 minutes lost per year� It has an impact on both infrastructure and trains, and travellers� The classic lines are generally not enclosed, that guarantees certain ecological transpar-ency� However, every autumn, a peak of collisions is observed� The simulta-neity of the movement of animals and humans forms a logical explanation for this� To mitigate it, SNCF RESEAU imagines solutions adapted to every

case: a fence or not, crossed landscapes, configuration, and width of railways premises� According to these parame-ters, new arrangements or requalifica-tion of existing bridges, best practices of maintenance, implementation of fauna regulators are set up�

[53] Graffiti Art Ecoduct Groenendaal

Marleen Moelants, Yoeri Bellemans, Andre-as Baele (Flemish Government, Agency for Roads and Traffic, Belgium)

Tackling a problem and turning it into added value is what happened in this case� 600 meter of concrete canvas was commissioned to a graffiti artist and turned into a giant signboard for nature conservation�

[54] Migration permeability assessment of selected linear transport infrastructure in the Eastern part of the Czech Republic

Martin Strnad (Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic, Department of species conservation, Czech Republic); Ivo Dostal (Transport Research Centre, Czech Republic)

Wildlife passages identification and assessment of their actual permeability for wildlife have been done in the scope of project DTP1-187-3�1 TRANS-GREEN, funded by Interreg Danube Transnational Programme� The pilot study area encompassed primarily the Protected Landscape Area Beskydy and its great surroundings� Knowledge and assessment of the current status of existing mitigation structures on the linear infrastructure are a prerequisite to carry out further steps to improve the migration permeability for wildlife in the area�

[55] Ecoduct Sandsjöbacka: Challenges and solutions when constructing an ecoduct over an existing highway

Mattias Olsson (EnviroPlanning AB, Swe-den); Mats Lindqvist, Kristina Balot (Swedish Transport Administration, Sweden)

Ecoduct Sandsjöbacka will be completed in the summer of 2018 and stretches over an existing highway south of Göteborg at the Swedish west coast� Several jurisdic-tions due to the presence of the Natura 2000 site, a rich biological diversity at the construction site, and all aspects of constructability challenged the project during the planning phase and set the framework for the construction confor-mation� Dry heather moorland and dry meadows serve as the primary target vegetation types on the ecoduct� The ecoduct is adapted to suit a wide range of species such as moose, fallow deer dormice, sand lizards, and smooth snakes�

[56] Effects of a retrofitted protection screen on wildlife use of an underpass in southern Sweden

Mattias Olsson (EnviroPlanning AB, Swe-den); Andreas Seiler (SLU, Sweden); Jennifer Fredberg (Swedish Transport Administra-tion, Sweden); Annelie Rossander (Swedish Transport Administration, Sweden); Ulrika Lundin Swedish Transport Administration, Sweden); Kristina Rundcrantz (Swedish Transport Administration, Sweden).

Wildlife crossings may not be as effective at mitigating the road-caused fragmen-tation as planned initally� In the attempt to enhance the use of an underpass by deer, a noise and light-reducing screen will be installed along the road above the entrances of the underpass� In the baseline data before retrofitting the screen, roe deer utilised the underpass quite frequently, with 67�3% of visits resulting in passage use� Red deer and fallow deer were more reluctant, as only 56�0% and 31�4% respectively of the recorded visits resulted in one or more individuals crossing the underpass�


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[57] Nature inventories of bats, insects, lichens, mosses and mushrooms in tree avenues along public roads in western Sweden in 2004-2017

Svante Hultengren, Petter Bohman (Natur-centrum AB, Sweden); Mats Lindqvist (Swed-ish Transport Administration, Sweden)

During more than a decade we made surveys of bats, insects, lichens, mosses and fungi in 19 tree avenues in western Sweden� In total, 2,000 trees were studied� In total, 691 species were recorded, of which 63 are red listed� A large number of indicator species and rare species were noted, and 11 species of bats� Beetles was the most prolific group of 366 species, followed by 191 species of lichens� The knowledge that the tree avenue environments are so rich in biodiversity is essential for the traffic authorities in the management of these tree habitats�

[58] Surveys of ants (Formicidae) and carabid beetles (Carabidae) along public roads in Southwestern Sweden in 2014

Ola Alinvi (Flitiga myran, Sweden); Mats Lindqvist (Swedish Transport Administra-tion, Sweden)

Occurrence of carabid beetles and ants were studied at road sides using pitfall traps� The localities were “species rich” in respect to interesting plant life� We found 426 individuals and 40 species of carabids, circa 11% of the Swedish fauna� We found 5,642 individuals and 37 species of ants, circa 46% of the Swedish ant fauna� Dominating ant species are Formica exsecta, Formica fusca and Myrmica sabuleti. Overall our conclusion is that road sides containing open ground, especially sandy exposed ground, and ground with sparse vege-tation may have high species richness of both carabids and ants�

[59] Development of a deterrent sound for the prevention of deer-train colli-sions

Minoru Shimura, Tomoyoshi Ushiogi, Masateru Ikehata (Biotechnology Labora-tory, Railway Technical Research Institute, Japan)

Deer-train collisions have become a serious problem in Japan� To keep deer away from tracks, we have invented a deterrent sound and investigated its effectiveness� It consists of a deer alarm call and vocalization of a dog� It is observed that playing the deterrent sound at deer being around a track made them run away immediately� According to a survey on the frequency of the observa-tion of deer, playing the deterrent sound from a train resulted in a 45% reduction of the frequency of deer that were observed every 100 km track�

[60] Why do the deer jump out suddenly?

Misako Noro, Fumihiro Hara (Hokkaido De-velopment Engineering Center, Japan); Toru Hagiwara (Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Japan)

The authors discussed wildlife-vehicle collision situations based on driver visibility� 78% of people, who collided with a deer, answered that the animal seemed to come out of nowhere� Why did the deer jump out suddenly? We believed ‘the driver’s useful field of view’ to be related� When we drive a car, we always confirm whether it is safe in front of us� When an animal approaches a vehicle, the driver is still looking in front of him rather than at the side of the car� In that case, the driver does not notice that there is an animal� As a result, the driver feels as if the animal comes out of nowhere�

[61] Egnatia Motorway: Fish protection measures in a major landslide stabili-zation project

Niki Voumvoulaki, Dimitrios Kaltsas (Egna-tia Odos SA, Greece); Lazaros Georgiadis (IENE, Greece)

As part of the construction of a major landslide stabilization project in North-West Greece, to ensure the operability of the Egnatia Motorway, a river of permanent flow had to be conducted through a twin culvert of 150 m length� Due to environmental terms for fish protection, special measures were taken, to ensure the upward travel of migrating fish, such as the indigenous trout� The measures also include a natural lighting system of the closed culvert, using solar tubes� Further monitoring of fish presence in the river is needed, to evaluate the success of the engineering solutions�

[62] Guidebook for the identification of eco-ethological criteria to be considered for ecological continuity restoration close to transport infra-structures

Olivier Pichard, Anasthasia Sanchez de Launay (CEREMA Nord Picardie, France)

CEREMA Nord Picardie has drawn up a guidebook to identify the eco-eth-ological criteria to be analysed when designing or improving existing wildlife crossing structures� The guide is intended for infrastructure managers� Its purpose is to help them identify the important criteria to be taken into account to optimise ecological continuity close to transport infrastructure�

[63] Designing nature with infra-structure: the Antwerp Left Bank infra-structure works

Rik Houthaeve, Koen Maes, Bart Steen-wegen (Sweco Belgium nv, Belgium)

The Antwerp Left Bank infrastructure works involve the reconstruction of the


47

existing highway infrastructure on the left bank, a unique and delicate area were the ecological network is currently under great strain� The large-scale motorway infrastructure forms an insuperable barrier for fauna and flora� The design of the Left Bank infrastructure works links green areas, which are currently fragmented, into one large nature area connected through ecoducts, ecotun-nels, streams and cycle and footpaths� The project provides a number of local underpasses for ecological links, cycle paths or local roads� The design of the infrastructure and engineering structures is tightly interwoven with the landscape�

[64] Stimulating biodiversity and circular economy in rail verges

Rudi van Hedel (Sweco, Netherlands); Gerald Olde Monnikhof, Mariëtte van Rooij (ProRail, Netherlands)

ProRail maintains more than 7,000 km of verges and wants to improve the mainte-nance so that this stimulates biodiversity and the circular economy� Biodiversity will improve if biomass is removed, but the present practice is that this isn’t done� Sweco advised how to improve the maintenance contracts and how to redesign the verges to enhance the biodi-versity� They concluded that contracts should contain criteria on when and how the verges are being moved and how to remove the biomass� Furthermore, they advised dividing the verges into a technical and ecological zone�

[65] Citizen science approach revealing impacts of the extensive road system on wild fauna in Cyprus

Savvas Zotos, Maria Zomeni, Thelma Geor-giou, Ioannis Vogiatzakis (Open University of Cyprus, School of Pure and Applied Sciences, Cyprus)

Through a newly deployed citizen science road kill observation system (CyROS) and the collaborative effort of volunteers, the impact of the extensive

road network in Cyprus on its wild fauna is revealed for the first time� Reptiles and hedgehogs are the animal groups that are most frequently a victim of road kill regardless of the type of road or geographic location� This is an ongoing process, and the data provided by volun-teers are increasing every day� We expect to obtain an adequate amount of data through CyROS in the upcoming years so that we can contribute to examining transportation ecology on a small island with rapid urban and road expansion�

[66] Identifying blackspots of wildlife collisions on the Swedish railroad

Sofia Willebrand (EnviroPlanning AB, Sweden); Andreas Seiler (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Ecology, Grimsö Wildlife Research Station, Sweden)

The number of wildlife train colli-sions (WTC) on the Swedish railroad is increasing and it is essential to identify and predict blackspots, areas with high frequencies of WTC� We identified such areas by calculating frequencies at railroad segments combined with a measure of stability� The identified blackspots were tested with logistic regression to compare with “cold spots”� Logistic model strength was best for blackspots with the highest requirements on stability over time� This suggests that segments with recurring high WTC frequencies can be primarily foreseen using a rather simple set of environ-mental criteria and thus targeted with mitigation plans�

[67] Assessing realism of metapop-ulation modelling tools deployed in French EIA

Sylvain Moulherat, Jonathan Remon, Lucie Gendron (TerrOïko, France); Jérôme Prunier (SETE-CNRS, France)

The CIRFE project aimed to determine whether various metapopulation models could mimic the actual species meta-

population dynamic to contribute to the Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA), especially for substantial survey areas� In this project, we tested how five different models, used in French EIA, estimate metapopulation functioning by comparing the different model outputs with actual field estimates� We demon-strated that the different models are not equally realistic and that their perfor-mances are linked to the required land cover quality for each model� We also determined that agent-based models can adequately mimic metapopulation functioning�

[68] The assessment of the ecological quality of roadside verges as a building block for optimising functions along Dutch highways

Toine Morel, Marieke de Lange, Erik Verhal-len (Rijkswaterstaat, Netherlands)

The roadside verges along the Dutch highways could have different functions, i�e�, a location for solar panels, biomass harvesting or increasing biodiversity� A decision support tool will be developed to make a well-informed decision which function (or functions) is most suitable at a particular location� As a building block for this decision support tool, we developed an ecological quality assessment for roadside verges, using six parameters describing the abiotic and biotic conditions, and the current management� We will give background information on the choice of parameters and how these are ranked, illustrated by results from our pilot project (Dutch highway A37)�

[69] Van Gogh National Park defragmented

Toine Cooijmans (Natuurmonumenten, Netherlands)

Eight area alliances in Brabant are the initiators of a significant new National Park as the green heart of Brabantstad: the Van Gogh National Park� They aim to


48

better connect some top nature reserves, which are fragmented by certain highways� We desire to create robust nature passages on these massive infra-structures on eight specifically indicated locations� The alliances have developed a new standard (Nieuwe Brabantse Standaard), This standard includes agree-ments on the quality of the ecopassages for animals so that they eventually will be able to move freely through the entire area�

[70] The Ringerike Railway line and E16 Main Road Joint Project

Torgeir Isdahl (Norconsult, Norway)

The joint project is located in one of Norway’s most precious natural areas, including the unique wetlands and flood-plains along the river Storelva protected by both national and international desig-nation� Through a series of mitigation measures, the joint project has aimed to reduce the impacts on the natural environment� The developer aspires to achieve a ‘no net loss’ of natural values� An ecological compensation plan has been implemented�

[71] Lessons learned about animal-ve-hicle collisions from dash cam videos uploaded to YouTube

Victor Colino Rabanal (Department of Animal Biology. Faculty of Environmental Science, University of Salamanca, Spain)

In this study, we have compiled 507 videos through YouTube searches from 21 countries with dash cams showing AVC or animal crosses of 17 large-sized species� We categorized the animal behavior according to speed and crossing path, as well as the driver behavior� The results show that a remarkable number of AVC is caused by the sudden onslaught of an animal or group of animals running at high-speed perpendicular to the road� According to the results of the study, this animal behavior decreases the effectiveness of measures such as

animal detection systems, since the time that elapses between the detection of the animal and its arrival to the road is minimal�

[72] The relationship between roads, human diversity, and biodiversity

Víctor Colino-Rabanal, Salvador Peris Álva-rez, Miguel Lizana (Department of Animal Biology, Faculty of Environmental Science, University of Salamanca / AnthopoNatura, UNESCO Chair Initiative, Spain); Roberto Rodríguez-Díaz, Maria José Blanco-Ville-gas (Department Physical Anthropology, University of Salamanca / AnthopoNatura, UNESCO Chair Initiative, Spain)

Considering that those factors related to biological speciation are also involved in cultural differentiation, human diversity (in this study linguistic diversity) is likely to respond to roads in ways similar to biodiversity� Roads tend to homoge-nize both diversities in such a way that for many parts of the world there is a negative correlation between road density and biodiversity and linguistic diversity�

[73] An overview of wildlife-train colli-sions in the Czech Republic

Vojtěch Nezval (University of Ostrava, Czech Republic); Michal Bíl, Clara Grilo (Transport Research Centre, Czech Republic); Bohumír Trávníček (Czech National Railway Adminis-trator, Czech Republic)

We collected and analysed data on wildlife train collisions (WTC) in the Czech Republic� Between 2008 and 2017, a total of 1,600 WTC records were collected� More than half of all WTC were crashes with roe deer (32%) or with wild boar (27%)� 9% of WTC were caused by uniden-tified animal (this number differs largely from WVC on roads, 50%)� The rest of the collisions are with other animal species (e�g� sheep, horses, dogs, foxes, etc�)� The results will be presented in www�srazenazver�cz�

[74] Impact assessment of a wildlife corridor on a human populated area in Thailand

Win Trivitayanurak (Ministry of Transport, Department of Highways, Thailand); Somying Thunhikorn (Wildlife and Plant Conservation, Department of National Parks, Thailand)

The study examines the proposed wildlife corridor site on National Highway 317 in Chantaburi Province in the Eastern region of Thailand� The site is located in the Eastern Forest Complex, ranked high priority among Thailand’s forest complexes for its habitat for elephants as the key species and potential connectivity to Cambodian forests� Wildlife crossing structures are proposed on NH317� While aiming to bridge the Khao Soi Dao Wildlife Sanctuary and Khlong Kruewai Chalearm Phrakiat Wildlife Sanctuary for unob-structed movement of elephants, existing houses and orchards will face the impact to their socio-economic status� Novel approach for human-elephant coexist-ence is proposed�

[75] Mapping green infrastructure based on ecosystem services and national ecological network: a case study in Taiwan

Yu-Fang Lin (Studio Sustainability & Envi-ronmental Management, Taiwan)

This article describes the methodology of mapping green infrastructure based on ecosystem services and national ecological network� The natural capacity to deliver ecosystem services and the identification of core habitats and wildlife corridors are included in the mapping data� The results of the green infrastruc-ture classification will contribute to evaluate the ecosystem services, as well as developing the national ecological network� Finally, the evaluation results will provide decision makers with a vision for environmental sustainability and nature conservation in the planning context�

FULL PRESENTATIONSPOSTER PRESENTATIONS

49

[76] Meta-population models in Environmental Impact Assessments

Yann Le Gallic, Klervi Le Floch (Setec international, France) ; Sylvain Moulherat (Terroiko, France)

The CIRFE project aimed to determine whether various meta-population models could mimic the original species meta-population dynamic to contribute to Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA), especially for massive survey areas� Its economical session demonstrated that the average cost of current fauna and flora studies are far higher than the estimated modelling costs� Habitat survey procurement is by far the main cost compared to the other modelling costs and is comparable to the cost of those in current EIA� So, they could be used for modelling with no additional costs�

[77] ITTECOP: the French public-private research programme on infrastructure and environment

Yannick Autret (Ministère de la transition écologique et solidaire – direction de la recherche et de l’innovation, France)

Since 2008, ITTECOP, an integrated research program is aiming at the effects of infrastructure on landscapes and biodi-

versity, and has been seeking to produce scientific responses and methods directly from the lab to the land�

[78] The effects of habitat fragmen-tation and isolation on Japanese raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procy-onoides viverrinus) roadkill in Japan

Yoichi Sonoda (Regional Environment Plan-ning Inc., Japan)

The objective of this study was to examine how habitat fragmentation and isolation in urban and suburban areas influence the occurrence of Japanese raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides viverrinus) roadkill� Our aim was to determine potential migration direc-tions in greenspaces and contribute to road planning to increase the viability of raccoon dog populations� We constructed a model to predict the probability of raccoon dog roadkill occurrence in an urban area, and then analyzed the effects of various roadkill risk factors�

[79] Effective culvert design to facil-itate amphibians across roads in Changbai Mountain Area, China

Yun Wang, Lei Guan, Hongping Zhou, Yap-ing Kong (China Academy of Transportation Sciences, China)

We placed experimental arrays of culverts of varying sizes, types and substrate type to examine the preference of both species during migration season in May and September of 2016 and 2017� We concluded that box culverts with side length ≥1 m line with soil and accom-panied by ≥0�4 m high guide fencing and ≤45°gradient of roadside ditch walls would best facilitate road crossing for both the species and likely other amphibian species in Changbai Mountain area, China�

[80] Developing the National Ecological Network in Taiwan

Yuping Chen (Taiwan Ecological Engineer-ing Development Foundation, Taiwan)

We propose a framework for developing the national ecological network by identifying habitat types and landscape connectivity before bottlenecks are highlighted� Three case studies targeting representative bottlenecks will be conducted to demonstrate a strategic process of action plans in the future�


50

Thursday / 14:30 – 15:30 Room: Jupiter

Global wildlife-vehicle conflict reporting systems

Fraser Shilling (University of California, USA); Wendy Collinson-Jonkers (Endan-gered Wildlife Trust, South Africa); Michal Bil (Transportation Research Centre; Czech Republic); Diemer Vacayie (Natuurpunt, Bel-gium); Florian Heigl (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Austria); Sarah E. Perkins (Cardiff University, UK); Sandra MacDougall (Red Deer College, Canada)

Supporting the evolution of ecologically sustainable transportation requires collecting and analysing data about road and traffic impacts on natural and human systems� Some of the most visible impacts are the carcasses or injured animals resulting from wildlife-vehicle conflict (WVC)� For many wildlife popula-tions, WVC may pose an existential threat through direct mortality of individuals and genetic separation of sub-popula-tions� Vehicles and operators are also at risk from both collision and avoidance of collision with animals of almost any size (but primarily large mammals)� Mitigating these impacts requires knowledge of both when (hot-moments) and where (hotspots) WVC is more common than adjacent areas and times� This, in turn, requires rigorous and extensive data collection, management, and analysis by trusted institutions� One approach mostly taken on a national basis is to involve volunteers in collecting data on road-killed animals on a broad geographic range� These data can be combined with data from agencies, or their contractors, collecting carcass observations along roadways, as well as other types of wildlife-related observations to obtain a complete picture of wildlife occupancy, movement, or mortality�

This workshop aims to give an overview of existing monitoring approaches worldwide and to find a way of imple-menting these approaches in a global

observatory system� This workshop builds upon a similar workshop organised by Fraser Shilling for IENE 2014, entitled “Systematically reporting live and dead wildlife on and near roads”� The group listed above surveyed current smartphone and web-based systems for collecting and managing WVC data to establish common and innovative approaches that are being taken� We have also identified areas of expansion that could be accomplished by taking advantage of current and emerging data collection and technologies� So far, we have concluded that innovative types of data collection can be employed with both volunteers and agencies and that these innovations are critical for solving safety and conservation challenges on transportation-ways� Finally, when exten-sively, systematically collected, these data may also become essential for investi-gating other ecological phenomena on national, continental, or global scales�

During the workshop, we will carry out four main activities:1� Structured introductions among

participants: name, affiliation, current related research and interests, key questions and goals for the workshops, and interest in global collaboration�

2� Short presentations by five members of the organising group (5-6 minutes each) detailing fundamental activities and issues worldwide�

3� Round-table discussion of key questions and issues raised by the participant group and the lead group� These will include WVC data collection (getting more observers, technologies), data management and sharing (e�g�, through web-sys-tems), data analysis (current spatial and temporal-spatial methods in GIS and geostatistics), visualizations and public-education, affecting policy and management of transportation systems�

4� Collaborative opportunities that all participants can engage in to grow the field and increase rate and extent of data collection� This could include

a follow-up paper, funding proposals, and globally communicating web-sys-tems�

We will focus on surface transportation systems (roads and rail) and vertebrate animals� However, we will entertain other transport modes and animal groups that people bring forward� We will pay special attention to driver-assistance and auton-omous vehicle systems that are under development and being tested�

The organising group is currently working on a manuscript that provides an overview of the state of the field, which we will provide to participants� We will also take copious notes that we will give back to participants following the workshop, along with the slide presenta-tions�

WORKSHOPS

51

Thursday / 14:30 – 15:30 Room: Foyer

De-fragmentising waterways

Dennis Wansink, Mascha Visser (Bureau Waardenburg, Netherlands); Nico Jonker (Province of Noord-Holland, Netherlands)

In general, the focus in studies on the relationship between infrastructure and nature is on (rail)roads� However, the effect of waterways on nature should not be underestimated� Especially, canals and canalised rivers can have detrimental effects on wildlife� Their steep shores form barriers for animals that want to cross the water� They might get into the water but might not get out anymore� Additionally, canalised rivers lack naturally vegetated shores where aquatic animals can live and breed� Canalised rivers also require resting sites for migrating fish�

The EU Water Directive (Directive 2000/60/EC) sets out rules to halt the deterioration in the status of European Union water bodies and achieve ‘good status’ for Europe’s rivers, lakes, and groundwater by 2027� This includes, among others, restoring the ecosystems in and around these bodies of waters� The Dutch Province of Noord-Holland came with the idea to combine the obligations of the EU Water Directive with mitigation measures to de-fragmentise the canals in the province� Because contractors with Design & Construct contracts carry out most projects, they needed guidelines with functional specifications�

In this workshop, we give a presentation of the guidelines, and we want to discuss the applicability of these guidelines in other countries� Of course, any sugges-tions for improvements to the guidelines are welcome as well� The objective is to come to guidelines to de-fragmentise canals and canalised rivers and at the same time contribute to the implemen-tation of the EU Water Directive� For a successful workshop we need partici-

pants with different backgrounds and from different countries: (1) Scientists: for input of the requirements of (aquatic) fauna and of the requirements for stable canal shores; (2) Waterway managers: for input about tenders and contracts; (3) Waterway engineers: for input about the practical aspects of canal engineering�

The structure of the workshop will be as follows:1� Introduction • Short introduction round� • Short introduction to the goal(s) of

the workshop and the discussion methods used�

• Presentation of the guidelines ‘Nature-friendly shores for Design & Construct contracts’� The presenta-tion describes the method of systems engineering, how to combine the obligations of the EU Water Directive with nature-friendly shores and measures for animals to leave the water and how these obligations and requirements are translated to functional specifications for D&C contracts�

2� Listing issues to tackle • Short plenary discussion to discover

the main problems that the partic-ipants expect� When trying to combine ecological and transport functions in canals, one might expect conflicting interests� For example, the shores must be strong enough to withstand the bow waves of the boats, but at the same time be sloping to facilitate animals to get out of the water� Sloping shores can be reinforced with stones, but this is contradictory to the requirements of the EU Water Directive� With D&C contracts it is always challenging to find the balance between describing guidelines and the freedom of the contractor to design and carry out the work his way� How to handle invasive alien species that follow canals? The problems will be grouped on a whiteboard by the different levels of a shore (under-

water, the watermark, and the land)�

3� Listing solutions • The participants will brainstorm

in small groups about possible solutions for (a selection of) the main issues listed in the previous session� Each group treats at least two issues�

• Plenary session where each group presents the possible solutions (put together on a whiteboard)�

• The participants can react to the ideas for solutions of the others� We will give particular attention to differ-ences between countries (in types of waterways or water management) and the borders between the three levels of a shore�

The workshop will finish with a short discussion about possible follow up actions� These can be, for instance, an article in a water management journal, an additional chapter to the COST 341 handbook, a publication (with down-loadable document) on the IENE website, etc� A summary of the outcomes of the workshop will be published on the IENE (conference) website� If the partic-ipants decide to elaborate more on the outcomes and prepare a (short) publi-cation, this will also be published on the IENE (conference) website� The Province of Noord-Holland will use the outcomes of the workshop to improve their guide-lines and the implementation of these guidelines� Preferably, the workshop will also initiate guidelines for nature-friendly canals in other countries�

WORKSHOPS

52

Thursday / 14:30 – 15:30 Room: Grand Café

Civil engineering meets ecological engineering in the designing process

Marleen Moelants, Cédric Vaast (Flemish Government, Agency for Roads and Traffic, Belgium)

Good communication between road builders, ecologists, landscapists, and maintainers is essential for creating a good design that will satisfy the needs of all parties involved� Mostly nature measures are implemented at the end of the designing process because the project engineer was not aware of the importance� Sometimes, it is applied only as an obligation in building permits or other permits� Maintenance is frequently neglected in the design as well� Along the way, we learned that ecologists, landscapists, and road builders often work in different ways� They speak another language and have different goals� Therefore, it is essential to bring these three parties together at an early stage of every project� This can happen at every step of the process� Not only for designing new roads but also when roads are rebuilt or adjusted:• Communication is necessary from the

moment a project commences� This way, we can examine the affected natural areas or aspects, the existing opportunities in the current situation, essential elements to avoid fragmenta-tion� As a result, we can make a well-in-corporated road with much potential for local flora and fauna, taking into account the management afterward and making proper agreements for maintenance, management, and moni-toring;

• As the design is getting more concrete it is essential to implement an optimal realisation of the selected measures;

• During the building process specific components can be adjusted on site;

• Afterward, agreements must organise maintenance, management, and moni-toring�

The primary objective of the workshop is bringing together road builders, landscapists and ecologists to discuss their approach and viewpoints� This way, they can try to understand each other and compromise� They will share good and bad experiences� During the designing process of building a new road or rebuilding an existing road, it is a challenge to match civil objectives with ecological or landscape objectives and to reflect on maintenance� While rebuilding an existing road, it is even more difficult than having to start from scratch when building an entirely new road� However, the process of rebuilding an existing road gives the opportunity to restore existing fragmentation�During the workshop we want to submit one or more potential projects� We will let civil and ecological practitioners work together in small groups to redesign a road that is more integrated in its natural surroundings, with attention to fauna passages and verge design�

The workshop will be structured as following:• The group will be split into smaller

groups with a maximum of five people, while keeping in mind the importance of a good mix of different back-grounds�

• The workshop will start with a short presentation clarifying the objective and approach of the workshop and situating the project� This will be the N19g project that will be visited during an excursion in Flanders� Different project documents of the project will be presented together with additional technical and environmental informa-tion:

° Technical plan of the road; ° Why will it be (re)build; ° Vision on the road after (re)building:

width, bicycle lanes; ° Vision on landscape integration

(available width, light, trees); ° Existing transmission lines, sewage

system; ° Landscape elements: topography,

water table, crossing watercourses;

° Surrounding nature: type, preserva-tion status, ecological information on fauna and flora;

° Budget; ° Maintenance requirements�• The groups prepare proposals and

note their remarks for a better nature integrated road� The goal is to challenge the different parties to develop their different viewpoints and practical solutions� The starting point is a largely printed plan and different markers to put down their ideas�

• Each group will give a short presenta-tion of their proposal� After each pres-entation, there will be a discussion�

• Conclusions�

The results of the different proposals can be shown afterward in the public rooms of the conference, linking to the confer-ence app� This way, we hope to facilitate a discussion with the other participants and to demonstrate the plan of the actual realisation of this project� Furthermore, the outcomes of the workshop will be collected and spread after the confer-ence, such as: (1) Good and bad expe-riences; (2) Points of friction between the civil objectives with ecological or landscape objectives; (3) Viewpoints of maintenance (who is responsible, what will it cost, etc�); (4) Suggestions for missing information or better ways to work together�

WORKSHOPS

53

Thursday / 14:30 – 15:30 Room: Saturn

How to address barrier effects of rail-ways? Impact factors and guild specific impact assessment due to different types of railways

Heinrich Reck (Institute for Natural Resource Conservation, Kiel University, Germa-ny); Marita Böttcher (German Agency for Nature Conservation, Germany); Henning Nissen (Institute for Natural Resource Conserva-tion, Kiel University, Germany); Cindy Baierl, Kersten Hänel (Kassel University, Depart-ment of Landscape and Vegetation Ecology, Germany)

Different morphological or ecological groups of species are expected to show a guild specific reaction to barriers caused by railways� The respective active factors, such as substrate types, verge vegeta-tion, railway width, type of cable runways or curbstones, fences, noise, or habitat contrast and many more (including their combinations) are supposed to cause a wide variety of guild-specific effects� However, most effects seem to be unclear and difficult to assess� While road effects on species are extensively stud-ied, railways effects are poorly investigated� Even the most critical barrier factors of railways are not clearly defined, which is especially true for the small fauna and traits of new railway techniques� Never-theless, for impact assessment, mitiga-tion and com-pensation it is necessary to have at least a common understanding (or conventions) for the impact severity of each relevant factor of railway design features and operating characteristics� Therefore, the workshop shall stimulate and enable a robust compila-tion of expert knowledge and opinions to achieve a significant improvement for prac-tical impact assessment, mitigation, and compensation� Ecologists on the one hand and engineers and planners on the other can place their knowledge on impact factors, species responses, risk probabilities and risk assessment�

In the workshop we will discuss a previously via internet forum developed tabulation about relevant barrier features, respective guild specific species responses and impact risks� Furthermore, we will work on the compilation of: (1) a list of the relevant im-pact factors (current and expected future features of railways), and (2) a list of differ-ent types of acceptors (defined ecological response guilds of sensitive species and best fitting indicator or flagship species for different eco-regions)� This will allow us to to make up: (1) a balanced cross table with a guild specific rating of risks caused by the particular impact factors by expert hypotheses on the guild-specific severity of each factor; (2) the compilation of references - if existing - for each rating in the crosstable (mainly by using the pre- and post-conference platform for related ecological knowledge), and (3) the prioritisation of most important research to evaluate hy-potheses that seem to be most potent for environmental planning and operation of railways�

In addition to the provisionally via a pre-conference internet forum prepared infor-mation, the workshop discussion will be further facilitated by illustrations from case examples� Each topic will be dealt with by the same procedure:1� A presentation of working hypoth-

eses (= results of the pre-conference internet forum) (2-3 min);

2� A concise discussion and annotation and complementation of the hypoth-eses (8-10 min);

3� A debate about consequences for railway ecology and risk mitigation along railways and stimulation of further discussion groups or partici-pation in the post-conference internet forum (5 min)�

All findings – especially the expected verified risk assessment for relevant guilds – and post-comments will be summarized after the workshop� These findings will be pub-lished via the previ-ously established internet forum that will be hosted by the German Agency for

Nature Conservation (BfN) or Kiel Univer-sity or – if possible – by IENE and cared for by the universities of Kiel and Kassel until autumn 2020� Both institutions will further provide a literature review and a related practical analysis of at least the German railway features with respect to the German habitat networks and a case study about the activity of ground-dwelling insects and small vertebrates on railways which is supported by the German Agency for Nature Conservation and granted by the Federal Ministry for the Environment�

WORKSHOPS

54

Thursday / 14:30 – 15:30 Room: Dome, Ring 4

Going off-road: New partnership arrangements towards biodiversi-ty-friendly management practices for green verges

Denis François (IFSTTAR, France); Bas Pedroli (Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands)

Managers of land transport infrastruc-ture (LTI) are increasingly aware of the importance of Green Verges, such as roadsides, banks, and power line corridors, for biodiversity (species and habitat conservation, connection to green and blue corridors)� They are willing to embark on new management arrangements for these spaces� Currently, the implementation of more biodiversi-ty-friendly practices for Green Verges is being considered primarily through the development of managerial knowledge and by adopting knowledge from external expertise (raising awareness of the staff, staff training, learning from practical handbooks)� Appreciating the importance of such efforts, this approach has temporal, economic and social implications that are neither necessarily within reach of all managers, nor are they the best answer to all situations encoun-tered in the field� This workshop aims to discuss options from across Europe that go beyond the development of internal competencies by land transport infrastructure managers for biodiversity enhancement, to take into considera-tion the ecological and organisational opportunities provided by the particular landscape context on which the transport infrastructure is superimposed�

Specific new collaborative governance modes are at stake when taking such local potential into due consideration� Indeed, all over Europe, numerous and diverse competent local actors have developed expertise in the management of natural or semi-natural environments, supporting national or local authorities

or Non-Governmental Organisations, and can carry out or organise the action on the field� For land transport infra-structure managers, taking advantage of the skills and knowledge of these local stakeholders in nature and landscape management could be an efficient and pragmatic way to achieve their wish of implementing biodiversity-friendly practices in the management of Green Verges, both concerning nature protec-tion and enhancing ecological connec-tivity� Such collaborative action and social learning do exist from place to place, but generally, it remains occasional, poorly known and rarely enduring� As a result, the possibility for replication in another context (i�e� a combination of natural environment and a specific type of land transport infrastructure) remains hard to realise, thus probably underrated�

In this workshop participants are invited to report their experiences, contributing to a first overview of state of the art and its inherent diversity across countries and land transport infrastructures� From their knowledge and experience, a rapid assessment of success and failure factors of partnership-based management will be carried out� Lastly, the relevance and opportunity for international coopera-tion intended to improve the feasibility of this contextual ecological management of Green Verges will be considered� The target participants of the workshop are professionals, researchers and repre-sentatives of non-profit organisations involved in the management of Green Verges or natural environments, with a background varying from ecology, nature management, and law, to landscape architecture and the humanities (govern-ance, socio-economy)�

The workshop structure is as follows� After a short introduction of the organ-isers, we will invite a round of 3-minute ‘elevator pitches’ from each participant (representing as many countries as possible) to report on the experience of collaborative Green Verge management; noting fundamental characteristics� After

maximum 20 minutes, this will yield the first overview of state of the art and the diversity of experiences, as reported by the participants� The second step of the workshop (25 minutes) is focussed on bringing structure in the collected observations� For different kinds of land transport infrastructure (roads, railways, power lines, waterways - the size of the list will be adapted to the experience gathered by the participants), the various possible modes of partnership-based management of GVs are considered: ecological conservation (species); agro-ecology (grazing, mowing, specific crop), ecological corridor (connection); green activities (hiking, biking, riding), water activities (canoeing, sailing, fishing)� The general discussion aims to clarify which modes have the highest potential in which cases, regarding ecological relevance and main difficulties encoun-tered� The organisers will facilitate this step, filling with all the participants a summarising table Land transport infrastructures versus management modes, with, in each box, the identification of success and failure factors of partnerships (considering ecological, juridical, and socio-economic points of view)� Based on the questions and opportunities raised as a result of the previous general overview, the last step (15 minutes) will be dedicated to conclude on the motiva-tions and justifications for an inter

WORKSHOPS

55

Thursday / 14:30 – 15:30 Room: Neptune

Worldwide knotweed: A blueprint for preventing or terminating knotweed

Ellen Boontje (ProRail, Netherlands); Florence van den Berg (Iv-Infra, Nether-lands)

Worldwide knotweed doesn’t need much introduction with ecologists; biodiver-sity is at risk, and the functionality of ecoducts and wildlife crossing struc-tures will be reduced if it is not treated� However, in some countries, landowners and infra administrators are not familiar with knotweed and the danger it causes to infra� They are not aware that the roots of this weed can cause significant damage to stone and even concrete structures, not to mention the difficul-ties to terminate knotweed� Most of all, knotweed doesn’t hold at borders of land or even countries, what makes it in an ironic way very appropriate to the theme of this conference: Crossing Borders� And that is the biggest challenge of all because the level of policies and regula-tions about knotweed vary dramatically between countries� For example, the policies and regulations in the United Kingdom are very tight� However, the European Union and the Netherlands have none at all�

In this workshop, we would like to draw a blueprint of a set of policies and regu-lations based on the experiences of the attendees with knotweed� This blueprint will be helpful for every landowner, infra administrator and many others who have to start preventing or terminating knotweed� It could help with providing information for budget, cooperation with other stakeholders, etc� Additionally, we would like to set up a mailing list of the attendees enabling the exchange of experiences, advice, and questions�

The workshop attendees preferably have some experience with knotweed, because we will spend only a little time

on the introduction of knotweed, we will spend most of the time on debate� But a few people who would like to be introduced with the plant are welcome as well� We aim for about 20 attendees (4 groups of 5 people)� The program of the workshop will be:• For starters, we introduce the subject

and ourselves briefly� Plenary, we’ll ask the attendees, how much knowledge they have of knotweed, by raising hands�

• With raising the hands we split the group into four groups of five people with four stickers with different colours� The groups should be a mix of people with no knowledge, a little knowledge and a lot of knowledge�

• We will have group debates� We’ll provide the attendees with sheets for their data and open space for notes� The sheets will contain four questions that we want to get the answer to during the debates� The questions will be:

1� When and how did you first found out about knotweed? What problem(s) did the knotweed cause?

2� How did you try to solve the problem? Were you successful?

3� Which regulations were working for you? Were there regulations in the way of solving the problem? Were there regulations missing?

4� Do you have recommendations of any kind?

• Each group will briefly discuss the results of one question�

Finally we will summarize what has been discussed� We will ask the attendees to tick a box on the sheet if they would like to keep being updated� We will take in the sheets, and after the workshop, we will compose a set of rules and recom-mendations useful for the attendees and send them by email� In the email, we will also ask if the attendees would like to join an international expert panel�

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Friday / 11:30 – 12:30 Room: Dome, Ring 4

Helping communities connect with their local wildlife / Involving citizens to monitor and create support for wildlife crossings

Bas van den Dries (Arcadis, Netherlands); Mark van Heukelum(oak consultants, Netherlands)

Wildlife crossings help to protect the lives of thousands of animals every year� In order to know how the crossings function and which, when and how many animals use these crossings, it is essential to monitor wildlife crossings� But processing monitoring data is a lot of work� Addi-tionally, it is a challenge to translate or communicate (positive) results to citizens, to create general support for wildlife crossings� To meet these challenges we involved citizens in monitoring wildlife crossings, by creating an online platform called Wildspotter�nl�

In the Netherlands, Arcadis developed an innovative concept for monitoring wildlife crossings� Capturing videos from over 100 crossings and sharing them online with the public through an online monitoring platform: www�wildspotter�nl� Built as an interactive platform with gamification – an increasingly crucial digital engagement tool – people can watch monitoring videos and identify the animals they see, helping with catego-rizing and logging the variety of species� Dozens of users identify every video, so the video is analysed based on ‘crowd-sourcing’� Users can motivate and discuss their answers with other users and share videos on social media� This improves the data quality, makes it possible to learn from each other and increases the level of involvement� So far the site has had over 17,000 visitors, from which 2,250 visitors participated in the video analysis� Generating a lot of media attention, it has helped to dispel criticisms that wildlife crossings do not work and, more importantly, create more support for

constructing and monitoring wildlife crossings� The interactive platform also showed how the public could support the execution of projects by contributing to data analysis, such as identifying animals, saving organisations time, resources and money� So far, over 1,500 videos have been analysed� To compare the reliability of the data produced by Wildspotter�nl, we compared the identifi-cations from the public with those made by an ecological expert� As it turned out, the general public identified a number of 98% from the 973 videos from 2016 correctly� This analysis shows the strength of the concept and that involving citizens in data analysis can be highly effective�

In this workshop, we want to share our (and your) experience on involving citizens in ecological monitoring, using digital platforms to facilitate participa-tion and communication and on how to create support� We will mainly focus on involving large groups of people using digital tools� We will discuss the dos and don’ts, look for (other) ways to involve citizens, and we will explore how citizen participation can become part of your projects and initiatives� We want to share our positive experience with involving citizens in monitoring activities; both for the benefit of performing better and more efficient research, as for the need to create more support� We believe that involving citizens can benefit the development and monitoring of wildlife crossings, but also to (re)connect citizens to nature in their ‘backyard’� We will use the online platform wildspotter�nl as a showcase:• To show the potential success and

benefits involving citizens can have on developing and monitoring wildlife crossings;

• Sharing experiences on involving citizens with digital platforms� We are also keen to hear about the experi-ences of the workshop participants involving citizens in general;

• Explore other ways and benefits in involving citizens or more specific groups of volunteers, preferably with

example projects or initiatives from the workshop participants;

• Discuss the data quality, risks, and benefits, when involving citizens;

• Also, we would appreciate any feedback on Wildspotter�nl or on engaging citizens in general;

• People involved in developing or monitoring ecological corridors and that are willing to explore the benefits of involving citizens in the process� Researchers, project developers, and policymakers�

A summary of the outcomes of the workshop will be made and send to the interested participants� We will use the feedback to improve Wildspotter�nl and other platforms� We hope to inspire and motivate participants to start involving citizens more actively and to gather specific information to make the first steps�

WORKSHOPS

57

Friday / 11:30 – 12:30 Room: Jupiter

Evaluation of international policy on environmentally sustainable transpor-tation infrastructure in an era of rapid global expansion

Lazaros Georgiadis, Andreas Seiler, Anders Sjolund, Elke Hahn, Carme Rosell, Yannick Autret (IENE, Greece/Sweden/Austria/Spain/France); Kate Newman (WWF US, USA); Rodney van der Ree (ANET - Australasian Network for Ecology and Transportation / Ecology and Infrastructure International Pty Ltd, Australia); Rob Ament (IUCN Connectiv-ity Conservation Specialist Group, Transport Working Group, USA)

The global demand for the construction of roads in the 21st century is enormous while the rate of biodiversity loss is well above historical averages� Much of the new transportation infrastructure will be developed within and around areas currently managed for biodiversity and ecosystem service values, thereby undermining past, current and future conservation investments� Roads and other ‘grey’ linear infrastructure, such as railways, waterways, and pipelines, are essential for sustainable development� However, often these roads have delete-rious impacts on species, communities, and ecosystems, including human and wildlife injury and mortality, deforesta-tion, barrier effects, carbon emissions, wildlife poaching, and land clearing� Impacts can extend for kilometres from the transport infrastructure itself and continue to develop for years, thereby affecting ecosystems and their services across the landscape� On the other hand, maintaining healthy ecosystems, particu-larly in the warming climate scenario, can both protect ‘grey’ infrastructure by reducing potential damage from hazards such as landslides, flooding, and erosion - and provide ‘green’ infrastructure that can protect communities from harm�

In collaboration and consultation with colleagues in Europe, Africa, Latin

America, Asia and the Pacific, IENE, WWF, and ANET have been working together to build a coalition of partners inter-ested in developing a globally relevant best-practice guidance to ensure that the linear infrastructure we build today is as ecologically sensitive as possible� The coalition evolved from experience gained in a project to advise on how to address the ecological challenges of a road project through the biologically rich trans-border area of Myanmar and Thailand� This collaboration has been gaining partners and momentum since it was first presented at the ICOET 2015 International Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA�

The framework of the “International Guidelines for Environmentally Friendly Linear Infrastructure” (IGELI) project focuses on developing countries as more environmentally vulnerable countries and increased demands for development, which includes two parts� The first is to prepare a review of the existing international policies on ecological connectivity, transporta-tion, and development covered by four International Conventions: a) the Bonn Convention on Migratory Species (1979); b) the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (1992) 2011-2020 Aichi targets; c) the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) (2015) and d) the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Paris Agreement (2015)� In the second part, an international discussion on guidance has been underway through special sessions and workshops at international meetings, including the IENE 2016 International Conference (Lyon, France), the IUCN World Conservation Congress (Hawaii, USA, September 2016), the ICOET 2017 International Conference (Salt Lake City, USA), the International Forum on Sustain-able Infrastructure (Hanoi, Vietnam May 2017), and the International Workshop on Sustainable Harmonization of Green with Grey Infrastructure in South Eastern Europe (Faget, Romania, October 2017)� During these events, special presenta-tions and discussions took place on linear

infrastructure guidance, defining the needs, concepts, tools, and strategies for an international policy that could be included in guiding the development of environmentally sustainable linear infra-structure projects globally� Participants at these events covered a wide range of topics, including specialists in ecology, engineering, policy making, international finance and economics and representing environment and transport sectors, government ministries, banks, universi-ties, international institutions, and NGOs from all over the world�

The workshop at IENE 2018 will aim to develop recommendations for the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity this year as they consider the priority theme of mainstreaming biodiversity in the infrastructure sector at the CBD Conference of the Parties in November of 2018� The workshop will include three sections: a) Short presentation of the results of the

policy review of the four international conventions and the conclusions to date of the on-going international discussion on linear infrastructure guidance;

b) Discussion of these results and conclu-sions and formulation of recommen-dations in small groups of 8 to 10 participants;

c) Presentation of the group recom-mendations defining the overall final feedback�

The results of the workshop will be included in the final report and the deliverables of the IGELI Project� At the same time, the framework of the recommendations for the CBD will be further developed by the organisers in cooperation with other international organisations, such as IUCN (Connec-tivity Conservation Specialist Group/Transport Working Group), to as input in CBD Conferences of Parties Egypt in November 2018 and China in 2020�

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58

Friday / 11:30 – 12:30 Room: Foyer

Data for conservation: Towards the ex-change of roadkill and wildlife observa-tions in Europe

Dennis Wansink (The Habitat Foundation, Netherlands); Diemer Vercayie (Natuurpunt vzw, Belgium); Glenn Lelieveld (Zoogdierv-ereniging, Netherlands); Michal Bil (Trans-portation Research Centre, Czech Republic)

Roads form barriers for traveling and commuting animals� If animals try crossing a road, they might end up as road casualties� Many measures are invented to diminish these conflicts between human and animal commuting routes� To be effective, these measures have to be constructed in the right places� We need data, e�g�, about hotspots of road casualties among animals to find the right places� Data about road casualties can also help to evaluate the effectiveness of measures taken: do they solve the problem or do they create new hotspots?

Currently, citizens are involved in recording sightings of animals in several European countries, in some cases with a particular focus on road kills� In Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, and the UK citizen scientists record road kills on a continuous basis� Other countries, such as Sweden and the Czech Republic, base road kill monitoring systems on car crash data and make efforts to combine this with citizen science data from national nature observation platforms� However, many European countries don’t monitor road kills, despite the many advantages of research and mitigation of road effects on wildlife and increasing driver safety� Existing monitoring systems differ� Some record incidental sightings of road kill, some record sightings along regularly travelled transects, and other countries do both� Earlier, data collected by drivers in the UK and the Netherlands lead to the identification of hot spots� The data could also be used to evaluate the effect

of roads on the viability of local species populations�

To learn more about the effects of roads on animal species, by identifying hotspots as well as by evaluating miti-gation efficacy, we want to upgrade the citizen science projects on road casu-alties to a European wide level� Ideally, we plan to have a wildlife registration system in every European country in a couple of years� The systems can differ per country but the data collected should enable research on a European level� For example, to analyse differences between road kill hotspots, mitigation solutions, or scientific questions connected with the EU Green Infrastructure Strategy� In essence, the systems should collect more than just road kill data because the effects of roads on species populations extend further into the landscape than the road itself�

In this workshop, we will discuss the practical aspects of implementing regis-tration systems in countries without such a system� It will also explain the exchange-ability of the data from these systems to answer European wide road ecological questions� The aim is to come to road kill and wildlife observation systems in all European countries that deliver data for road ecology research on a European level� For a successful workshop we need participants with different backgrounds and different nationalities: (1) Scientists: for criteria to get useful data for scien-tific studies; (2) Volunteer managers: to suggest ideas for recruiting and moti-vating volunteers; (3) Tool builders: to discuss tools that facilitate the collection and sharing of data; (4) Road managers: for road management criteria; (5) Road authorities: for funding criteria�

The workshop will be structured as following:1� Introduction • Short introduction round� • Short introduction to the goal(s) of

the workshop and the used discus-sion methods�

• Presentation of ‘Dieren onder de wielen’ (road kill monitoring in Belgium)� The presentation describes the registration system, fundamental success factors, the people involved and the scientific questions that can be answered with the data�

2� Listing issues to tackle • S hort discussion in small groups

to find the main problems that the participants expect in (1) the establishment of national wildlife registration systems used by citizen scientists and (2) the exchange of data at a European level� The discus-sion will focus on practical aspects of setting up a national system� For example, whether to create a new registration platform (website and app) or to adopt an existing one, establishing a user community (citizen scientists), keeping citizen scientists engaged, guaranteeing the reliability of data, warrant the exchangeability of data, collecting enough data for statistical analysis, the cooperation of national road authorities, multiyear funds to keep the systems operational�

• In a plenary session, we create two lists of primary issues to tackle based on the feedback of the groups: one for national systems, one for research with data from different observation systems�

3� Listing solutions • The participants will brainstorm

in small groups about possible solutions for (a selection of) the main issues listed in the previous session� Each group treats one issue�

• Plenary session where each group presents the possible solutions�

The participants will be asked to take part in a project group� The project group will use the outcomes of the workshop to set up a strategy for the establishment of national observation systems and the use of the data for European wide scientific questions� The first two actions of the

WORKSHOPS

59

project group will be to find organi-sations that want to participate in the implementation of the strategy and to find funds to make this possible�

The results of the workshop, for example, the onset of a strategy plan, will be published on the IENE (confer-ence) website and on the websites of the organisations that take part in the follow-up and implementation of the strategy� It will also be published on social media, including the LinkedIn and Facebook pages of IENE� Follow up activities might be organised under the umbrella of IENE, such as supported workshops and meetings, which will be announced on the IENE website and in emails sent to the members�

The goal at the end of the workshop is to create a team of people that will elaborate and carry out the strategy to come to a road kill and wildlife obser-vation registration system in every European country that delivers data for research on (green) infrastructure and its effect on wildlife (populations) in Europe� Most likely the two first steps after the workshop will be:1� Finding organisations that want to

collaborate in as many European countries as possible;

2� Finding funds�

Friday / 11:30 – 12:30 Room: Venus

KDE+ workshop: New approaches to WVC hotspot identifications

Michal Bíl, Jiří Sedoník, Richard Andrášik (CDV – Transport Research Centre, Czech Republic)

The first KDE+ workshop was held in Lyon during the IENE conference in 2016� The idea behind this second KDE+ workshop is to allow the attendees to receive information on new developments with this software and test it on actual data� This event is planned as a practical exercise for researchers equipped with their laptops� A concise overview of the theoretical background will be provided, but we encourage the attendees to study the very basics of the KDE+ method in advance (www�kdeplus�cz)� We want to present the recent developments of the method to existing and new KDE+ users� This workshop is opened for everyone interested in both theoretical and practical approaches of WVC hotspots identification using KDE+�

Although there are no limitations to the number of participants, we encourage the participants who would like to work actively with the software to register at gis@cdv�cz� Do not hesitate to bring along data� We strongly encourage the attendees to have their data ready for the analyses� Only road network data and WVC data are necessary� Inform yourself in advance if your data are suitable for the analyses� The workshop organisers are ready to check the data quality in advance� It is no problem if you do not have data� The organisers will provide you with sample test data� Do not forget to bring your computer�

The KDE+ method has been imple-mented into two forms: a standalone JAVA app that will run on both Windows or Apple platforms and an ArcGIS Toolbox� In the latter case, you have to have ArcGIS 10�1 – 10�5 installed� The

JAVA app requires input data being in CSV files or shape files� The ArcGIS Toolbox process only shapefiles� The workshop is intended for users who can work with a GIS or with spatial data in general� However, other users, for example, practitioners, field workers, and decision makers are also welcome to attend the workshop�

The workshop is planned to take one hour only, but feel free to ask the workshop organisers during the confer-ence� We recommend the prospective workshop attendees to send us their data before the workshop so we can check its quality� Time needed for hotspots computation varies according to the number of roads and WVC data� It is not necessary to have analysed the entire country during the workshop, only a few selected roads or a small region would be enough to obtain an idea of how the software works and how to interpret the results�

WORKSHOPS

60

Friday / 11:30 – 12:30 Room: Grand Café

Avenues and other trees in rural landscapes: How to maximise their ecological and social benefits as Green Infrastructure

Piotr Tyszko-Chmielowiec (Foundation for Sustainable Development, Poland)

In the past, roads and other transporta-tion infrastructure have been perceived only as a barrier for many organisms� However, their role as green infrastruc-ture for biological diversity is increasingly appreciated� Trees are an essential part of many traditional European land-scapes, both urban and rural� In these anthropogenic environments, they help to maintain biodiversity and ecological equilibrium as habitats and ecological corridors� Insects, birds, lichens, fungi, and mammals (e�g�, dormice) use avenues and other trees in open environments� EU and national regulations protect many of the mentioned organisms� However, trees are also among the least appreciated elements of the green infrastructure, often taken for granted by both society and tree managers� The management of trees is often ineffective in European countries� As a consequence, the resource becomes impoverished� Roadside trees have been disappearing in recent decades from European countries, due to hasty road modernisation and misman-agement� Replanting is rare� The growing trees are often subject to improper care practices, which reduces their life expectancy and impacts public safety, generating criticism of trees in media� How to reconcile the presence of trees with other types of infrastructure, such as roads, railways and canals are particularly challenging� Using synergies between the green, grey and blue infrastructures will maximise the trees’ benefits� At the 2016 IENE conference in Lyon, there was a separate session on tree avenues as ecological corridors� The final declaration called to “Recognise the importance of trees in HTI for the ecosystem services

they provide in cultural landscapes as well as their role as habitat for small fauna”�

The goals of this workshop are: (1) To explore how trees in rural landscapes, particularly roadside trees, contribute to ecological connectivity - being a backbone of biodiversity in rural land-scapes and providing numerous benefits to society, including climate change miti-gation and providing life quality; (2) To explore threats to trees and discuss how they can be preserved (good practices); (3) To formulate recommendations for management of trees as green infrastruc-ture to maximise the benefits to nature and society� Emphasis will be put on roadside trees (avenues)� However, other settings will also be considered, such as trees along waterways, urban trees, trees in agricultural fields� Target groups for the workshop are: (1) Biologists researching ecosystems of road verges; (2) Conservationists working to protect traditional landscapes; (3) Infrastructure managers and designers�

The workshop will be structured as follows:• Introduction and discussion to define

the role of trees in Green Infrastruc-ture;

• Reviewing threats to trees;• Exchanging best practices;• Formulating recommendations - for

management and policy�

The outcomes of the workshop will contribute to the final declaration of the conference� The complete outcomes will be used in the framework of the LIFE project “Trees for Europe’s Green Infra-structure” in working groups elaborating specific recommendations� They also will be disseminated through seminars in Brussels (planned for the year 2019), Germany, and Poland� The products of the project will be presented at next IENE conference in 2020�

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Friday / 11:30 – 12:30 Room: Saturn

Crossing borders between ecological planning and engineering technolo-gy to achieve faster approval proce-dures and better species and habitat protection

Sven Reiter (Landesamt für Straßenbau und Verkehr M-V, Germany); Jörg Borkenhagen (Bosch & Partner GmbH, Germany)

Measures of landscape planning - especially in the field of species and habitat protection – need to be directly effective (without a scientific doubt) under European law� The commonly used measures of landscape planners dealing with the planting of vegetation are often not adequate (plantings are susceptible to interferences, only have long-term and limited spatial effects)� Therefore, measures for species and habitat protection have to become more technical-oriented; especially to avoid time lags� Sometimes, a kind of particular vegetation technology is necessary� The realisation of an infrastructure project is often dependent upon the most creative and useful application of particular technical solutions for the protection of species or habitats� Nevertheless, many projects suffer from the lack of adequate technical solutions� Sometimes projects fail, or projects are delayed because no (technical) solution was found� The workshop gives better understanding and stimulates a better cooperation between landscapers and engineers and aims to identify and discuss best practice examples of timely solutions�

The content and the strategy for the workshop are presented using five examples�1� Mobile protective walls as a measure

of damage limitation and preventive measures (for a lot of impacts in Natura 2000 Areas) like crossing aids for birds and bats, barriers to prevent animals from entering the construction area;

2� Technical protection of lizards (e�g�,

Lacerta muralis, Lacerta agilis) against predators as a part of the relocation of populations (continuous ecological functionality measures, CEF measures);

3� Installing of technical markers on wires of existing power lines as „favourable conservation status“, FCS measures to compensate bird strikes (directly effective mitigation measure for collision risk at a bridge for the same population of birds);

4� Transplanting of large trees to protect populations of xylobiont beetles (e�g�, Osmoderma eremita);

5� Construction of Benjes hedges to reach directly useful structures (relinking, breeding or hunting habitats for birds)�

A lot of relevant species and habitat protection measures can be realised in certain cases by directly effective and most innovative technical solutions� The relevance of the best technical solution to solve ecological problems is presented in case studies from the poster session of the FGSV (see below)� The aim is to motivate participants to create posters for the best practice collection of the FGSV� The discussion will be structured as follows:1� The participants are expected to

comment on the solutions presented�2� Discussion: • How can we achieve directly

effective measures regarding damage limitation or mitigation?

• How can we use all possibilities of technical potential to get the best result, which means to speed up projects and reach legal security?

• How do we need to optimise the application of engineering tech-nology in the field of species and habitat protection?

During the discussion, the participants should briefly present other cases of best practice examples of their own country or experience� Additional information on the best practice collec-tion can be found on the website of the Forschungsgesellschaft für Straßen- und Verkehrswesen (FGSV, Cologne (http://

www�fgsv�de/gremien/strassenentwurf/landschaftsgestaltung/296-landschaftsp-flegerische-kompensationsmassnahmen�html)�

The organiser of the workshops will create posters of the workshop results and upload them to the FGSV platform� Posters and other input papers of the participants will be uploaded as well� So far, the collection contains about 140 posters� The poster sessions are already internationally organised (in German and English)� Beside various German examples the following countries are involved: Austria, Switzer-land, Luxemburg, Poland� The website is operated professionally and will be updated on a regular basis� Therefore, long-term documentation of the findings is ensured� The poster sessions have been used in a research project of the „Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen, (BASt)“� Based on the research project, some guidelines of German infrastructure planning (concerning risk management and mitigation in particular) have been developed or updated� The results of the IENE workshop will be part of updates or intended guidelines of the FGSV and will be published in national („Straße und Autobahn“, „Straßenverkehrstechnik“) and international journals�

WORKSHOPS

62

Friday / 11:30 – 12:30 Room: Neptune

Challenges for assessing mitigation effectiveness: Is there an ideal study design?

Fernanda Z. Teixeira (Graduate Program in Analysis and Modelling of Environmental Systems, Federal University of Minas Gerais / Road and Railroad Ecology Group, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil); Kylie Soanes (School of Ecosystem and Forest Science, The University of Melbourne, Australia); Rodney van der Ree (School of BioSciences, The University of Melbourne, Australia); Scott Findlay (Department of Biology, Institute of Environment & Institute for Science, Society and Policy, University of Ottawa, Canada); Jochen A. G. Jaeger (Geography, Planning and Environment De-partment, Concordia University, Canada); Edgar van der Grift (Wageningen University and Research, Netherlands)

In order to mitigate road impacts, a variety of mitigation measures have been implemented on roads worldwide� The costs vary widely according to the type of measure, but expenses associ-ated with mitigation implementation and maintenance can be an important part of a road budget� Although impres-sive efforts are invested in mitigation, proportional investments do not follow these in assessing mitigation effective-ness� Recent literature has pointed out that little is known about what types of measures are most effective and if miti-gation measures are actually mitigating road effects at all� A common problem in these mitigation studies is that study designs employed are usually inadequate to assess the effectiveness of mitigation measures�

This workshop aims to discuss how monitoring studies can be improved to better assess mitigation effectiveness and generate knowledge that can be applied to other roads� The workshop targets an audience of researchers and practitioners, including both road

managers and environmental consult-ants� The workshop will be 60 minutes in length and structured in three different moments: a short presenta-tion, discussion in small groups, and a general discussion with all participants� The organisers will present a few study designs that ideally would be applied to assess mitigation effectiveness� This will be a brief introduction about the chal-lenges of assessing mitigation effective-ness, where ideal study designs required to answer important questions about effectiveness will be presented to partic-ipants as topics for discussion� Then, the audience will be divided in small groups where they will be asked to list positive and negative aspects, as well as feasible and impractical aspects of each study design� Finally, a discussion involving all participants will be facilitated in the third moment of the workshop with the goal of first sharing the discussions taken within each group and latter synthesizing the ideas�

The facilitator will lead the discus-sion using participatory tools, first by gathering the ideas from participants of each group and then using stacking rounds to encourage the involvement of all participants� Seating arrangements will be made to allow maximum interac-tion between attendees� Tracking will be used to follow important elements of the topics being discussed and to synthesize the main topics� Expected outcomes of this workshop are the identification of any gaps in understanding, in expecta-tions, and in feasibility about mitigation studies� We seek to identify barriers to the implementation of satisfactory study designs from the perspective of road planners and managers� The main findings of the workshop will be a synthesis about positive and negative, and feasible and impractical aspects of each study design for monitoring mitiga-tion effectiveness based on researchers and practitioner experience, with recom-mendations about study designs for the assessment of mitigation effectiveness� These findings will be communicated in

an opinion paper to be written after the workshop where we will discuss how studies can be improved to counteract negative and unfeasible aspects while guaranteeing good designs, as well as presenting the opportunities and challenges for their implementation� By integrating researchers, road planners, and managers in an interactive way, this workshop can help to decrease the gap between the questions about mitigation effectiveness that need to be answered and the efforts necessary for answering them�

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Tuesday / 14:30 – 16:00 Room: Philips Hall

NRA in the spotlight Collaborating in harmonizing “green” and “grey” infrastructure

A special session will be held on the first day of the IENE 2018 Internatonal Conference, 11th September, aimed at national road authority (NRA) personnel or organizations closely related to NRA’s, such as delegated administrators or environmental departments� All of these organizations have knowledge, experi-ence and/or responsibility to improve or

manage biodiversity while creating and maintaining transport infrastructure (i�e� road, railway, waterways and powerlines) on a daily basis�

The focus of the session will be on collaboration between these organiza-tions on a European and national level and how the networks of professionals within the EU, such as IENE, Conference of European Directors of Roads (CEDR) and national networks, can provide support� By presenting and discussing challenges and substantive measures from different perspectives, the session will have the potential to define practical steps for a

more efficient and effective collaboration within the European transport infrastruc-ture area�

The Organization Committee is pleased to announce that Stefan Leiner, Head of Unit Biodiversity of the DG Environment, European Commission, will provide a presentation at the session and Steve Philips, Secretary-General of CEDR, will act as the session’s moderator� The six pitches will be provided by different colleagues of national infrastructure and/or environment agencies in Europe�

SPECIAL SESSIONS

Program in short

Time What

14:30 Opening: goal and form of session

14:35 Short presentation of EU strategy DG Envir� And necessity of transnational cooperation

14:45 Short presentation of CEDR: method and results/added value of CEDR programs

14:55 Pitch #1

15:01 Pitch #2

15:07 Pitch #3

15:13 Pitch #4

15:19 Pitch #5

15:25 Pitch #6

15:31 Panel discussion

15:50 Summing up: conclusions and agreements

16:00 End

64

Thursday / 17:15 - 18:45 Room: Philips Hall

Completion Dutch Defragmentation Program (MJPO)

From the perspective of transporta-tion ecology, 2018 is a special year for the Netherlands: the MJPO (Multi-An-nual Defragmentation Programme) will be completed� This nation-wide, region-oriented programme in which the central government and provincial governments, often in consultation with municipalities, water management boards and nature conservation organ-izations, worked together to resolve 178 bottlenecks between the existing national transport infrastructure and the national ecological network� More than 500 wildlife measures have been taken thanks to the close cooperation between the MJPO task group and its partners� The IENE 2018 International Confer-ence is an excellent occasion to share the results of this programme with

colleagues from Europe and beyond and to festively conclude the programme with both the many parties involved and the attendants of the conference� For this purpose a special session has been prepared, immediately preceding the conference dinner� During this session we will look back at the results and achievements of the programme with a presentation of programme manager Adam Hofland and through a short movie that presents some highlights of the MJPO� Prof� dr� Louise Vet, director of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO) and professor of Evolutionary Ecology at Wageningen University, will be the keynote speaker� Furthermore, prof� dr� Vet is also the chair of the national plan for biodiver-sity restoration� In her presentation she will promote a good marriage between economy and ecology and positively encourage the attendees to take action in their profession� Her background and focus makes her a perfect keynote for this event since the MJPO symbolizes this positive contribution to the synergy

between ‘grey’ (economy) and ‘green’ (ecology) infrastructure, although with retroactive effect�In the second part of the session a symbolic start will be given to the Community of Practice ‘Ontsnippering’ (= Defragmentation)� With the end of the MJPO the network of involved organizations and professionals will not be lost� Within this community of practice researchers, practitioners and consultants of private companies, governments and research institutes can meet up, share and discuss the state of the art knowledge on defragmentation and its subtopics that need more focus and development� This will be the IENE network on a national level� With the start of this community, the MJPO task group hopes to extend its value after the end of the programme� The session will be hosted by Lodewijk Hoekstra� Lodewijk is the Dutch best-known TV gardener, presenter, garden designer, entrepreneur and especially promotor of a sustainable world in which people and nature are in balance�

SPECIAL SESSIONS

Program in short

Time What

17:00 Walk in with drinks and refreshments

17:15 Opening by host Lodewijk Hoekstra

17:20 Results of 15 years of MJPO by Adam Hofland

17:40 Short movie about 15 years of MJPO

17:50 Keynote presentation by Prof� Dr� Louise Vet

18:10 Official start of the Community of Practice ‘Ontsnippering’

18:45 Wind up

65

THANK YOU TO ALL!IENE 2018 received support from many partners through sponsoring the conference or co-hosting one or more fi eld trips.

Field trip hosts

Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management

RijkswaterstaatMinistry of Infrastructure and Water Management

Partners

Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality

Supporters

Sponsors

Ecology & Landscape

66

FLOOR PLAN EVOLUON

III

Transportation Infra-structure Networks with

Ecological Solutions

April 6-9, 2020Evora, Portugal

IENE 2020

SAVE THE DATE!

VISIT

www�iene�info

program book - iene2018.info · rijkswaterstaat, dutch ministry of infra-structure and water...

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