Best practice for designing barrier mitigation. Dr Sarah Robinson Wolraith, Part 1

The consequences for wildlife due to road infrastructure include traffic, mortality, habitat loss and degradation, pollution, altered microclimate and hydrological conditions, and increased human activity in adjacent areas. All these factors cause considerable loss and disturbance of natural habitats. In addition, roads create barriers to animal movement, which can lead to isolation and eventually population decline.

Habitat fragmentation, the splitting of natural habitats and ecosystems into smaller and more isolated patches, is recognised globally as one of the biggest threats to the conservation of biological diversity (Forman et al. 2003). Within Queensland, population growth has spurred a need for increased road infrastructure which, if not managed properly, will create barriers and prove to be detrimental to the health of our environment. The immediate and obvious consequences of poor or non-integrated planning, include increased animal fatalities on our roads. The other, more detrimental effect of road barriers, is that which creates population isolation, habitat fragmentation and degradation which is not easily detectable and, therefore, has only recently become highlighted as an issue which must be addressed (van der Ree et al., 2007).

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