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Spatial road disturbance index (SPROADI) for conservation planning: a novel landscape index, demonstrated for the State of Brandenburg, Germany

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Abstract

The expansion of roads, and the subsequent changes to the surrounding landscape not only lead to landscape fragmentation but also have been shown to be a key driver of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. Local declines of species abundance as well as changes in animal behaviour have drawn attention to wider ecosystem effects including altered species composition and a degradation of ecosystem functioning. However, methods for measuring and quantifying the distribution and environmental impacts of roads are not yet fully developed. We present a new technique for assessing the potential impacts of roads on biodiversity using a spatial road disturbance index (SPROADI). The index is calculated from three sub-indices: traffic intensity as a measure of traffic volume per time and space; vicinity impact, which is the assessment of edge effect of roads on adjacent habitats (the road-effect zone); and fragmentation grade, which provides an indication of the degree to which the landscape is intersected by roads. SPROADI was then tested using data from the Federal State of Brandenburg in north-eastern Germany. A sensitivity analysis was carried out on the results to assess the robustness of the index. The findings revealed expected patterns of high road disturbance in urban and peri-urban landscapes surrounding Berlin. Less obvious were the high levels of road density and impacts in forest plantations across the southern region of Brandenburg, and low levels of road disturbance in agricultural crop lands of the north-western region. Results were variable for areas under some form of protection. The only national park displayed substantially lower SPROADI values in contrast to the surrounding non-protected areas whilst other protected area categories, which were landscape conservation areas and nature parks, revealed SPROADI values that were equally high as those for non-protected areas. The results of this study demonstrate the strengths and potential applications of SPROADI as a quantitative means for identifying low-traffic areas in the context of conservation and sustainable transport planning.

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Acknowledgments

This research project was part of the ‘roadless areas initiative’ of the Policy Committee of the Society for Conservation Biology—Europe Section and has been partially carried out within the framework of the cooperative graduate program ‘Adaptive Nature Conservation under Climate Change’. We would like to thank all funding partners and collaborators. The research project was partially funded by the Ministry of Science, Research and Culture of the Federal State of Brandenburg with resources from the European Social Fund. It has also been developed in the context of the project on climate change adaptation in nature conservation, Innovation Network Climate Change Adaptation Brandenburg Berlin (INKA BB), funded by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research. We are grateful to Wolfgang Cramer for comments on an earlier version of this paper. The leader and supervisor of the research team (PLI) acknowledges the awarding of the research professorship “Biodiversity and natural resource management under global change” by Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development. We appreciate the comments by two anonymous reviewers and the editor Jochen Jaeger, which greatly improved our paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Econics and Ecosystem Management, Alfred-Moeller-Str. 1, 16225, Eberswalde, Germany

    Lisa Freudenberger, Peter R. Hobson, Slaven Rupic, Martin Schluck, Julia Sauermann, Stefan Kreft & Pierre L. Ibisch

  2. Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development, Alfred-Moeller-Str. 1, 16225, Eberswalde, Germany

    Lisa Freudenberger, Slaven Rupic, Martin Schluck, Julia Sauermann, Stefan Kreft & Pierre L. Ibisch

  3. Writtle College, Chelmsford, Essex, CM1 3RR, UK

    Peter R. Hobson

  4. Department of Conservation Biology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Permoser Str. 15, 04318, Leipzig, Germany

    Guy Pe’er

  5. Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, Mickiewicza 33, 31-120, Krakow, Poland

    Nuria Selva

  6. Policy Committee of the Society for Conservation Biology, European Section, Washington, DC, USA

    Peter R. Hobson, Stefan Kreft, Nuria Selva & Pierre L. Ibisch

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  1. Lisa Freudenberger
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  9. Pierre L. Ibisch
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Correspondence to Lisa Freudenberger.

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Lisa Freudenberger led the manuscript elaboration. Slaven Rupic and Lisa Freudenberger conducted the research. Pierre L. Ibisch established the research approach and supervised the project. Lisa Freudenberger, Peter R. Hobson, Slaven Rupic, Guy Pe’er, Nuria Selva, Stefan Kreft and Pierre L. Ibisch wrote the manuscript. Martin Schluck and Julia Sauermann supported the research project through GIS related tasks.

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Freudenberger, L., Hobson, P.R., Rupic, S. et al. Spatial road disturbance index (SPROADI) for conservation planning: a novel landscape index, demonstrated for the State of Brandenburg, Germany. Landscape Ecol 28, 1353–1369 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-013-9887-8

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