Journal article 667 views 151 downloads
Supporting proactive planning for climate change adaptation and conservation using an attributed road-river structure dataset
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Michiel Jorissen ,
Rochelle Bristol,
Sukhmani Mantel,
James C. White,
Fraser A. Januchowski-Hartley,
José V. Roces-Díaz,
Carlos Cabo Gomez,
Maria Pregnolato
Journal of Environmental Management, Volume: 321, Start page: 115959
Swansea University Author: Stephanie Januchowski-Hartley
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© 2022 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
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DOI (Published version): 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115959
Abstract
Freshwater species and their habitats, and transportation networks are at heightened risk from changing climate and are priorities for adaptation, with the sheer abundance and individuality of road-river structures complicating mitigation efforts. We present a new spatial dataset of road-river struc...
| Published in: | Journal of Environmental Management |
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| ISSN: | 0301-4797 |
| Published: |
Elsevier BV
2022
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| Online Access: |
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60852 |
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| Abstract: |
Freshwater species and their habitats, and transportation networks are at heightened risk from changing climate and are priorities for adaptation, with the sheer abundance and individuality of road-river structures complicating mitigation efforts. We present a new spatial dataset of road-river structures attributed as culverts, bridges, or fords, and use this along with data on gradient and stream order to estimate structure sensitivity and exposure in and out of special areas of conservation (SAC) and built-up areas to determine vulnerability to damage across river catchments in Wales, UK. We then assess hazard of flooding likelihood at the most vulnerable structures to determine those posing high risk of impact on roads and river-obligate species (fishes and mussels) whose persistence depends on aquatic habitat connectivity. Over 5% (624/11,680) of structures are high vulnerability and located where flooding hazard is highest, posing high risk of impact to roads and river-obligate species. We assess reliability of our approach through an on-ground survey in a river catchment supporting an SAC and more than 40% (n = 255) of high-risk structures, and show that of the subset surveyed >50% had obvious physical degradation, streambank erosion, and scouring. Our findings help us to better understand which structures pose high-risk of impact to river-obligate species and humans with increased flooding likelihood. |
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| Keywords: |
Connectivity; Flooding; Risk; Rivers; Roads; Transportation; Vulnerability |
| College: |
Faculty of Science and Engineering |
| Funders: |
Welsh European Funding Office 80761-SU-140 (West); European Regional Development Fund 80761-SU-140 (West); Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council EP/R00742X/2 |
| Start Page: |
115959 |