Effect of Roads on Ecological Corridors Used for Wildlife Movement in a Natural Heritage Site

Hui Shi, Tiange Shi, Zhaoping Yang, Zhi Wang, Fang Han and Cuirong Wang
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Hui Shi: Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, CAS, Urumqi 830011, China
Tiange Shi: Department of Economics, Xinjiang University of Finance & Economics, Urumqi 830012, China
Zhaoping Yang: Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, CAS, Urumqi 830011, China
Zhi Wang: Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, CAS, Urumqi 830011, China
Fang Han: Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, CAS, Urumqi 830011, China
Cuirong Wang: Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, CAS, Urumqi 830011, China

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 8, 1-24

Abstract: Roads are the link between geographic space and human socio-economic activities, promoting local economic development, and simultaneously causing various negative effects, such as segmentation, interference, destruction, degradation, and pollution. In China, the construction of roads is rapid, which might affect wildlife movement, landscape pattern, and land use change, thereby, affecting the conservation of heritage sites. In the present study, the minimum cumulative resistance model, along with geographic information system technology, was adopted to compute the ecological corridor for wildlife movement between the source patches and to analyze ecological corridor changes under two conditions (road presence/absence) at two time points in Kanas, nominated as a World Natural Heritage site. The relationships between the ecological corridor changes and various factors, including the cutting index of the ‘road-effect zones’, terrain, and road geometric characteristics, were examined using the geographical detector model to identify the influencing factors and mechanisms of the corridor changes, in order to rationally simulate the potential ecological corridors. In addition, the detached and fragmented ecological patches can be connected to effectively protect the biodiversity, biological habitats, and species, which are important means to achieve regional sustainable development and ecological construction.

Keywords: effects of road; ecological corridor; minimum cumulative resistance model; world heritage site (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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