Landscape Characteristics Based on Effectiveness of Wildlife Crossing Structures in South Korea

Hyunjin Seo, Chulhyun Choi, Kyeongjun Lee and Donggul Woo
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Hyunjin Seo: Biomimicry Team, Division of Ecological Information, National Institute of Ecology, Seocheon-gun 33657, Korea
Chulhyun Choi: Research Team on Ecological and Natural Map, Division of Ecological Survey, National Institute of Ecology, Seocheon-gun 33657, Korea
Kyeongjun Lee: Division of Mathematics and Big Data Science, Daegu University, Gyeongsan 38453, Korea
Donggul Woo: Ecological Space Research Team, Division of Ecosystem Assessment, National Institute of Ecology, Seocheon-gun 33657, Korea

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 2, 1-13

Abstract: Roads are notable and responsible for the loss of biodiversity and disruption of wildlife habitats connectivity. Wildlife crossing structures (WCS) help wildlife move between habitats by connecting fragmented habitats. Their effectiveness is affected by various factors. Here, to identify methods for improving the effectiveness of wildlife crossing structures, we controlled the effect of intrinsic factors, such as size, that are difficult to improve in an already installed area, and then, evaluated the differences in extrinsic factors using 12 landscape characteristics. Our results show that 18 wildlife crossing structures were selected with propensity-score (PS) matching method. The surrounding landscape characteristics differed between high-effectiveness wildlife crossing structures and low-effectiveness wildlife crossing structures. Particularly, there was a significant difference between the ‘statutory protected area’ and the ‘edge’ index of the morphological spatial pattern analysis among the landscape characteristic variables derived within 1 km 2 of wildlife crossing structures. We empirically demonstrate that characteristics around highly effective WCS, statutory protected areas are widely distributed, and the ratio of edge of MSPA is low (within 1 km 2 ). Therefore, an important outcome of our research is the demonstration that management of WCS itself is important, but conservation of surrounding habitats and landscape management plans are also significant.

Keywords: wildlife crossing structures; effectiveness evaluation; MSPA (morphological spatial pattern analysis); landscape connectivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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