• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.62-68
• /
• 2021

Despite numerous efforts on reducing road-kill worldwide, the collisions have been occurring continuously. Many factors are affecting road-kill occurrences and the effect is various by species. We investigated Hydropotes inermis argyropus road-kill characteristics on the national highway. We examined 9,099 H. i. argyropus road-kill points with distance to the gaps on road (interchange and intersection) and distance to six natural land-cover types as explanatory variables. We also examined the number of road-kill occurrences according to temporal variation using chi-square test with 9,658 events. In general, H. i. argyropus road-kill location tended to occur close to the gaps on road, agricultural lands and forests. The average distance from road-kill to the gap was 694.7 m and 78.6% of the collisions were occurred within 1 km from the gaps. In addition, Kruskal-Wallis test showed the distance between road-kill points and each land cover and the gaps was significantly different. The temporal analyses showed that the differences of the H. i. argyropus road-kill frequency are significant in both month and season. Our results implies H. i. argyropus road-kill location tended to occur close to the gaps on road, agricultural lands and forests in general, especially during May and June, according to their seasonal behavior. Thus, we suggest there is a need of concentrated management on the roads with specific characteristics for both wildlife and human safety.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.51-58
• /
• 2006

The purpose of this research presents a method to position and makes the structure for eco-corridors reasonably with collectable analysing results of various effects shown in mammals' road-kill at 429 points. Target animals of this research are Leopard cat, Siberian weasel, Raccoon dog, Korean hare, Eurasian red squirrel, Siberian chipmunk and Water deer. The results derived from the empirical analysis on the contents above are followed. First, according to the results as for Leopard cat road kill analysis, which is designated as Endangered Species Class II, the eco-corridor might be located at near village having stead food in order to decrease the frequencies of road-kill, because its road kill points were mainly collected at 4 lane hilly road with mountain-road-farm area geological type of. Second, because Siberian weasel's road kill was detected at 2 lane hilly road with mountain-road-stream geological type, the eco-corridor might be located at near a mill to decrease road-kill frequencies. Third, the road-kill frequency of Eurasian red squirrel can be reduced when the eco-corridor is located at the area across coniferous tree near 4 lane west sea freeway with mountain-road-mountain. Fourth, the road-kill of Raccoon dog can be reduced when the eco-corridor is located at 4 lane mountain road or hilly road with the geological type having farm land-road-mountain(stream). Fifth, Korean hare's road-kill can be reduced when the eco-corridor is located at grass land across ridge line of mountain, because wild rabbit road kill was happened at 4 lane mountain road or 2 lane mountain road(mountain-road-mountain). Sixth, As for Siberian chipmunk, the eco-corridor might be located at the side slope of mountain road at 2 lane mountain road under the speed of 60km/h with mountain-road-mountain. Seventh, For Water deer, the eco-corridor might be located at 4 lane hilly road with mountain-road-farm land. As for Common otter, Amur hedgehog, Yellow-throated marten, Weasel, it is difficult to specify the proper site of eco-corridor due to the lack of data. Eco-corridors for carnivores might be well located at 4 lane hilly road or 2 lane hilly road with mountain-road-farm land, and the track for herbivores might be well located as a overhead bridge on mountain-road-mountain type across mountains. In order to position eco-corridors for wildlife properly, we have to research animal's behavior with ecological background, and to consider the local uniqueness and regularly collect the empirical road-kill data in long term 3 to 5 year, which can be the foundation for the more suitable place of wild life eco-corridors.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.281-284
• /
• 2019

Efficient management of road-kill data is difficult at national scale when there are many organizations that are in charge of different road types. Here, we described the first case to integrate road-kill data through Korea Road-kill Observation System (KROS) by the Korean government. The system was launched in June 2018 to approximately 3,000 road menders. During 15 months, 5,812 road-kill observations were registered on KROS including mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians. Of them, about 86 % was occupied by five species (Hydropotes inermis, Felis catus, Capreolus pygargus, Nyctereutes procyonoides, and Canis lupus familiaris) listed in number of occurrences. The observed road-kill frequency rapidly increased until April 2019 and peaked on May 2019. However, as the system is just starting, the results from KROS cannot be treated as the exact representation of road-kill trend in the country. Although the efficient method to manage national road-kill statistic is arranged, still there are some limitations to overcome to make the system stable.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
• /
• v.31 no.4
• /
• pp.282-287
• /
• 2014

The negative impacts of roads on wildlife mortality have been well documented, and one of the most significant impact is wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) in most countries throughout the world. While road impacts on wildlife are a truly global concern with a large socio-economic cost, few researches in Korea have been quantified road-kill occurrence on highways or identified extensively seasonal and geographic patterns of this phenomenon. Therefore, we analyzed highway mortality of wild mammals in Korea using database from five years of nation-wide data on WVCs, and estimated road-kill density by standardizing on per km and per $10^3$ vehicle basis. During 2008 through 2012, a total of 10,940 wildlifes were reported killed on highways, with an average of 2,188 cases per year. There were 2,376 road-kills in 2012, and this equates to 0.01 road-kills per km per week or one road-kill every 88.5 km per week. For time of day, road-kills occurred more frequently in the early morning (05:00-08:00, 38.3%), and day of week did not have a significant influence in any individual year. The road-kill was highest in the spring (March- May, 33.0%) and least in the winter (December-February, 16.1%), and the most frequently killed native species were of Korean water deer (79.7%), raccoon dog (12.7%), Korean hare (3.1%), and leopard cat (1.2%). The overall standardized kill-rate (number/10 km/1,000 vehicles/month) in 2012 was 0.057 with highest on Dangjinyeongdeok highway (0.476), followed by Yeongdong (0.274), Sooncheonwanju (0.233), Iksanpohang (0.187), and Joongang (0.150). This study highlights that the frequency of WVCs are prevalent throughout the highways in Korea. Further work is needed to determine whether such a level of mortality is sustainable from an ecological point of view.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.46-53
• /
• 2010

The purpose of this study is to provide a database for the reduction of road-kills in the Odaesan National Park. To accomplish this task, investigations were conducted on the road-kills that occurred in the period from 2003 to 2007. The results of investigations are as follows: 427 road-kill cases were reported during the period, and the road-kill victims turned out to be mostly small mammals. Among mammals and reptiles the road-kill occurrence rate of squirrels and garters was higher than that of other species, and in the case of birds, the road-kill occurrence rate of yellow-throated bunting was the highest. The road-kill accidents of mammals and reptiles took place more frequently during the summer and autumn, while those of birds during the spring and summer. The increase of road-kill occurrence rate was found to be related to the activity and breeding period of wild animals, as well as to the increase of vehicles. The occurrence rate of road-kills was also found to be influenced by the type of land use on the roadside. Furthermore, the occurrence rate increased significantly when the roads passed through dry fields.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.25 no.5
• /
• pp.649-657
• /
• 2011

This study had targeted the Manjong Junction~Hongchun interchange section of Jungang highway in order to analyze the efficiency and improvement of the highway wild-life fences. Being analyzed wild-life fence as an effective facility for the prevention of road-kill, it had founded that the wild animals did not jump over even the two layer guardrail, concrete barrier and noise barrier, fence for rock fall. For the section with high road-kill decrease effect after installing the wild-life fence, the effect was higher at wild-life fence with the height of 1.0m where the door had not been installed and the well connected points of road facility than the area with fence height of 1.5m. The road-kill decrease effect was also high at the well managed areas even if the door has not been installed. Also, road-kill had occurred by concentrating around the end of wild-life fence after installing the fence, Moreover road-kill had also occurred around the cutting section. The door of wild-life fence had higher amount of road-kill occurrence as the installation interval was closer. it was analyzed that the door management has a lot of effect on road-kill decrease. The fence for rock fall, two layer guardrail and concrete barrier having the effect of wild-life fence installed on the road would have to be installed by connecting with wild-life fences through proper facility improvement. Although the door should not be installed if possible, it should be installed as automatic door or gravity door to prevent the door from leaving the door open. An escape route has to be formed for the prompt escape away from the road for the animals entered through the ending section of the fence. The eco-corridor has to be made by restoring the soil layer of dual purpose eco-corridor forming a planting area. Also, the dead body after the accident has to be disposed to the outer section of the road immediately in order to prevent the secondary road-kill by the predator from the road-kill. The fence has to be installed as 500m or longer in both ways, in other words 1,000m or longer, from the targeted spot of minimum accident prevention while connecting up to the bridge or box culvert, etc that are next road facilities if possible to guide wild animals safely to the eco-corridor.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.233-243
• /
• 2015

The ecosystem fragmentation due to transportation infrastructure causes road-kill phenomenon. When making policy for reducing road-kill it is important to select target-species in order to enhance its efficiency. However, many corridors installed in Korea have been raised issues about their effectiveness due to lack of considerations such as target-species selection, site selection, and management, etc. In this study, we are to grasp relationship between road-kill area and habitat patches and suggest that spatial location of habitat patches should be considered as one of the important factors when making policy for reducing road-kill. Habitat patches were presumed from overlying suitability index that chosen by literature review and road-kill hotspot was determined by Getis-Ord $G_i^*$ analysis. Afterwards, we performed a correlation analysis between $G_i$ Z-score and the distance from habitat patches to the roads. As a result, there is a negative correlation between two variables, It affects the $G_i^*$ Z-score going up if the habitat patches and the roads become closer.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.89-101
• /
• 2016

This study examined spatial disposition of wildlife highway mortality using road-kill GIS database and Naver panoramic 360 degree views to find out which habitat and road variables most influenced road-kill numbers for each mammal species and how the landscape and road elements are connected on highway. Road-kills on Yeongdong(YD) and Jungbu highway(JB) generally tended to be higher in natural barren, grassland and cropland due to its value of preferred habitats of nocturnal and multihabitat species like water deer(Hydropotes inermis argyropus), raccoon(Nyctereutes procyonoides) and hare(Lepus coreanus). Land cover in YD showed no difference between species (p=0.165) while JB did by species (p=0.001). This may be explained by disparate landscape between mountain and urban or the fact that YD in long term operation might have enabled consistent crossing pattern compared to JB experiencing continuous extension works which may in turn have deviated the road crossing. Although road-kill prevention effect of local topography alone was appreciable, compared to less significant or ineffective fence and guardrail, gentle slope declining in a direction to the road turned out to offset the preventive effect of juxtaposed fence. Furthermore, green patches on road near intersection were deemed a visual stepping stone facilitating wildlife attempted crossing and local roads juxtaposed with a highway were especially left defenceless to road-kill without road barriers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
• /
• v.26 no.5
• /
• pp.19-32
• /
• 2023

The fragmentation of habitats resulting from human activities leads to the isolation of wildlife and it also causes wildlife-vehicle collisions (i.e. Road-kill). In that sense, it is important to predict potential habitats of specific wildlife that causes wildlife-vehicle collisions by considering geographic, environmental and transportation variables. Road-kill, especially by large mammals, threatens human safety as well as financial losses. Therefore, we conducted this study on roe deer (Capreolus pygargus tianschanicus), a large mammal that causes frequently Road-kill in Jeju Island. So, to predict potential wildlife habitats by considering geographic, environmental, and transportation variables for a specific species this study was conducted to identify high-priority restoration sites with both characteristics of potential habitats and road-kill hotspot. we identified high-priority restoration sites that is likely to be potential habitats, and also identified the known location of a Road-kill records. For this purpose, first, we defined the environmental variables and collect the occurrence records of roe deer. After that, the potential habitat map was generated by using Random Forest model. Second, to analyze roadkill hotspots, a kernel density estimation was used to generate a hotspot map. Third, to define high-priority restoration sites, each map was normalized and overlaid. As a result, three northern regions roads and two southern regions roads of Jeju Island were defined as high-priority restoration sites. Regarding Random Forest modeling, in the case of environmental variables, The importace was found to be a lot in the order of distance from the Oreum, elevation, distance from forest edge(outside) and distance from waterbody. The AUC(Area under the curve) value, which means discrimination capacity, was found to be 0.973 and support the statistical accuracy of prediction result. As a result of predicting the habitat of C. pygargus, it was found to be mainly distributed in forests, agricultural lands, and grasslands, indicating that it supported the results of previous studies.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Computer Information Conference
• /
• 2019.01a
• /
• pp.217-218
• /
• 2019

매년 많은 수의 동물들과 사람들이 로드킬로 인한 피해가 발생하고 있다. 하지만 예방책을 구상하기 위한 정보들을 얻는 데는 많은 시간과 노력이 필요했다. 이 연구는 로드킬에 대한 분산된 정보들을 쉽고 다양하게 확인 할 수 있으며, 로드킬에 대한 관심과 심각성을 가지고 이에 대한 예방방법, 소식들을 간편하게 접근할 수 있는 기능을 개발하고자 이번 연구를 진행하게 되었다.