• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.169-176
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• 2016

Roads are widely accepted to be as a major cause of habitat fragmentation. The wildlife road-crossing structure is one of the most acceptable alternatives among the solutions to provide connectivity between patches isolated by roads. We investigated noise disturbance, vegetation structure and wildlife crossing and habitation at a wildlife road-crossing structure located at the Jingmaei-Pass in Incheon, Korea, to monitor and evaluate its conservation value and ecological performance and to propose measures for their adaptive management. From the result of noise measurement, the noise disturbance from the road traffic was not properly blocked out at the wildlife crossing structure. The survey results of vegetation structure showed that the early-successional plant species such as Ambrosia trifida, Erigeron annuus, Pueraria lobata, Rosa multiflora invaded widely on the crossing structure. An efficient management of the vegetation should be necessarily considered for the facilitation of vegetation succession and the improvement of animal habitat. The crossing structure was used by limited mammal species: Apodemus agrarius, Nyctereutes procyonoides, Mogera wogura and Sciurus vulgaris coreae as the results of the monitoring using footprints and closed-circuit television. In conclusion, The Jingmaei-Pass wildlife crossing structure is unable to function properly as a biological corridor because of the interference of noise and flourishing disturbed vegetation. Therefore, proper alternatives are required for improving animal habitats and mobile environments to enhance the ecological function of a wildlife corridor.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.136-141
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to compare the bird crossing of roads by type (Expressway 1, railroad-provincial road and Highway 4) and the crossing of roads according to the size of birds. The greatest number of avian species and individuals crossing road per 10 minutes were found on railroad-provincial road ($8.96{\pm}1.92$ and $29.33{\pm}11.94$, respectively), while the lowest number of avian species and individuals were found on Expressway 1 ($2.96{\pm}1.04$ and $6.13{\pm}2.89$, respectively), which has the widest width. In addition, the number of small-sized bird (<20 cm) crossing the Expressway 1, railroad-provincial road, and Highway 4 was lower than that of the medium-sized bird (${\geq}20cm$). Current wildlife crossing structures have been focused on mammals, amphibians and reptiles, but future structures should also consider birds.

• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.274-278
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• 2021

Road structures play an important role in collisions involving vehicles and wildlife. Our study aimed to determine the effect of various types of road structures on the risk associated with roadkill. We surveyed 50 previously identified roadkill hotspots, ranked from one to five according to roadkill density. We collected nine types of road structure data on each hotspot road section. Structures with similar characteristics were grouped together, resulting in five categories, namely, median barrier, high edge barrier, low edge barrier, speed, and visibility. We examined the existence of each road structure category at each hotspot rank. The cumulative link model showed that the absence of bottom blocked median barrier increased the roadkill hotspot rank. Our study concluded that a visual obstacle in the middle of roads by the median barrier decreases wildlife road crossing attempts and roadkill risk. We suggest that future roadkill mitigation plans should be established considering these characteristics.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.185-198
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• 2016

Korea has put in significant efforts to increase the number of wildlife crossings between fragmented habitats to prevent loss of biodiversity and to encourage the habitat connectivity in Korea. However, there is a lack of biological data on the effect of vegetation structure in these wildlife crossings and guidelines for design and management of wildlife crossing structures in Korea. Therefore, we selected ground beetle assemblages as model organisms to compare the effect of vegetation structure in wildlife crossings, i.e. bare ground- and shrub-type corridors, in agro-forested landscapes. For this study, 4,207 ground beetles belonging to 33 species were collected through pitfall trapping along the northern forest-corridor-southern forest transects from late April to early September in 2015. Dominant species, abundance, and species richness of ground beetles were significantly higher in the shrub-type corridors than the bare ground-type corridors. Also, the species composition of bare ground-type corridor was significantly different compared to the other habitats such as shrub-type corridor and forests. Similarly, environmental variables were also influenced by vegetation management regimes or trap locations. Collectively, our study clearly indicates that the movement of forest associated ground beetles between forest patches can increase as the vegetation in wildlife crossings becomes complex. Although further studies are needed to verify this, there are indications that the current wildlife crossings that comply with the guidelines may be unfriendly to the movement of ground dwelling arthropods as well as ground beetles. To enhance the ecological function of wildlife crossings, the guidelines need to be rectified as follows: 1) Shrubs or trees should be planted along the corridor verges to provide refuge or movement paths for small mammals and ground dwelling arthropods, and 2) Open spaces should be provided in the middle of the corridors to be used as a path for the movement of large mammals.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.525-535
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• 2019

In this study, 49 major WCS(Wildlife Crossing Structure), including Baekdu-daegan, were evaluated for the effectiveness of WCS on using the daily average frequency index and diversity Index comparing the number of species that appear with the surrounding habitats. According to the analysis, the average use frequency of the entire WCS was 1.4 times, and the average number of WCS exceeded the average was 17 and 34.7 percent of the total. There were 18 WCS with the same number of habitats and species that appeared in the same area, or 36.7 percent of the total. The daily average use frequency and variety were all analyzed at 10 efficient WCS, accounting for 20.4 percent of the total. According to the results of an site survey on the compliance rate of 4 efficient WCS, the compliance rate of the Deoksanjae overpass was the best in location selection, specifications, vegetation cover and soil, fence. The results of this research will be used as basic data for the study of WCS effectiveness, including the improvement of functions of new and installed WCS.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.48-63
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• 2008

This research is to apply suitable natural ecosystem evaluation criteria in order to develop the ecosystem conservation, restoration and ways to build substitute habitats as a compensation plan for damaged soundly natural ecosystems in small-scale projects such as resource recovery facility, filtration, etc. The environmental ecology evaluation i.e. generally based on their actual vegetation, community structure, wildlife, water system survey were measured the primary plans for reflecting unique natural environment level of site. As a result, it is necessary to conserve the land in fallow type of wetland, good conservative condition of deciduous forest, wetlanded watercourse for amphibia and reptiles crossing. However, the plan of filtration plant was destroyed wetland(sound ecosystem), natural forest, asian toad spawning area. According to the result of it schemed to build alternative wetland and spawning area, plan to healthy ecosystem and surface soil transplantation as compensation plan. The alternative wetland and spawning area are not only created a various water levels like depth of water is $0{\sim}30cm,\;30{\sim}60cm$, more than 1.5m but also it leads to asian toad spawning and wildlife inhabitant. Moreover, the ecosystem and surface soil transplantation be applied to use the Quercus acutissima forest resources(114 upper trees, 71 canopy trees, 401 shrubs) and surface soil$(5,072m^3)$ in ecology creation sets.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.75-82
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• 2024

This study examined the spatial morphological patterns of forest habitats and the characteristics of roadkill occurrences in the forests of Mungyeong, Yecheon, Yeongju, Andong, and Bonghwa in Gyeongsangbukdo. It involved building a resistance map between habitats and analyzing connectivity based on the least-cost distance. The analysis of the distance between the forest habitat Cores derived from MSPA and roadkill points showed that roadkill occurrences were concentrated approximately 74.11 m away from the Cores, with most roadkills happening within 360m from the habitats. The connectivity analysis between core habitats larger than 1 km² revealed 141 core habitats and 242 least-cost paths between them. The corridor distance value was found to be highest in Mungyeong city, indicating an urgent need for strategies to enhance habitat connectivity there. This research is expected to serve as foundational data for developing strategies to enhance ecosystem connectivity and restore habitats, by analyzing ecosystem connectivity and roadkill issues due to habitat fragmentation.