Why keep areas road‐free? The importance of roadless areas.

Roadless and low‐traffic areas are typically large, natural or semi‐natural areas that have no roads or few roads with low‐traffic volume. They are relatively unaffected by roads and subsequent developments, and therefore, represent relatively undisturbed ecosystems, which provide important benefits for biodiversity and human societies. Roadless areas are rapidly becoming rare across the globe due to construction of road networks that serve widely expanding human activity. With a few exceptions, roadless and low‐traffic areas are not considered in national or international legislation; and consequently, they have been widely neglected in transport planning. 3.1 Roadless areas contribute significantly to the preservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services. 3.2 Planning of new transport routes should identify existing roadless areas and avoid them. 3.3 Subsequent (‘contagious’) development effects of road construction should be avoided in roadless and low‐traffic areas. 3.4 Unnecessary and ecologically damaging roads should be reclaimed to enlarge roadless areas and restore landscape‐level processes. 3.5 It is crucial to systematically evaluate the need for and location of proposed roads and implement the principle of ‘no net loss’ of unfragmented lands when there is no alternative. An important question during planning is whether the proposed road is really needed, and if so, where should it be placed. When the dissection of a roadless area is absolutely unavoidable, measures to prevent contagious development should be implemented, as well as compensation measures to restore the same amount of unfragmented habitat.

Data and Resources

Cite as

Selva N. Switalski A. Kreft S. y Ibisch P.L. Why keep areas road‐free? The importance of roadless areas. Wiley-Blackwell, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118568170.ch3

Clipboard Icon
Retrieved: 30 Dec 2025 18:33:16
RIS BibTeX

Metadata
Download
DCAT-AP/NTI-RISP

Basic information
Resource type Text
Date of creation 2025-05-23
Date of last revision 2025-05-23
Show changelog
Metadata identifier 3853f89f-1d48-5668-bca5-885ecedb06e8
Metadata language Spanish
Themes (NTI-RISP)
High-value dataset category
ISO 19115 topic category biota
Keyword URIs
Bibliographic information
Name of the dataset creator Selva, N., Switalski, A., Kreft, S. y Ibisch, P.L.
Name of the dataset editor Wiley-Blackwell
Other identifier DOI: 10.1002/9781118568170.ch3
Identifier of the dataset creator
Email of the dataset creator
Website of the dataset creator
Provenance
Lineage statement
Metadata Standard
Version notes
Version