A multi-scale approach to assess the impact of roads on biodiversity and geomorphology

This paper adrresses the problem of assessing the impact of a set of road alternatives on biodiversity and geomorphology. The approach is based on the generation of scenarios, simulating the presence of the road alignments within the landscape. By comparing the different scenarios with the original situation, it was possible to predict and assess the impacts on the geomorphologic units and on the natural ecosystems. This procedure was repeated by considering two different scale of analysis. First of all, the effects of the alternatives were studied at a broad scale and over the whole landscape. Afterwards, the most critical sites were highlighted and studies with further detail in terms of both the spatial resolution and the information content. The case study is represented by a road construction within an alpine valley in northern Italy.