Assessment of Road Ecological Impacts on Zagros Forests and Protected Areas using Spatial Road Disturbance Index (SPROADI)(Case Study: Chaharmahal & Bakhtiari Province, Iran)

In recent decades expansion of road network in ecologically sensitive habitats of Iran, i.e. protected areas and national parks, has been increasing and ecological impacts have become highly visible. Transportation infrastructure especially roads affects the structure and function of ecosystems and has direct and indirect effects on the landscape in construction and utilization phases. The main goals of this study were assessment of the ecological impacts of road networks on Zagros Forests and protected areas of Charmahal and bakhtiari Province (such as Shida, Helen, Sabz kooh, Dena, Tang sayyad and Gheysari ) using of SPROAD index. SPROADI is a new tool in analysis and assessment of road impacts on landscape which uses 3 sub-indices including traffic intensity, vicinity and fragmentation to analyze cumulative impacts of roads network on landscape. This index using vicinity and fragmentation analyzes road impacts in construction phase and using traffic intensity analyzes road impacts in utilization phase. Results show that spatial road disturbance in Zagros forests ranges from 0.01 to 54.48 and in protected areas from 0.02 to 42.7 whereas 2.06 percent of Zagros forests and 0.19 percent of protected areas are strongly disturbed and 8.91 percent of Zagros forests and 0.96 percent of protected areas has an average road disturbance. Results show the capability of SPROADI in analyzes and assessment of road impact in construction and utilization phases on landscape and can be used in policy and decision making in environmental conservation and road ecology

کلیدواژه ها:

Zagros forests ، Protected Areas ، SPROADI ، Transportation Infrastructure ، Cumulative impacts