A global strategy for road building

Professor William F. Laurance presented his recent research published September 2014 in Nature magazine where he develops a global map of  where to put roads and where to avoid them. New roads may have very  negative consequences on the world’s natural resources but, on the other   hand, we need new roads. In his study professor Laurance maps areas  most valuable for ecosystems worldwide and combines that with a map of  areas where roads could have the greatest benefits for humankind,  especially for increasing food production. By doing this he shows  relative risks and rewards of road building for Earth’s entire land  surface.

The good news is that there are substantial areas of the planet where   agriculture can be improved with modest environmental costs. However, there are also massive conflict zones, for example, in Sub-Saharan  Africa, expanses of Central and South America, and much of the  Asia-Pacific region. Although the global map created is rather coarse,  due to scale, professor Laurance’s hope is that it can be used at  particular countries’ level by incorporating finer-scale local  information to help inform and improve planning decisions at national  and regional scales.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v513/n7517/full/nature13717.html