Transport Infrastructure and Biodiversity Loss: Patterns, Risks, and Solutions
A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818). This special issue belongs to the section "Biodiversity Conservation".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2026
Image courtesy of Dr. Vitalijus Stirkė
Special Issue Editors
Interests: hoofed, semi-aquatic, carnivore and small mammal ecology; threatened and invasive mammal species; large carnivores; spatial distribution; population management; biodiversity and ecological diversity
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: geospatial data analysis and GIS-based urban, environmental, and agro-ecosystem infrastructures; spatial decision support systems and multicriteria modeling; data interoperability, standardization, and governance; transport and road ecology impacts on biodiversity; integration of smart mobility and citizen science in monitoring; spatial database design, data modeling, and network and spatial analysis; policy support and evidence-based data-driven decision-making
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Transportation systems—including roads, railways, waterways, and aviation—are rapidly expanding worldwide, reshaping ecosystems and posing major threats to biodiversity. Roads and other linear infrastructures drive wildlife mortality, fragment habitats, disrupt gene flow, and alter ecological processes, particularly affecting understudied taxa, such as amphibians, reptiles, insects, and native vegetation communities. Urban transport adds pressures, including artificial light, noise, and altered daily rhythms. Geometric road features and transport network design can exacerbate these impacts, while invasive species may exploit corridors created by infrastructure, influencing both fauna and roadside flora.
Addressing these challenges requires harmonized, standardized, and interoperable biodiversity data, improved monitoring, mechanistic understanding of species responses, and evaluation of mitigation measures across transport modes. Emerging technologies, including autonomous, connected, electric, shared, and drone-based mobility, as well as smart infrastructure and citizen science initiatives, provide opportunities to collect, integrate, and analyze biodiversity and transport data at multiple scales. Management perspectives that highlight ecological risks arising from the neglect, mismanagement, or non-use of scientific data in transport planning emphasize institutional responsibility and accountability.
This Special Issue invites contributions exploring ecological consequences of transportation networks, predictive modeling, mitigation effectiveness, and evidence-based, biodiversity-conscious transport planning, including impacts on both fauna and flora.
Dr. Linas Balčiauskas
Dr. Andrius Kučas
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diversity is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- transport ecology
- road biodiversity
- data interoperability
- invasive species
- flora and fauna
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