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12 pages, 4332 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Factors Influencing Wildlife to Use Existing Bridges and Culverts in Giant Panda National Park

by Song Lu, Ying Yue, Yihong Wang, Dawei Zhang, Biao Yang, Zhen Yu, Honghui Lin and Qiang Dai

Diversity 2023, 15(4), 487; https://doi.org/10.3390/d15040487 - 25 Mar 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2798

Abstract

Roads, acting as barriers, hamper wildlife movements and disrupt habitat connectivity. Bridges and culverts are common structures on roads, and some of them can function to allow wildlife passage. This study investigated the effects of traffic, the surrounding landscape, human disturbance, and bridge and culvert structures on the utilization of bridges and culverts as dedicated passages by wildlife, using motion-activated infrared camera traps along a 64 km road in Giant Panda National Park, Sichuan, China. The results show that both species richness and counts of wildlife recorded at the bridge and culvert were significantly lower than those observed at sites distant from roads. No large-sized wildlife was recorded at the bridges and culverts. Human activities and traffic volume significantly and negatively affect medium-sized wildlife utilization of bridges and culverts. We conclude that bridges and culverts serve as wildlife crossings, but their efficacy is weak. This emphasizes the necessity of retrofitting bridges and culverts via mitigation facilities such as noise and light barriers, and vegetation restoration on both sides of the roads in Giant Panda National Park. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecology, Conservation and Restoration of Threatened Animal)

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16 pages, 10957 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Numerical and Physical Modeling to Improve Discharge Rates in Open Channel Infrastructures

by Rick Jaeger, Katharina Tondera, Carolyn Jacobs, Mark Porter and Neil Tindale

Water 2019, 11(7), 1414; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11071414 - 10 Jul 2019

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3823

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of a study into how different inlet designs for stormwater culverts increase the discharge rate. The objective of the study was to develop improved inlet designs that could be retro-fitted to existing stormwater culvert structures in order to increase discharge capacity and allow for changing rainfall patterns and severe weather events that are expected as a consequence of climate change. Three different chamfer angles and a rounded corner were simulated with the software ANSYS Fluent, each of the shapes tested in five different sizes. Rounded and 45

^{\circ}

chamfers at the inlet edge performed best, significantly increasing the flow rate, though the size of the configurations was a critical factor. Inlet angles of 30

^{\circ}

and 60

^{\circ}

caused greater turbulence in the simulations than did 45

^{\circ}

and the rounded corner. The best performing shape of the inlet, the rounded corner, was tested in an experimental flume. The flume flow experiment showed that the optimal inlet configuration, a rounded inlet (radius = 1/5 culvert width) improved the flow rate by up to 20% under submerged inlet control conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Hydraulics and Hydrodynamics)

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