Glossary

A vehicle-resistant barrier installed alongside or on the central reserve of infrastructure, intended to prevent errant vehicles from leaving the designated corridor and thus limit consequential damage. See also 'Safety fence' and 'Guard-rail'.

Continuous structure (of varied material) erected alongside infrastructure designed to prevent errant vehicles from leaving the designated corridor and limit consequential damage. Synonym: 'Guard-rail'.

In landscape ecology, the spatial and temporal dimensions of patterns and processes.

Process for identifying content and extent of the information to be submitted to the competent authority under the EIA process. Scoping is mandatory for the SEA process. See also 'Strategic Environmental Assessment'.

Impacts triggered in response to the presence of the project, rather than being directly caused by the project’s own operations. They are derived from interactions among primary effects, and the interplay with environmental conditions and other driving factors at a landscape or regional level Synonyms: 'Indirect effects', 'Indirect impacts'. See also 'Primary effects'.

Subsidiary road connecting a more major road with adjacent buildings or facing properties. Normally not a thoroughfare.

Waterway bank erosion protection (wooden, iron or concrete planks sunk vertically between the edge of the water and the embankment).

The linear paved strip at the side of a motorway which vehicles are allowed to use during emergencies, and which is used by maintenance vehicles to access works. Synonym: ‘Hard shoulder’.

Road in which a single lane of traffic is flowing in each direction, with no barrier or median strip dividing them.

Road that is only as wide as a single vehicle, and thus does not permit the flow of two-way traffic.

A defined place, point or locality in the landscape.

Activity or measure aimed at preventing soil erosion on slopes (e.g. by covering the ground with vegetation, stones, concrete or asphalt).

Structure built under transport infrastructure designed specifically to provide a safe crossing point for small fauna such as reptiles, small mammals or invertebrates which are used to dark, humid habitats. Construction types are predominantly box or vault structures. Combined with perimeter fencing that funnels the animals to the structure and with light/noise screens to reduce disturbance when required. Depending on underpass size, these are also suitable for larger animals. Note: to be suitable for amphibians in migration, these structures may require specific fencing. See also 'Amphibian passages'.

Source habitats are areas where populations of a given species can reach a positive balance between births and deaths and thus act as a source of emigrating individuals. Sink habitats, on the other hand, have a non-sustaining birth-death ratio and are dependent on immigration from source populations.

See 'Land use planning'.

Ecologically suitable habitat patch where an organism temporarily stops while moving along a heterogeneous route.

See ‘Drover route’.

A range of analytical and participatory approaches that aim to integrate environmental considerations into policies, plans and programmes and evaluate the inter linkages with economic and social considerations. See also ‘Environmental Impact Assessment.

First phase of the infrastructure life cycle. It starts with the definition of general goals and vision for transport corridors, identifying the needs for transport infrastructure in a region or country, and providing specifications about priorities, location and planned schedule. This phase is divided in two subphases: i) Transport policy and, ii) Transport Strategy and delimitation of areas and corridors. See also 'Design','Construction','Operation and Maintenance', Decommissioning'.

See 'Plan'.

A description or measure of habitat permeability (how well a given habitat allows movement) based on the physical features and arrangements of habitat patches, disturbances and other land, freshwater or seascape elements presumed to be important for organisms to move through their environment. Structural connectivity is used in efforts to restore or estimate functional connectivity where measures of it are lacking. See also 'Functional connectivity'.

System devised to remove water from the surface of the ground (or infrastructure). See also 'Drainage'.