There are currently no design or monitoring standards for wildlife crossing structures (WCS) in China. However, because of extensive road construction and reconstruction and a need to provide connectivity for wildlife, it is urgent to formulate standards for the design and monitoring of WCS. The standards need to be based on the growing body of experience and research in China, and existing standards developed elsewhere.
We summarized design standards and monitoring practices for WCS based on the literature from North America (United States and Canada), Europe (Germany), Asia (Korea, India), Latin America (Costa Rica).
The design standards for WCS in China is based on two parameters: the wildlife species group the structure needs to provide connectivity for, and the stage of the road construction process. Wildlife species groups include mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, while the road construction process include planning, design, construction and maintenance. WC need to meet the requirements of the Technical Standard of Highway Engineering issued by Department of Transport of China (DOT) in 2014. In addition, WCS are an important measure for environmental protection measures associated with highway construction, and WCS should also meet the requirements of the Design Specifications of Highways Environmental Protection issued by DOT in 2010. Furthermore, WCS need to protect migratory movements and ensure population viability of select wildlife species, as specified by the newly revised Wildlife Protection Law issued by the Chinese government.We propose to formulate design and monitoring standards for WCS in China.
With the support of the WWF-China, the China Academy of Transportation Sciences is currently developing guidelines for the design of WCS on Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, which will be China's first dedicated WCS standard.
Acknowledgements：We thank Professor Marcel P. Huijser of Western Transportation Institute, Montana State University for his helpful review and comments.