Road Ecology Center
In spring 2003, UC Davis's John Muir Institute of the Environment and ITS-Davis launched the Road Ecology Center, an integrated program to advance multidisciplinary research in the emerging, cutting edge area of road ecology. The new center was inspired by the book, Road Ecology: Science and Solutions , written in part by UC Davis coauthors Dan Sperling, Charles Goldman, and Tom Turrentine. Road Ecology is based on the understanding that human communities and natural ecosystems share common needs for sustainable and friendly transportation systems. The Road Ecology Center seeks to develop a broad, interdisciplinary program where researchers and policy makers work together to design sustainable transportation systems. The intent is to create analytical frameworks that lead to more effective environmental protection and a streamlining of regulatory processes, potentially saving public funds. The center's mission is to:
- Integrate the dispersed disciplines of road ecology on campus to build a coherent state-of-the-science body of principles useful to transportation planning
- Disseminate this information broadly to the professional communities, to students and environmental scientists, to agencies, and to public interest groups
- Create analytical methods, professional practices, and institutional processes to support sustainable transportation
During its first year and a half, the center sponsored a large kickoff workshop and several graduate seminar series featuring noted speakers from universities and transportation-related agencies. The center's primary research initiatives are being developed around two main topics: design of transportation systems, and effects of roads on natural landscapes and on human and nonhuman populations.
Director: Alison Berry, Department of Environmental Horticulture/Plant Sciences
Associate Directors: Dan Sperling, ITS-Davis; Cathy Toft, John Muir Institute of the Environment