Adding wildlife crossings to roads allow animals to cross these human constructed barriers safely. They may include underpasses, overpasses, or tunnels. This layer scores potential sites for such structures by the relative improvement in connectedness (component of ecological integrity; defined in connectivity documentation). Road passage structure impacts scores take into account the index of ecological integrity (IEI) scores for the surrounding cells, so that road passage structures that improve connectedness in areas with high ecological integrity score higher than those in areas with low ecological integrity. As with other model-based assessments, field survey of potential road crossing sites should precede any implementation.

View this product as a web map on Data Basin.

Access this data as a GIS download from the North Atlantic LCC website.

Read the Technical Abstract for this data layer (passages.shp).

Photo Credit: Scott Jackson