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This article looks at a trans-Himalayan borderland to see how new road development projects affect social and sovereign relationships across mountain landscapes between Chinese Tibet and Mustang, Nepal. Research asked about local experiences with new forms of motorized transport and popular consumption of Chinese-manufactured commodities to understand what factors led the Nepali state to undertake new bureaucratic projects in a historically peripheral space. Employing a dialectic framework of mobility and containment, a materialist-territorial analysis reveals how transborder infrastructure development affects trade relations and consumption practices in the Nepal-China borderlands and, in turn, how these dynamics condition state-making processes at social and geopolitical levels. Following the cross-scalar trajectory of one rural road project from local grassroots initiative to national development program to international transportation network, I argue that the economic interests of a place-based project with regional cultural connections set in motion an expanding presence of Nepali state apparatuses in a trans-Himalayan borderland space.

This paper focuses on policy evaluation, which is rarely conducted, particularly ex-ante evaluations. In Indonesia, evaluation of policy ideas before they implement the main objective for toll road development. There are various possibilities that these ideas and decisions are formulated based on incomplete problem identification, formulation, and advocacy that could be more optimal and legitimate issues. The study aims to identify the actual beneficiaries of toll road development policies in agrarian communities that focus on social cost-benefit analysis through the ex-ante evaluation In Indonesia. Data sources were selected based on objectives: local village officials and community members affected by road construction. The case study approach with thematic analysis shows that evaluation is needed to increase the likelihood of policy success, especially in the community, as the main objective of the policy. The description of the problems in the idea and policy decision of toll road construction focuses on the social-economic impact based on the implementation of road construction in the previous stage. The idea of toll road development must recognize the community's dynamic conditions, including the community's readiness to accept development results and participate in obtaining optimal results from development. Road development ideas are related to efforts to prepare the human capital of the surrounding community to participate and obtain more significant benefits from development results. Furthermore, we show the importance of community human resource readiness in toll road development as an effort to realize toll road development to reduce economic and social costs. Integrating ex-ante evaluation in toll road development policy provides an understanding of the importance of maximizing development benefits for the stakeholders involved.

The global road network is expanding at an unprecedented rate, threatening the persistence of many species. Yet, even for the most endangered wildlife, crucial information on the distance up to which roads impact species abundance is lacking. Here we use ecological threshold analysis to quantify the road‐effect zone (REZ) for the critically endangered western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus). We found: (1) the REZ extends 5.4 km (95% CI [4.9–5.8 km]) from minor roads and 17.2 km (95% CI [15.8–18.6]) from major roads, the latter being more than three times wider than a previous estimate of the average REZ for mammals; and (2) only 4.3% of the chimpanzees’ range is not impacted by existing roads. These findings reveal the high sensitivity and susceptibility of nonhuman primates to roads across West Africa, a region undergoing rapid development, and can inform the implementation of more effective guidelines to mitigate road impacts.

This study employs multimodel simulations, including road traffic, process, and system dynamics modeling, to analyze hydrogen refueling stations (HRSs) in the Gulf–Europe corridor, also known as the Iraq’s development road project (DRP). It focuses on operational requirements, which consist of stock levels and infrastructure needs, along with refueling performance under stochastic vehicle inflows (SVIs) from the Gulf, European countries, and Iraq’s side roads (SRs). The research aims to identify key operational requirements and evaluate the refueling performance of an HRS for various stochastic vehicle inflow (SVI) scenarios, facilitating the efficient integration of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (HFCVs) into freight networks. The study introduces novel multimodel simulations developed in the AnyLogic software environment to replicate real‐world variability in vehicle inflows. Key findings reveal that SVIs significantly impact hydrogen stock level (HSL), infrastructure requirements (IRs), and refueling performance metrics (RPMs). For example, for a daily transportation demand of 30,000 tons of goods with 10%–20% side road (SR) vehicle entries, an HRS requires an IR‐1 of 3, an IR‐2 of 2, and an HSL of 44,391.6 kg, with performance reflected in refueling performance metric (RPM)‐1 values of 73%, 72%, and 45%, and an RPM‐2 range of 1.32–6.12 min. This proves that the HRS requirements and performance vary with SVIs for different transportation demands. Hence, we enhance the theoretical framework of refueling station design by integrating multimodel simulations to address stochastic inflows. It offers actionable insights for policymakers on optimizing HRS operations, improving scalability, and achieving United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Our study aims to identify the impact of road improvement works on rupicolous birds on the corniche of Jijel in Algeria between two periods: before the works began and after they were completed. The results show a large decline in nesting pairs of rupicolous birds between the two periods (2007: 307 pairs vs. 2017: 135 pairs). Thus, more than half of the breeding pairs disappeared between the start and the end of the work. The decline in the number of nesting pairs mainly concerned the most adapted and demanding species nesting on coastal cliffs: Pallid Swift , Common Kestrel , Peregrine Falcon , Eurasian Crag Martin and Blue Rock Thrush . The main factor in reducing the number of nesting pairs of species on cliffs and rocks is the degradation or loss of nesting sites due to developmental work. System restoration measures are proposed to encourage the return of nesting birds.

New major road infrastructure projects are planned or underway across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and are expected to have complex, and often deleterious, impacts on natural ecosystems across the region. For this reason, it is necessary to review evidence of how and through which mechanisms, roads might affect these landscapes. We reviewed 137 peer reviewed articles and documented 271 reported effects of roads and their underlying mechanisms inside and outside protected areas across SSA. Our findings show that (a) the study of the effects of roads on ecosystems in SSA is growing and not limited to the field of road ecology; (b) the negative effects of roads on species were reported at a similar frequency within and outside of protected areas; (c) the road-effect zone varied with effect but typically is between 1 and 7 km for larger mammals; (d) access to surrounding ecosystems through roads was the main mechanism driving effects; studies found accessibility influenced land use patterns and illegal hunting and harvesting; (e) other mechanisms by which roads affect (animal) species include, through functioning as a foraging site, and a habitat, and by acting as barriers to and corridors for movement; and (f) there was far more evidence on how roads can negatively impact ecosystems; in contrast, there was less certainty around mechanisms by which roads had no significant or a positive impact, since many of these were either speculated or unknown. An understanding of the underlying mechanisms can assist researchers and environmental assessment practitioners to predict how and where future road development might drive changes in biodiversity and land cover. Moving forward, we suggest that future research build a better understanding of the cumulative effects on different mammal and non-mammal communities and ecosystems more broadly and examine the socioeconomic contexts that characterize different road impacts in SSA.

The purpose of this research is to estimate the effects of highway development projects on the price of housing. Transportation development projects, highways in particular, improve a certain area’s accessibility but also increase its levels of exposure to traffic intensity and noise pollution. These externalities are evaluated by homeowners and residents and are reflected in the price of housing. In this paper, we use several repeat sales model specifications, including difference-in-differences estimators, and control for neighborhood effects to examine housing price trends in the municipalities around two newly developed highways in the Netherlands. The results of the research demonstrate that changes in accessibility result in a significant positive effect on the price of housing in nearby municipalities, but that increased noise pollution and traffic intensity levels result in a decrease in prices. The findings also confirm that combining the total effects of all externalities, the effect of highway development on the price of housing is generally positive, and this effect is salient even before the project is completed due to public anticipation effects.

The paper demonstrates a method to determine road network improvements that also involve the use of a road toll charge, taking the perspective of the government or authority. A general discrete network design problem with a road toll pricing scheme, to minimize the total travel time under a budget constraint, is proposed. This approach is taken in order to determine the appropriate level of road toll pricing whilst simultaneously addressing the need for capacity. The proposed approach is formulated as a bi-level programming problem. The optimal road capacity improvement and toll level scheme is investigated with respect to the available budget levels and toll revenues.

Latvian State Road Development Strategy for 2020 – 2040 was approved in the year 2020. It is a vision that includes long-term perspectives, strategic goals, tasks and priorities for road network development, and it is created for more efficient planning of state road network development, as well as, attracting additional funding for state owned roads. The aim of the Strategy 2040 is to create an efficient road network ensuring that the bypass of the Riga City is accessible within two hours from every national and regional development centre in Latvia. Development centres would be accessible within 45 minutes from every Latvian urban settlement along state regional and local roads. The strategic task is to create sections of express roads in the total length of 1000 kilometres thus improving traffic safety and reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases. When creating the Strategy 2040 both the changes in traffic and road use and the changes in the location of population were studied. The Strategy foresees that high-speed express road sections would connect the Riga City with the biggest cities. The proposed plan of road network development is created with the aim to cover as large a population as possible. Special attention is paid to the Riga City, as it serves as the central hub for Latvian and Baltic transportation. After the implementation of the Strategy 2040, the Riga City would be reached within 30 minutes from the nearest development centres.

Rapid urbanization and climate change require stronger microclimatic regulation by urban trees, and maximizing their cooling, humidifying, and shading functions requires an exact understanding of the underlying mechanisms affected by climatic conditions and the forest characteristics. By measuring different aspects of microclimate regulation by urban trees in 165 plots in Harbin city and measuring climatic conditions, tree size, and compositional differences, we define changes in patterns along various urban-rural gradients (ring-road development and urban history) and for different forest types and decoupling the complex associations among them. We found that the horizontal cooling (1.7 °C to 4.0 °C) was larger than the vertical cooling (−1.71 °C to 0.33 °C) and soil cooling (0.28 °C to 2.17 °C); The humidifying effect (ΔRH) ranged from −0.34% to 7.30%, and total radiation intercepted (ΔE) ranged from 11.07 kLux to 45.95 kLux. We also found higher under-branch height, larger canopy, and higher percentage of Ulmaceae, but lower percentage of Salicaceae in more urbanized regions. The relative importance of tree compositions and size on microclimatic regulation was shown using redundancy analysis (RDA), and RDA variation partitioning showed that tree sizes explained 24.7% of the variations in the microclimate regulations, and tree composition and their interactions with climatic conditions explained 9.5% and 25.4% of the variations, respectively. Our findings reveal that maximizing microclimatic regulation by urban forests in northeastern China could possibly be achieved through specific-function-oriented afforestation and an increase conservation of large existing trees, and the data in this paper could favor policy decision of urban forest manager and local administration of urban green infrastructure.