International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol XXXV, Part B4. Istanbul 2004
1.1 Research motivation
New road constructions in southern Finland are causing
significant changes in the natural behavior of moose
populations. All major roads within this arca are protected by
fences to minimize the danger of traffic-accidents. The decrease
of natural areas is problematic in the urban land use planning,
as the continuity between different protected areas is crucial to
maintain the endurance of wildlife. Moose tend to migrate
between their summer and winter habitats to different locations
within southern Finland. Without proper investigation and
integration of animal crossing structures into the infrastructure
the natural migration patterns and habitats of moose and other
wildlife are distorted.
The long distances in Finland cause, that almost every second
person has a car. The transportation of goods and merchandise
causes also lots of traffic. The animal accidents are then very
common. Overall 2000-3000 moose accidents, 2000-2500 white
tailed deer and roe deer accidents and 2500 reindeer accidents
are reported in Finland each year. In average 5-10 humans were
killed and 250-400 person injured in recent years. The
estimated costs for society was about 150-190 million € per
year (FinRA, 2003). The Finnish Museum of Natural History
has re-enacted a possible moose accident and its consequences,
which are shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Moose accident consequences (Reconstruction in the
Finnish Museum of Natural History)
Research in this field is crucial to preserve animal habitats and
avoid threads to traffic safety.
1.2 Aims
Generally this study intends to look into the metapopulation
changes of moose affected by road corridors and wildlife
fences. How do the fenced road change the places of winter
pastures of moose and brings also problems to the movement of
animals increasing traffic accidents in new places or causes
damage to forestry in sapling stands.
The results are displayed as a four-dimensional animation.
Thus, we intend to provide appealing visualizations attracting
the public to participate in the planning procedures for future
infrastructure. That may support deriving guidelines on
adaptation of existing means of transport to ecological
requirements.
1.3 Overview — Moose natural migration patterns in
southern Finland
Moose change pastures and make seasonal migration from
winter pastures to summer pastures and vice versa. The
distances they move when changing pastures are 10-20 km
(Väre, 2003) and quite often they have to cross major highways.
In southern Finland the main pattern for moose is that the
410
winter pastures are at the undisturbed, big forest areas inland
and the summer pastures are in south at scashore or archipelago
of sea or lake. The mean density of moose can be 2.5-3,5
animals/1000ha in summertime but 13-16 animals/1000 ha in
wintertime at the best winter pastures.
A usual gravel or quiet tarmac road is no hindrance for moose
or deer but it affects to the movements of middle-sized animals,
The road channels the movements and dispersal of the middle
sized animals and the traffic increases to animal mortality.
According to a research by Väre (Väre & Grenfors, 2004)
within the MOSSE research project, the animal movement was
monitored at highway environment. About 50% of the animals,
which were approaching the highway will cross it, 30% move
along the highway and fewer than 20% turned back away from
the highway.
The moose accidents have spatial differences due season and
animal densities. The movements of moose follow the same
pattern in every year. At wintertime accidents are few and they
concentrate near winter pastures. In spring when winter
populations start to scatter the accidents are in places where the
moose routes cross major highways. The moose use the same
familiar routes every year, when they move to summer pastures.
Calves are born at the same areas as previous year. In summer
the moose accidents happen at the coast area, near the places
where the yearlings start their independent life. The accidents
happen every year at the same 1.5-2 km section in the
highways. There are accidents also in the Metropolitan area,
where the inexperienced young moose try to reach seashore.
The animals have also learned to find the weak spots in the
wildlife fences and the intersections, where the fence is open in
the grossing road. The accident amounts are now as big as they
were before building the fence in years 1993-1995. The amount
of moose and the amount of traffic has been growing during the
decade and the animals have actively search and found the
places where to cross the highway in spite of the fence. The
annual movements gather moose to same favorable locations in
the forest areas, where there is enough food to survive over the
limited winter. Built up areas and especially roads cut these
areas and the effects of fencing are clearly seen in populations.
Previous research by Häggman (Häggman, 1999) used moose
population data from 1997, which was collected as individual
moose observation points to interpolate a density surface.
Figure 3 shows the results for the greater Helsinki metropolitan
area. The dark grey indicate winter pasture areas, where moose
population is dense.
A 2 E S ELA
Figure 3. Potential moose habitats in the greater Helsinki region
in 1997.
Additionally he used point data from wildlife traffic accidents
to calculate an accident density surface. The changes in the
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