Study On The Effects And Mitigation Measures Of Highway Construction Crossing Wetland

Wetlands play an irreplaceable role in the regulation of climate, cleaning up the environment, flood control and drought resistance. With the improvement of the road network, highway construction has inevitably produced a variety of adverse effects on wetland ecological environment. The land and the road network lie intertwined in an uneasy embrace. The road system ties the land together for us yet slices nature into pieces. Natural processes degrade and disrupt roads and vehicles, requiring continuous maintenance and repair of the rigid network. Conversely, the road system degrades and disrupts natural patterns and processes, requiring management and mitigation for nature. Both effects—nature degrading roads and roads degrading nature—are costly to society. They also increasingly gain public attention.The study analyzed the various effects caused by highway construction in the wetland. By comparing the different crossing patterns, such as culverts, bridges, roadbeds and tunnels, bridges are the best pattern. The locations of road-water crossings are best selected at the earliest possible planning stage. Reducing the number of crossings minimizes site disturbance and aquatic ecosystem effects. Aligning a road crossing at a right angle rather than obliquely to a stream disrupts less of the stream shoreline. However, in the case of an obliquely oriented road, if its direction has to be changed to cross the stream at a right angle, more total area is disrupted (though less riparian area might be affected).This thesis is a part of traffic science and technology item of inner Mongolia (NJ-2004-17) "Research on Environmental Protection Technology of Highway Construction in Fragile Ecological Environment Area". The study analyzed the rationality of highway crossing patterns and various negative effects in He Yehua wetland. Targeting against the effects the thesis put forward to some corresponding control methods and mitigation measures.