McGill Journal of Sustainable Development Law (MJSDL), 2024
McGill Journal of Sustainable Development Law (MJSDL) 20(2): 1-6.
Online: https://www.mjsdl.com... more McGill Journal of Sustainable Development Law (MJSDL) 20(2): 1-6. Online: https://www.mjsdl.com/annualreview/volume20-2
Abstract: Rapid increase in urban sprawl in many regions across the planet reveal very problematic trends of unsustainable development. Globally, humans have settled more land area in just 40 years between 1975 and 2014 than during all preceding centuries in history combined. In the period 1990–2014, the built-up areas on the planet increased by almost 28 km2 per day, corresponding to 1.16 km2 per hour, or 1.9 ha per minute (Behnisch et al. 2022). High levels of urban sprawl are most pronounced in highly developed countries. For example, in Montreal (Canada), the total built-up area increased by 474 percent between 1951 and 2016, and land uptake per person increased by 231 percent. Urban sprawl is an important issue of intergenerational justice, resulting from a large number of individual actions. Their effects add up cumulatively and persist into the future. Urban sprawl is an important example of the need of human societies to observe limits which are beyond human control and cannot be set by human beings themselves. While many countries have established sophisticated planning systems, urban sprawl has clearly not been addressed sufficiently by planning regulations. This paper summarizes the increase in urban sprawl in Montreal since 1951, discusses the effectiveness of greenbelts at mitigating urban sprawl (Pourtaherian and Jaeger, 2022), and the need for targets and limits to urban sprawl. Measuring urban sprawl can help compare planning alternatives and assess whether limits are being respected and targets achieved. It is a remarkable irony in human development of recent decades that the more knowledge and planning capacity societies have at their disposal, the more common high urban sprawl has become. Much greater efforts are urgently needed to use land more sparingly, especially in highly developed countries.
This study assesses existing human-purpose underpasses below an unfenced high-traffic 4-lane high... more This study assesses existing human-purpose underpasses below an unfenced high-traffic 4-lane highway in the Appalachian region of Quebec, Canada, as potential crossing structures for native mammal species. Eight underpasses of three types (five water culverts with minimum height and width of 1.8 m, one lowuse gravel road byway, and two railroad underpasses) were continuously monitored by motion-detection infrared camera traps for time periods spanning up to 778 days (September 2016 to November 2018). We asked how the ratios of successful crossings through the structures (termed full crossings) and aversions to the structures (termed aversions) differed between species and we explored the influence of human activity levels on the use of these structures by wildlife. All monitored crossing structures had low human observations (with averages of less than 35 human activities per day). Our results provide evidence that 21 species of mammals in the study area successfully crossed through at least one of the eight observed underpasses on a minimum of one occasion. Some species were observed crossing through some of the underpasses on a regular basis, namely raccoon, red fox, and white-tailed deer. We propose a classification of mammal species into five human co-use classes (no or low co-use to very high co-use) to explore the relationship between mammal use of the structures and human presence. We found that humans and mammals were observed sharing passages for the four mammal species identified as tolerant of human co-use (high and very high co-use classes), but co-use was observed to be limited or not occurring for most other species. The strengths of this study include the length of time during which monitoring took place, as well as the
In 2012, the enlargement of HWY 175 from two to four lanes between Quebec City and Saguenay was c... more In 2012, the enlargement of HWY 175 from two to four lanes between Quebec City and Saguenay was completed. This enlargement increased the width of the road approximately three times and has created a major barrier, fragmenting natural habitat, especially for smaller mammals. To offset this, wildlife passageways for mammals of all sizes and fences for large and medium sized mammals were put in place along HWY 175. Fencing prevents animal crossings and directs movement to the passageways where they can safely cross under the highway. With enough movement, this can restore habitat connectivity between the two sides of the highway. The passageways along HWY 175 are among the first to be built in Quebec, which provides a unique opportunity to study their effects on the native wildlife.
Contexte du projet de recherche En Amerique du Nord, le nombre de routes a connu une augmenta... more Contexte du projet de recherche En Amerique du Nord, le nombre de routes a connu une augmentation constante au cours des dernieres decennies, et ce, non sans consequence. Les routes sont desormais considerees comme un facteur majeur de perturbation de la faune et de leurs habitats. En plus de reduire et de deteriorer les habitats, les routes entravent souvent ses deplacements de la faune. La consequence la plus observable de cet etat de fait se manifeste dans la mortalite faunique quotidienne liee aux tentatives de traverser des routes. Pour diminuer les effets nefastes des routes sur les populations fauniques, diverses mesures d’attenuation ont ete deployees dans de nombreux pays. Citons entre autres la mise en place de passages fauniques et de clotures d’exclusion. Toutefois, dans la plupart des cas, ces mesures ne visent que les animaux de grande taille, comme les ongules et les grands carnivores, car ils peuvent representer un danger pour la securite des usagers de la route....
Les routes ainsi que la circulation automobile ont des repercussions nefastes sur plusieurs popul... more Les routes ainsi que la circulation automobile ont des repercussions nefastes sur plusieurs populations fauniques et processus ecologiques. En effet, les routes constituent des barrieres pour les animaux, limitent leurs deplacements et augmentent leur mortalite. Elles reduisent par ailleurs la qualite ainsi que l’accessibilite des habitats a proximite. Outre leur incidence sur le taux de mortalite, ces obstacles peuvent entraver les mouvements migratoires des animaux, leur acces aux ressources ainsi que le flux genetique et la dispersion des jeunes adultes. Les routes peuvent egalement avoir plusieurs effets sur le niveau des populations. Elles compromettent les relations entre les predateurs et leurs proies. Elles causent egalement une diminution du nombre d’especes ainsi qu’un changement de la composition des communautes. C’est pourquoi les projets de suivi a long terme des routes sont essentiels a l’obtention de previsions plus precises d’incidences.
Aufgaben von Landschaftsmassen Sind Landschaftsqualitäten quantitativ erfassbar? Dieser Frage näh... more Aufgaben von Landschaftsmassen Sind Landschaftsqualitäten quantitativ erfassbar? Dieser Frage nähert sich unser Beitrag dadurch, dass er einen Überblick über Landschaftsmasse gibt und ihre Aufgaben und Grenzen darstellt. Der Beitrag zeichnet die Entwicklung eines neuen Landschaftsmasses für die Zersiedelung (Abb. 1) nach und gibt aufgrund der dabei gewonnenen Erfahrungen eine Einschätzung zur Ausgangsfrage. Landschaftsmasse oder Landschaftsindizes (landscape metrics) sind primär nicht dafür entwickelt worden, Landschaftsqualitäten zu messen, sondern um die Struktur bzw. das Muster von Landschaften zu messen und einer quantitativen Analyse zugänglich zu machen. Dabei stehen die landschaftsökologischen Fragen im Vordergrund, welchen Einfluss die Struktur von Landschaften auf die Prozesse hat, die in diesen Landschaften ablaufen, und welche Gesetzmässigkeiten hier bestehen (z. B. Turner 1989). Umgekehrt beeinflussen die ablaufenden Prozesse die Herausbildung und die zeitliche Veränderung von Landschaftsstrukturen. Die Landschaftsstruktur umfasst dabei zwei Aspekte: (1) die Zusammensetzung (composition) der Landschaft, d. h. welche Landschaftselemente es gibt und wie viel von jedem dieser Landschaftselemente vorhanden ist, und (2) die Konfiguration oder räumliche Anordnung (configuration) dieser Landschaftselemente (bei gleichbleibender Zusammensetzung). Diese Aufteilung ist
Although prey species typically respond to the most limiting factors at coarse spatiotemporal sca... more Although prey species typically respond to the most limiting factors at coarse spatiotemporal scales while addressing biological requirements at finer scales, such behaviour may become challenging for species inhabiting human altered landscapes. We investigated how woodland caribou, a threatened species inhabiting North-American boreal forests, modified their fine-scale movements when confronted with forest management features (i.e. clearcuts and roads). We used GPS telemetry data collected between 2004 and 2010 on 49 female caribou in a managed area in Québec, Canada. Movements were studied using a use – availability design contrasting observed steps (i.e. line connecting two consecutive locations) with random steps (i.e. proxy of immediate habitat availability). Although caribou mostly avoided disturbances, individuals nonetheless modulated their fine-scale response to disturbances on a daily and annual basis, potentially compromising between risk avoidance in periods of higher vulnerability (i.e. calving, early and late winter) during the day and foraging activities in periods of higher energy requirements (i.e. spring, summer and rut) during dusk/dawn and at night. The local context in which females moved was shown to influence their decision to cross clearcut edges and roads. Indeed, although females typically avoided crossing clearcut edges and roads at low densities, crossing rates were found to rapidly increase in greater disturbance densities. In some instance, however, females were less likely to cross edges and roads as densities increased. Females may then be trapped and forced to use disturbed habitats, known to be associated with higher predation risk. We believe that further increases in anthropogenic disturbances could exacerbate such behavioural responses and ultimately lead to population level consequences
Today, we are living in an urban world. For the first time in history, there are now more people ... more Today, we are living in an urban world. For the first time in history, there are now more people living in cities than in rural areas. In Europe their share has reached almost three quarters. Urban areas supposedly will absorb almost all the population growth expected over the next decades. This will pose a range of challenges for cities and their surroundings, not only on resource availability and the quality of urban environments, but also on biodiversity in cities. Capturing the status and trends of biodiversity and ecosystem services in urban landscapes represents an important part of understanding whether a metropolitan area is developing along a sustainable trajectory or not. Actions to conserve biodiversity should start with stock-taking and identifying baselines, followed by regular monitoring of conservation initiatives. The City Biodiversity Index (CBI), also known as the Singapore Index on Cities‘ Biodiversity (or Singapore Index) because of Singapore‘s leadership in its ...
McGill Journal of Sustainable Development Law (MJSDL), 2024
McGill Journal of Sustainable Development Law (MJSDL) 20(2): 1-6.
Online: https://www.mjsdl.com... more McGill Journal of Sustainable Development Law (MJSDL) 20(2): 1-6. Online: https://www.mjsdl.com/annualreview/volume20-2
Abstract: Rapid increase in urban sprawl in many regions across the planet reveal very problematic trends of unsustainable development. Globally, humans have settled more land area in just 40 years between 1975 and 2014 than during all preceding centuries in history combined. In the period 1990–2014, the built-up areas on the planet increased by almost 28 km2 per day, corresponding to 1.16 km2 per hour, or 1.9 ha per minute (Behnisch et al. 2022). High levels of urban sprawl are most pronounced in highly developed countries. For example, in Montreal (Canada), the total built-up area increased by 474 percent between 1951 and 2016, and land uptake per person increased by 231 percent. Urban sprawl is an important issue of intergenerational justice, resulting from a large number of individual actions. Their effects add up cumulatively and persist into the future. Urban sprawl is an important example of the need of human societies to observe limits which are beyond human control and cannot be set by human beings themselves. While many countries have established sophisticated planning systems, urban sprawl has clearly not been addressed sufficiently by planning regulations. This paper summarizes the increase in urban sprawl in Montreal since 1951, discusses the effectiveness of greenbelts at mitigating urban sprawl (Pourtaherian and Jaeger, 2022), and the need for targets and limits to urban sprawl. Measuring urban sprawl can help compare planning alternatives and assess whether limits are being respected and targets achieved. It is a remarkable irony in human development of recent decades that the more knowledge and planning capacity societies have at their disposal, the more common high urban sprawl has become. Much greater efforts are urgently needed to use land more sparingly, especially in highly developed countries.
This study assesses existing human-purpose underpasses below an unfenced high-traffic 4-lane high... more This study assesses existing human-purpose underpasses below an unfenced high-traffic 4-lane highway in the Appalachian region of Quebec, Canada, as potential crossing structures for native mammal species. Eight underpasses of three types (five water culverts with minimum height and width of 1.8 m, one lowuse gravel road byway, and two railroad underpasses) were continuously monitored by motion-detection infrared camera traps for time periods spanning up to 778 days (September 2016 to November 2018). We asked how the ratios of successful crossings through the structures (termed full crossings) and aversions to the structures (termed aversions) differed between species and we explored the influence of human activity levels on the use of these structures by wildlife. All monitored crossing structures had low human observations (with averages of less than 35 human activities per day). Our results provide evidence that 21 species of mammals in the study area successfully crossed through at least one of the eight observed underpasses on a minimum of one occasion. Some species were observed crossing through some of the underpasses on a regular basis, namely raccoon, red fox, and white-tailed deer. We propose a classification of mammal species into five human co-use classes (no or low co-use to very high co-use) to explore the relationship between mammal use of the structures and human presence. We found that humans and mammals were observed sharing passages for the four mammal species identified as tolerant of human co-use (high and very high co-use classes), but co-use was observed to be limited or not occurring for most other species. The strengths of this study include the length of time during which monitoring took place, as well as the
In 2012, the enlargement of HWY 175 from two to four lanes between Quebec City and Saguenay was c... more In 2012, the enlargement of HWY 175 from two to four lanes between Quebec City and Saguenay was completed. This enlargement increased the width of the road approximately three times and has created a major barrier, fragmenting natural habitat, especially for smaller mammals. To offset this, wildlife passageways for mammals of all sizes and fences for large and medium sized mammals were put in place along HWY 175. Fencing prevents animal crossings and directs movement to the passageways where they can safely cross under the highway. With enough movement, this can restore habitat connectivity between the two sides of the highway. The passageways along HWY 175 are among the first to be built in Quebec, which provides a unique opportunity to study their effects on the native wildlife.
Contexte du projet de recherche En Amerique du Nord, le nombre de routes a connu une augmenta... more Contexte du projet de recherche En Amerique du Nord, le nombre de routes a connu une augmentation constante au cours des dernieres decennies, et ce, non sans consequence. Les routes sont desormais considerees comme un facteur majeur de perturbation de la faune et de leurs habitats. En plus de reduire et de deteriorer les habitats, les routes entravent souvent ses deplacements de la faune. La consequence la plus observable de cet etat de fait se manifeste dans la mortalite faunique quotidienne liee aux tentatives de traverser des routes. Pour diminuer les effets nefastes des routes sur les populations fauniques, diverses mesures d’attenuation ont ete deployees dans de nombreux pays. Citons entre autres la mise en place de passages fauniques et de clotures d’exclusion. Toutefois, dans la plupart des cas, ces mesures ne visent que les animaux de grande taille, comme les ongules et les grands carnivores, car ils peuvent representer un danger pour la securite des usagers de la route....
Les routes ainsi que la circulation automobile ont des repercussions nefastes sur plusieurs popul... more Les routes ainsi que la circulation automobile ont des repercussions nefastes sur plusieurs populations fauniques et processus ecologiques. En effet, les routes constituent des barrieres pour les animaux, limitent leurs deplacements et augmentent leur mortalite. Elles reduisent par ailleurs la qualite ainsi que l’accessibilite des habitats a proximite. Outre leur incidence sur le taux de mortalite, ces obstacles peuvent entraver les mouvements migratoires des animaux, leur acces aux ressources ainsi que le flux genetique et la dispersion des jeunes adultes. Les routes peuvent egalement avoir plusieurs effets sur le niveau des populations. Elles compromettent les relations entre les predateurs et leurs proies. Elles causent egalement une diminution du nombre d’especes ainsi qu’un changement de la composition des communautes. C’est pourquoi les projets de suivi a long terme des routes sont essentiels a l’obtention de previsions plus precises d’incidences.
Aufgaben von Landschaftsmassen Sind Landschaftsqualitäten quantitativ erfassbar? Dieser Frage näh... more Aufgaben von Landschaftsmassen Sind Landschaftsqualitäten quantitativ erfassbar? Dieser Frage nähert sich unser Beitrag dadurch, dass er einen Überblick über Landschaftsmasse gibt und ihre Aufgaben und Grenzen darstellt. Der Beitrag zeichnet die Entwicklung eines neuen Landschaftsmasses für die Zersiedelung (Abb. 1) nach und gibt aufgrund der dabei gewonnenen Erfahrungen eine Einschätzung zur Ausgangsfrage. Landschaftsmasse oder Landschaftsindizes (landscape metrics) sind primär nicht dafür entwickelt worden, Landschaftsqualitäten zu messen, sondern um die Struktur bzw. das Muster von Landschaften zu messen und einer quantitativen Analyse zugänglich zu machen. Dabei stehen die landschaftsökologischen Fragen im Vordergrund, welchen Einfluss die Struktur von Landschaften auf die Prozesse hat, die in diesen Landschaften ablaufen, und welche Gesetzmässigkeiten hier bestehen (z. B. Turner 1989). Umgekehrt beeinflussen die ablaufenden Prozesse die Herausbildung und die zeitliche Veränderung von Landschaftsstrukturen. Die Landschaftsstruktur umfasst dabei zwei Aspekte: (1) die Zusammensetzung (composition) der Landschaft, d. h. welche Landschaftselemente es gibt und wie viel von jedem dieser Landschaftselemente vorhanden ist, und (2) die Konfiguration oder räumliche Anordnung (configuration) dieser Landschaftselemente (bei gleichbleibender Zusammensetzung). Diese Aufteilung ist
Although prey species typically respond to the most limiting factors at coarse spatiotemporal sca... more Although prey species typically respond to the most limiting factors at coarse spatiotemporal scales while addressing biological requirements at finer scales, such behaviour may become challenging for species inhabiting human altered landscapes. We investigated how woodland caribou, a threatened species inhabiting North-American boreal forests, modified their fine-scale movements when confronted with forest management features (i.e. clearcuts and roads). We used GPS telemetry data collected between 2004 and 2010 on 49 female caribou in a managed area in Québec, Canada. Movements were studied using a use – availability design contrasting observed steps (i.e. line connecting two consecutive locations) with random steps (i.e. proxy of immediate habitat availability). Although caribou mostly avoided disturbances, individuals nonetheless modulated their fine-scale response to disturbances on a daily and annual basis, potentially compromising between risk avoidance in periods of higher vulnerability (i.e. calving, early and late winter) during the day and foraging activities in periods of higher energy requirements (i.e. spring, summer and rut) during dusk/dawn and at night. The local context in which females moved was shown to influence their decision to cross clearcut edges and roads. Indeed, although females typically avoided crossing clearcut edges and roads at low densities, crossing rates were found to rapidly increase in greater disturbance densities. In some instance, however, females were less likely to cross edges and roads as densities increased. Females may then be trapped and forced to use disturbed habitats, known to be associated with higher predation risk. We believe that further increases in anthropogenic disturbances could exacerbate such behavioural responses and ultimately lead to population level consequences
Today, we are living in an urban world. For the first time in history, there are now more people ... more Today, we are living in an urban world. For the first time in history, there are now more people living in cities than in rural areas. In Europe their share has reached almost three quarters. Urban areas supposedly will absorb almost all the population growth expected over the next decades. This will pose a range of challenges for cities and their surroundings, not only on resource availability and the quality of urban environments, but also on biodiversity in cities. Capturing the status and trends of biodiversity and ecosystem services in urban landscapes represents an important part of understanding whether a metropolitan area is developing along a sustainable trajectory or not. Actions to conserve biodiversity should start with stock-taking and identifying baselines, followed by regular monitoring of conservation initiatives. The City Biodiversity Index (CBI), also known as the Singapore Index on Cities‘ Biodiversity (or Singapore Index) because of Singapore‘s leadership in its ...
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Papers by Jochen Jaeger
Online: https://www.mjsdl.com/annualreview/volume20-2
Abstract: Rapid increase in urban sprawl in many regions across the planet reveal very problematic trends of unsustainable development. Globally, humans have settled more land area in just 40 years between 1975 and 2014 than during all preceding centuries in history combined. In the period 1990–2014, the built-up areas on the planet increased by almost 28 km2 per day, corresponding to 1.16 km2 per hour, or 1.9 ha per minute (Behnisch et al. 2022). High levels of urban sprawl are most pronounced in highly developed countries. For example, in Montreal (Canada), the total built-up area increased by 474 percent between 1951 and 2016, and land uptake per person increased by 231 percent. Urban sprawl is an important issue of intergenerational justice, resulting from a large number of individual actions. Their effects add up cumulatively and persist into the future. Urban sprawl is an important example of the need of human societies to observe limits which are beyond human control and cannot be set by human beings themselves. While many countries have established sophisticated planning systems, urban sprawl has clearly not been addressed sufficiently by planning regulations. This paper summarizes the increase in urban sprawl in Montreal since 1951, discusses the effectiveness of greenbelts at mitigating urban sprawl (Pourtaherian and Jaeger, 2022), and the need for targets and limits to urban sprawl. Measuring urban sprawl can help compare planning alternatives and assess whether limits are being respected and targets achieved. It is a remarkable irony in human development of recent decades that the more knowledge and planning capacity societies have at their disposal, the more common high urban sprawl has become. Much greater efforts are urgently needed to use land more sparingly, especially in highly developed countries.
Online: https://www.mjsdl.com/annualreview/volume20-2
Abstract: Rapid increase in urban sprawl in many regions across the planet reveal very problematic trends of unsustainable development. Globally, humans have settled more land area in just 40 years between 1975 and 2014 than during all preceding centuries in history combined. In the period 1990–2014, the built-up areas on the planet increased by almost 28 km2 per day, corresponding to 1.16 km2 per hour, or 1.9 ha per minute (Behnisch et al. 2022). High levels of urban sprawl are most pronounced in highly developed countries. For example, in Montreal (Canada), the total built-up area increased by 474 percent between 1951 and 2016, and land uptake per person increased by 231 percent. Urban sprawl is an important issue of intergenerational justice, resulting from a large number of individual actions. Their effects add up cumulatively and persist into the future. Urban sprawl is an important example of the need of human societies to observe limits which are beyond human control and cannot be set by human beings themselves. While many countries have established sophisticated planning systems, urban sprawl has clearly not been addressed sufficiently by planning regulations. This paper summarizes the increase in urban sprawl in Montreal since 1951, discusses the effectiveness of greenbelts at mitigating urban sprawl (Pourtaherian and Jaeger, 2022), and the need for targets and limits to urban sprawl. Measuring urban sprawl can help compare planning alternatives and assess whether limits are being respected and targets achieved. It is a remarkable irony in human development of recent decades that the more knowledge and planning capacity societies have at their disposal, the more common high urban sprawl has become. Much greater efforts are urgently needed to use land more sparingly, especially in highly developed countries.