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The Environmental Impact of not Having Paved Roads in Arid Regions: An Example from Mongolia

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Title The Environmental Impact of not Having Paved Roads in Arid Regions: An Example from Mongolia
 
Creator Keshkamat, Sukhad
 
Contributor Tsendbazar, Nandin-Erdene
Zuidgeest, Mark
van der Veen, Anne
de Leeuw, Jan
 
Description There is a generally held perception that roads have negative environmental impacts. Ironically, this paradigm stems from regions where fences and regulations restrict vehicles to paved roads. The situation is different in sparsely populated rural areas in the developing world, where the scarcity of paved roads forces drivers to create their own tracks, often with considerable environmental degradation as a result. Arid and semi-arid regions, especially those with communal land ownership and easily motorable terrain, are particularly prone to this practice and the consequent degradation is widespread—plaguing regions in Central Asia, the Middle East, South America, and Africa. In such circumstances, the paradigm contradicts its own purpose—paved roads here would in fact have a positive environmental impact, as they reduce the need for ''off-road driving''. We illustrate the destructive potential that this practice is having in Mongolia using satellite imagery.
 
Date 2012-03-15
2016-11-16T00:17:31Z
2016-11-16T00:17:31Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier https://mel.cgiar.org/reporting/download/hash/YDeKUdp3
Sukhad Keshkamat, Nandin-Erdene Tsendbazar, Mark Zuidgeest, Anne van der Veen, Jan de Leeuw. (15/3/2012). The Environmental Impact of not Having Paved Roads in Arid Regions: An Example from Mongolia. Ambio, 41, pp. 202-205.
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11766/5030
Limited access
 
Language en
 
Rights CC-BY-NC-4.0
 
Format PDF
 
Publisher Springer Verlag (Germany)
 
Source Ambio;41,(2012) Pagination 202,205