The Role of Road Network Analysis in Assessing Threats and Planning for Threat Reduction

Michael J. Furniss

Pacific Northwest Research Station

Road networks are strongly related to most threats facing public forest and rangelands.  Roads route people, vehicles, water, large wood and sediment, pathogens, and invasive propagules. Roads can fragment and connect aquatic and terrestrial habitats in complex ways. The capacity for fuel treatments and fire suppression depend, in part, on the location and condition of roads.

The threats themselves and the capacity to respond to them are strongly related to past and future road networks, so the consideration of threats often must consider roads and their potential and anticipated changes through time. Recent advances in the large-scale analysis of road networks have demonstrated practical approaches to interdisciplinary planning of future road networks that are responsive to modern and projected issues and needs.

Exotic Pests Session - Tuesday Afternoon

corresponding author:

Michael J. Furniss
Pacific Northwest Research Station
Corvallis, OR
541-758-7789
mfurniss@fs.fed.us