ENVIRONMENT AND LANDSCAPE - External costs of transport in the domain of environment and landscape
Overview
Background & policy context:
The Federal Office for Spatial Development is currently reconsidering all the external effects caused by road and rail traffic. The available data were partly based on relatively old calculations which are now brought up to date. Thus safety (accidents), health costs and damage to buildings due to air pollution as well as noise are evaluated.
Objectives:
Currently, road and rail transport only partly covers its costs. The costs caused by transport emissions, noise, accidents and greenhouse gas emissions are, for the most part, met by the general public and not by those responsible. These costs are referred to as external costs. In the interests of fairness under the 'polluter pays' principle (Art. 74 para. 2 and Art. 85 para. 1 of the Swiss Federal Constitution), the aim is to identify these costs in order to charge the responsible parties, thereby internalising them.
Transport has a wide-ranging impact on nature and landscape. These complex effects were identified in a preliminary project and evaluated with regard to their relevance.
Three chains of influence are relevant, two of which it was possible to quantify and monetarise for the first time in the present work:
- Habitat loss
- Habitat fragmentation
- Habitat quality loss
These chains of influence were examined in seven different infrastructure types outside urban areas:
- Motorways, main roads, 1st class roads
- 2nd class roads
- 3rd class roads as well as single-track and multi-track railway lines.
Methodology:
The following relevant impacts of transport on nature and landscape were recorded: Habitat loss, habitat fragmentation and habitat quality loss.
- The impact on the appearance of landscape was not examined.
- Digital 3D aerial photographs were used to determine habitat loss between the 1950s/1960s and 1998/99 in a strip bordering the road and rail infrastructures.
- The monetarisation of habitat loss used a repair cost method.
- Habitat fragmentation was determined using current aerial photographs according to the requirements of different animal groups.
- The external costs of this fragmentation were calculated using the costs of constructing actual links between the habitat fragments.
- Habitat quality loss can be identified but not quantified and therefore not monetarised either.
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