The BISON project Biodiversity and Infrastructure Synergies and Opportunities for European Transport Networks is financed within the framework of the European Union’s HORIZON 2020 programme. The project began in January 2021. For thirty months, it will bring together the work of some thirty organizations to identify synergies and opportunities that make biodiversity conservation compatible with transport infrastructures: roads, railways, airports and ports, canals, and power lines.
The main objective is to integrate biodiversity in the planning, design and management of transport infrastructures. With this objective, future research and innovation must be identified to create infrastructures that integrate solutions based on nature and other elements and favor biodiversity. Infrastructure must be reliable, efficient, and more resilient in the face of climate change. The project will draw up a Strategic Research Development Agenda (SRDA) to improve the knowledge base on infrastructure and biodiversity. Resilient construction, maintenance and inspection methods and materials will be identified to mitigate the pressure of infrastructures on biodiversity. The objective has been defined to help member countries to involve the agents who participate in the planning and development of infrastructures, and to lead collaboration and support for European research.
As partners, the international project has government representatives, research institutes, companies and associations. MINUARTIA leads one of the five work packages, focused on the integration of biodiversity in the current and future management of transport infrastructures. The aim is to identify and describe good practices and new technologies, including nature-based solutions that can be applied to promote biodiversity in transport infrastructures. The identification of new trends that will emerge in the current scenario of climate change and their effects on biodiversity in transport is also foreseen.
