The Ecological Impact of Transportation Infrastructure

The Ecological Impact of Transportation Infrastructure

There is a long-standing debate over whether new roads unavoidably lead to environmental damage, especially forest loss, but causal identification has been elusive. Using multiple causal identification strategies, this paper studies the constructio...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Asher, Sam, Garg, Teevrat, Novosad, Paul
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2018
Subjects:
TRANSPORT
INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT
ROAD CONSTRUCTION
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
RURAL ROADS
DEFORESTATION
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/955441531155281083/The-ecological-impact-of-transportation-infrastructure
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29980
id okr-10986-29980
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-299802021-06-08T14:42:46Z The Ecological Impact of Transportation Infrastructure Asher, Sam Garg, Teevrat Novosad, Paul TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT ROAD CONSTRUCTION ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT RURAL ROADS DEFORESTATION There is a long-standing debate over whether new roads unavoidably lead to environmental damage, especially forest loss, but causal identification has been elusive. Using multiple causal identification strategies, this paper studies the construction of new rural roads to over 100,000 villages and the upgrading of 10,000 kilometers of national highways in India. The new rural roads had precise zero effects on local deforestation. In contrast, the highway upgrades caused substantial forest loss, which appears to be driven by increased timber demand along the transportation corridors. In terms of forests, last mile connectivity had a negligible environmental cost, while expansion of major corridors had important environmental impacts. 2018-07-13T20:35:32Z 2018-07-13T20:35:32Z 2018-07 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/955441531155281083/The-ecological-impact-of-transportation-infrastructure http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29980 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8507 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper South Asia India
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic TRANSPORT
INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT
ROAD CONSTRUCTION
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
RURAL ROADS
DEFORESTATION
spellingShingle TRANSPORT
INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT
ROAD CONSTRUCTION
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
RURAL ROADS
DEFORESTATION
Asher, Sam
Garg, Teevrat
Novosad, Paul
The Ecological Impact of Transportation Infrastructure
geographic_facet South Asia
India
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8507
description There is a long-standing debate over whether new roads unavoidably lead to environmental damage, especially forest loss, but causal identification has been elusive. Using multiple causal identification strategies, this paper studies the construction of new rural roads to over 100,000 villages and the upgrading of 10,000 kilometers of national highways in India. The new rural roads had precise zero effects on local deforestation. In contrast, the highway upgrades caused substantial forest loss, which appears to be driven by increased timber demand along the transportation corridors. In terms of forests, last mile connectivity had a negligible environmental cost, while expansion of major corridors had important environmental impacts.
format Working Paper
author Asher, Sam
Garg, Teevrat
Novosad, Paul
author_facet Asher, Sam
Garg, Teevrat
Novosad, Paul
author_sort Asher, Sam
title The Ecological Impact of Transportation Infrastructure
title_short The Ecological Impact of Transportation Infrastructure
title_full The Ecological Impact of Transportation Infrastructure
title_fullStr The Ecological Impact of Transportation Infrastructure
title_full_unstemmed The Ecological Impact of Transportation Infrastructure
title_sort ecological impact of transportation infrastructure
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2018
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/955441531155281083/The-ecological-impact-of-transportation-infrastructure
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29980
_version_ 1764470973531160576

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