Impact of road transportation development on habitat quality in economically developed areas: A case study of Jiangsu Province, China

The excessive expansion of road transportation often has an impact on the quality of regional habitats. This paper attempts to assess the impact of road transportation on regional habitat quality in economically developed areas. A kernel density analysis was used to characterise the road transportation development in Jiangsu Province from 2000 to 2015. An Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs (InVEST) habitat quality model was applied to assess changes in habitat quality. Furthermore, a fixed-effect regression model was utilised to examine the impact of road transportation development in Jiangsu Province on habitat quality. The analysis indicates that the average kernel density of road transportation in the province increased from 0.109 to 0.551 km/km(2) while the habitat quality decreased from 0.51 to 0.48. The development of road transportation in Jiangsu Province has had a serious negative impact on the quality of the habitat. For every 1-ha increase in land area for road use, the habitat quality index will decrease by 0.066; for every 1 km/km(2) increase in road transportation kernel density, the habitat quality index will decline by 0.121.