The Secretary of State for Climate Change, Teresa Ribera, together with the CEO of the Ferrovial Group, Álvaro Echániz, and the Corporate General Manager of the OHL Group, Luis García-Linares, today presented the book “Ecological restoration of areas affected by transport infrastructures. Scientific bases for technical solutions”, at an event held at the headquarters of the Spanish Railways Foundation.

The Secretary of State for Climate Change, Teresa Ribera, together with the CEO of the Ferrovial Group, Álvaro Echániz, and the Corporate General Manager of the OHL Group, Luis García-Linares, today presented the book “Ecological restoration of areas affected by transport infrastructures. Scientific bases for technical solutions”, at an event held at the headquarters of the Spanish Railways Foundation.

This publication is the result of the EXPERTAL project “Elaboration of the experimental bases for the ecological sustainability of motorway slopes”, a study that, since 2006, has been developed by the Biodiversity Foundation in collaboration with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the Rey Juan Carlos University and Cintra. The aim was to study the ecological bases that regulate the development of plant communities on the slopes of roads and motorways in the different environmental conditions of the Iberian Peninsula.

The areas affected by transport infrastructures represent an area equivalent to about 5,000 km2, in which plant communities relevant to their botanical uniqueness (ruderal or road vegetation) develop, as well as exotic plant species that, if not controlled, can spread easily, becoming invasive. The restoration of these areas is necessary to help minimise the negative impacts of infrastructures and therefore conserve biological diversity.

The book offers principles and guidance for undertaking the design, execution and maintenance of transport infrastructures in a more sustainable way. It contributes, by the way, to responding to the new reality that its expansion entails, which has been identified as one of the main reasons for biodiversity loss.