Infrastructure

Infrastructure shapes landscapes. Roads, railways, ports, airports and utility networks connect people and industry, and power economies. They also define how we impact and interact with the natural world.  

As infrastructure networks expand – crossing ecologically sensitive habitats and fragmenting ecosystems – impact risks to vital and valuable habitats grow. Mitigating negative impacts demands specialist expertise across land and seascapes to assess risks and optimise infrastructure design whilst understanding commercial and regulatory pressures.  

The challenge at scale 

Projects range in scale from a single asset installation to city-scale developments, and from a highway upgrade to a long-distance railway or high voltage powerline.  

Linear projects – roads, railways, pipelines and powerlines – present different challenges to spatially discrete projects, such as port facilities. Each requires its own methodology, baseline and mitigation approach.   

The wider built environment on infrastructure projects adds further complexity. Before a single structure is built, the materials sourced, processed and transported can also carry a significant nature-related footprint.  

Our approach 

The Biodiversity Consultancy works with developers, operators and lenders to avoid, minimise and mitigate biodiversity impacts of infrastructure projects – from early project design to operational monitoring and reporting.  

Experience that travels 

For an ambitious rail infrastructure in Guinea, we developed a fragmentation analysis to pinpoint high-risk areas along the route and optimised rail crossing design to improve landscape connectivity.  

And in Mongolia, we assessed the risks that high and medium voltage powerlines posed to migratory birds for Oyu Tolgoi. Our mitigation options reduced collision and electrocution impacts, as well as satisfying lender requirements.