IENE 2016

There is evidence today that the passage of a transportation infrastructure is a major disruption to the ecological functioning of bat populations and a major cause of mortality.

To answer these concerns the government has initiated the implementation of a bats’ National Action Plan (NAP) for the 2009-2013. Among the relevant actions, the Cerema was in charge of drafting the guide "Bats and linear land transport infrastructure." This approach corresponds more particularly to actions 6 and 7 of the plan, ie:

• The elaboration and the implementation of a methodology for the consideration of Chiroptera during the enginiering and the maintenance of infrastructures and bridges,
• The assessment of the effectiveness of these mitigation measures of transport infrastructures.

 Organized around a generic text on each of the approached themes and widely illustrated, this guide makes the synthesis of a large number of experience feedbacks and concrete cases resting on several hundreds of studies and French and english technical and scientific references.

 It is structured in a simple and educational way in order to provide a document in which everyone can extract the information he needs. The guide is a technical support tool for decision support, including :

• A brief but rigorous description of some notions in the field of ecology useful for the understanding of bat species and the problems,
• A synthesis of the impacts related to the crossing of an infrastructure.
• A detailed overview of the useful data which must be knowed and studied upstream to the construction. If the proposed methodology does not establish a strict frame, it aims to provide a reference approach assuring a quality of expertise.

 This guide is therefore a methodological and technical work. It give a range of informations and necessary recommendations for the proper consideration of Chiroptera within the realization of new projects but also during the maintenance and the requalification of existing infrastructures. It is intended for all infrastructure operators like project owners, prime contractors, public communities, consultancy firms, administration, associations, ...

Finally, beyond a synthesis and assessment of the state of knowledge available on this theme, this guide proposes possible and concrete practical solutions to answer a maximum of problems. It also raises some gaps in knowledge, it would be useful to go into them in depth.