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A Global Review of Road Development

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Himalayan Mobilities

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Environmental Science ((BRIEFSENVIRONMENTAL))

Abstract

Historically roads began as an extension of trails adapted to handle increased traffic and wheeled vehicles. Many modern paved roads follow traditional trade routes such as the Silk Road, the Grand Trunk Road, and the Amber Road. Roads have profound impacts on humans, animals, and ecosystems—they are a prime example of what is called human environment interactions and/or coupled social and ecological systems. Roads can have both positive and negative influences that have far ranging, unanticipated, and unintended consequences on environmental, socioeconomic, and sociocultural spheres. When one considers the scale of impacts in all three spheres that travel beyond the areas immediately adjacent to the road surface, global road building must be acknowledged as one of the most profound and influential human activities on earth. Before 1950 motorable roads in Nepal were virtually non-existent. It was not until 1956 that Kathmandu had a road usable by trucks that linked to the existing road in the flat Terai area connecting Kathmandu to the railhead and India—for almost 30 years, from 1927 until the completion of this section of road, the only way to transport goods into or out of the Kathmandu Valley was by the ropeway, human porter, or animal. Latest available figures suggest that as of 2016 Nepal has a total road length greater than 81,000 km. Recent events including the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake, the promulgation of the new Nepali constitution (September 2015) and the subsequent southern border blockade, and the continuing instability of the government all have an effect on people’s ability to access and use these roads.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://search.worldbank.org/data?qterm=roads&language=EN&op=.

  2. 2.

    The circumference of the earth is 40,075 km.

  3. 3.

    The distance to the moon is 384,400 km.

  4. 4.

    http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/collection/groads/sets/browse.

  5. 5.

    A ropeway uses rope or cable suspended between towers to carry loads over steep terrain and across rivers. The first rope way was installed in Nepal in the 1920s. http://library.uniteddiversity.coop/Ecological_Building/aerial_ropeway.pdf.

  6. 6.

    https://www.facebook.com/pages/History-of-Nepal-Transport-Service/149043701774885.

  7. 7.

    At the age of 16 Arniko was sent by one of the Kathmandu Kings, Jaya Bhim Dev Malla on the request of Mongolian Emperor Kublai Khan’s spiritual teacher Phags-pa to build a golden stupa in Lhasa, Tibet. With a group of 80 artisans he completed his work so well that the Emperor requested him to come again for other works. In total he is credited with building two Confucian shrines, a Taoist palace, the Archway of Yungtang, nine Buddhist monasteries, and the White Pagoda of Miaoying Temple in Peking (Beijing). The latter was so highly thought of that it was honored as a national historical treasure. He is credited with bringing the pagoda style of Kathmandu architecture to China. His talents also included sculpture and painting; he was entrusted with painting a portfolio of Chinese Emperors, which were held in equally high regard. He was eventually made a minister in the Emperor’s court and bestowed with the title of Liang Guo Gong (Duke), which included an estate of 15000 acres, 1000 serfs, and 100 head of livestock near Peking. He died in China in 1306 at age sixty-two. He was further honored by being one of the few foreigners whose biography became part of the history books of the Imperial Library (Shrestha 2011).

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  1. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Robert E. Beazley & James P. Lassoie

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Beazley, R.E., Lassoie, J.P. (2017). A Global Review of Road Development. In: Himalayan Mobilities. SpringerBriefs in Environmental Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55757-1_1

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