Toads in the hole: Designing new gulley pots to reduce environmental impacts of road infrastructure on amphibians

This project proposes to capitalise on the combined expertise in amphibian behaviour and engineering of drainage systems to develop a new gully pot design to address the problem of incidental trapping of small animals, primarily common toads, which fall into the drainage systems, get trapped and die. This has been implicated as a contributing cause to widespread population declines of UK common toads. Using our industry partner links we will be able to both design new prototypes in the lab (optimising hydraulic efficiency and amphibian escape) and field test them at sites identified and managed by SWTRA (industry partner). The new gullies will be field trialled only after the joint aims of enabling amphibian escape and maintaining structural integrity and functional efficiency are met. Because climate change predictions in Wales are expected to increase surface water flows, our designs will be important at combatting this middle- to long-term problem without compromising animal welfare or conservation. Moreover, we aim to design both complete gullies that can be rolled out across South Wales and eventually the UK, and gully inserts which can present a cheaper and immediate-term option while the basic structure of existing gully pots remains intact (before replacement is desired). This will help ensure both immediate and long-term real-world impacts of the project.