Forest road is recognized as a key infrastructure for a sustainable forestry. However, forest road may have an environmental impact and a careful planning of the forest road networks is required. The aims of this work were to develop methods for evaluating both the forest needs in terms of accessibility and the economic convenience of upgrading “tractor roads” to “truck roads”.Applying a “MCDA” (Multi Criteria Decision Analysis), a GIS based method for evaluating the forest needs in terms of accessibility was developed. On the basis of forest management plans of Trento Province (Northern Italy) a set of data were chosen as factors useful for determining the forest road needs, and namely: growing stock, site fertility class and productive potential index (based on the forest type potential production) for high forest areas; productive potential index and site fertility class for coppices. In order to calculate a “road needs index” (RNI) the factors, after normalization, were merged by means of a weighted sum. In order to assign a “weight” to each factor an AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) was applied to the results of local forest expert interviews. The result is a map of the forest area of Trento Province in which each pixel was classified (four classes were applied) in relation to road needs.In order to assess the economic convenience of upgrading “tractor road” to “truck roads”, the real costs of road construction or improvement in Trento Province were collected taking into consideration the period 2008-2012. The costs were analyzed on the basis of site slope and road width, length and enlargement. An “algorithm”, able to make a preliminary costs evaluation starting from the characteristics of new road project, was developed analyzing those data.In conclusion, while the RNI map defines the areas where the improvement of forest road network is required, the “algorithm” gives a preliminary cost-benefit analysis of forest road upgrading.
Developing a methods for the assessment of improvement needs of forest road network / Andrea Laschi; Natascia Magagnotti; Niccolò B. Montorselli; Francesco Neri; Enrico Marchi. - ELETTRONICO. - (2013), pp. 1-1. (Intervento presentato al convegno FORMEC 2013: Techniques for sustainable management tenutosi a Stralsund (Germany) nel September 30th – October 2nd, 2013).
Developing a methods for the assessment of improvement needs of forest road network
LASCHI, ANDREA;NERI, FRANCESCO;MARCHI, ENRICO
2013
Abstract
Forest road is recognized as a key infrastructure for a sustainable forestry. However, forest road may have an environmental impact and a careful planning of the forest road networks is required. The aims of this work were to develop methods for evaluating both the forest needs in terms of accessibility and the economic convenience of upgrading “tractor roads” to “truck roads”.Applying a “MCDA” (Multi Criteria Decision Analysis), a GIS based method for evaluating the forest needs in terms of accessibility was developed. On the basis of forest management plans of Trento Province (Northern Italy) a set of data were chosen as factors useful for determining the forest road needs, and namely: growing stock, site fertility class and productive potential index (based on the forest type potential production) for high forest areas; productive potential index and site fertility class for coppices. In order to calculate a “road needs index” (RNI) the factors, after normalization, were merged by means of a weighted sum. In order to assign a “weight” to each factor an AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) was applied to the results of local forest expert interviews. The result is a map of the forest area of Trento Province in which each pixel was classified (four classes were applied) in relation to road needs.In order to assess the economic convenience of upgrading “tractor road” to “truck roads”, the real costs of road construction or improvement in Trento Province were collected taking into consideration the period 2008-2012. The costs were analyzed on the basis of site slope and road width, length and enlargement. An “algorithm”, able to make a preliminary costs evaluation starting from the characteristics of new road project, was developed analyzing those data.In conclusion, while the RNI map defines the areas where the improvement of forest road network is required, the “algorithm” gives a preliminary cost-benefit analysis of forest road upgrading.
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