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A Decision Support System for Allocation of Mountain Forest Roads Based on Ground Stability

  • Research Article - Earth Sciences
  • Published:
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Abstract

The main purpose of this research was to introduce a method for planning forest road network by combining geographical information system (GIS) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in a form that environmental factors such as ground stability were incorporated in the planning process. After collection of data and building the necessary maps of study area, the effective factors in forest road allocation were identified and forest potential to road construction was determined and classified. After that, the maps of slope, volume per hectare, aspect, altitude, forest type, and ground stability were prepared. In the next step, concerning the importance and the role of the mentioned elements in the road construction cost, prepared maps were rated using AHP to determine the weight of both the effective factors and their categories. Then, forest potential map of road construction was prepared by overlaying the weighted maps of the mentioned factors. The later map was categorized to three classes including high, moderate and low capability. The results of this study showed that about 88% of the proposed roads were located in the regions with high and moderate road construction capability; as well, it provided an accessibility of 80% for the plan area. Results also showed that using of a GIS–AHP method could improve the accessibility to the district and could ensure that routs will pass from stable regions. The introduced method can be used as a useful method for planning of forest road network in mountain areas.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forestry, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Guilan, P. O. Box 1144, Somehsara, Iran

    Razieh Babapour, Ramin Naghdi & Ali Salehi

  2. Department of Forestry, Faculty of Natural Resources, Tarbiat Modares University, Noor, P. O. Box 64414-356, Tehran, Iran

    Ismael Ghajar

Authors
  1. Razieh Babapour
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  2. Ramin Naghdi
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  3. Ali Salehi
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  4. Ismael Ghajar
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Correspondence to Ramin Naghdi.

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Babapour, R., Naghdi, R., Salehi, A. et al. A Decision Support System for Allocation of Mountain Forest Roads Based on Ground Stability. Arab J Sci Eng 39, 199–205 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-013-0833-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-013-0833-5

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