Evaluation of Morphometric Terrain Parameters and Their Influence on Determining Optimal Density of Primary Forest Road Network

Abstract

Planning forest truck roads network involves a lot of factors that directly affect their density and length. Depending on the purpose of the forest truck road network, this number is higher or lower. Our opinion was that these factors should be divided into invariable and variable. Common parameters, regardless of the purpose of the roads, are morphometric parameters because they can limit the length and density of the network of forest truck roads due to their variety of forms. For this reason, this paper deals exclusively with the morphometric characteristics of the terrain and their influence on the density of the network of forest truck roads. The DEM of the terrain was processed with GIS software based on the seven most important influencing factors. By standardizing the criteria, the obtained maps were reclassified, and then each of the seven selected parameters was weighted with the coefficients obtained by the AHP method. In this way, a map of the suitability of the terrain for the construction and addition to the existing network of forest truck roads was obtained. The terrain is divided into 4 categories of suitability. Zero lines were drawn with GIS tools for road design. During the creation of the optimal road network, it was tested with absolute and relative openness. As a final result, each of 26 Forest Economic Areas (FEA) was assigned to one of 4 categories of terrain suitability for the construction and density of the forest truck road network. For each category of terrain convenience, the optimal absolute and relative openness is shown. Based on this work, we suggest that the use of morphometric parameters should be considered as the first step of forest road planning in other regions.