Skid trails planning using the AHP and GIS

Forests as a renewable resource play an important role in the economic and social activities of the society. In the principled exploitation of the forests of northern Iran, the existence of a suitable road network along with skid trails the most fundamental role. Skid trails in the forest are one of the most difficult and costly operations. The purpose of this study is to design the proposed Skid Trails Planning in the forest using AHP and GIS for various operations.

For this purpose, the parcels 18 and 19 of district 4, part 2 of Neka Zalemarud with an area measuring 97 hectares have been selected. According to effective factors in skid trail planning such as slope, soil, geology, stand per hectare, streams, aspect, forest type, elite trees, and altitude, we have attempted to design a questionnaire and filled by some experts. These factors were weighted in Export Choice (EC) software via the pair-wise method. Finally, the status of the designed skid road and the existing skid road were compared. Then, on the map, the ability to pass lands in Arc view environment was designed using PEEGER software, three options. Finally, the specifications of the proposed routes were compared with the existing route. The Chi-square test was used for statistical comparison between the most appropriate option and the available path.

Analysis of different layers based on the opinion of experts, showed that the longitudinal slope with a relative weight of 0.366 has the highest score, followed by the waterway 0.115 and finally the height above sea level with a relative weight of 0.026 has the lowest score. . The results of evaluating the existing routes and proposed variants on the land passability map showed that the percentage of passing the existing route length over the area with suitable power is less than the proposed variants (22.87) and the percentage of crossing the existing route on the area with Inadequate power is higher than the designed variants (24/99).

The results of the Chi-square test showed that the proposed routes were significantly (at 95% level) better than the existing route in terms of crossing suitable areas (p = 0.0001). Therefore, according to the results, if the percentage of the desired longitudinal slope is reduced; it is suggested to consider a longer route because, in such a long route, the topography cannot be shown precision.