منیژه طالبی

Tourism in forests  can be effective in developing forest management plans, specially during forest rest periods. Forest areas are important for the protection of ecosystems and natural resources, as well as providing recreational opportunities for people. Therefore, forest recreation, as a form of tourism development, is a significant factor that provides many direct and indirect economic, social, cultural, and environmental benefits.  The aim of this research is to design and complete the forest road network and add walking paths with the goal of tourism development in Kheyrud Forest using the capabilities of artificial neural networks and GIS.  

Initially, layers of slope, aspect, elevation, geology, soil, canopy cover percentage, and existing roads were prepared, and each layer was internally classified and weighted. The internal classification of the layers was done based on the opinion of an expert and researcher in the field of forest engineering and forest tourism, and the weighting of the layers was performed using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. By integrating the various layers and their corresponding weights using the Weighted Linear Combination (WLC) method, a suitability map of the Patam section was prepared as the training section for the neural network to pass the road network. The value of each cell from the shapes, along with coordinates, was extracted using ArcGIS software, and all data were mapped to a range of 1 to 5. In this research, a Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) neural network with 30 neurons in the hidden layer was used for modeling. The data on slope, aspect, elevation, geology, soil, canopy cover percentage, and existing roads were used as inputs, and the suitability data for the Patam section road passage was used as the output for training the network. The neural network estimated the suitability for each of the three active forest sections based on the Patam section.

The overlaying of the existing road network layers, landscape map, and suitability map of the research area showed that the existing road network has made many areas with tourism potential accessible to tourists. Therefore, to complete the access network to areas with tourism potential in the forest, using the PEGGER extension in the ArcView software environment and considering the landscape shape and suitability shape, walking paths of approximately 14 kilometers were designed. During the design, efforts were made to ensure that the road passes through more desirable areas (pixels with lower values). According to the results, the MLP artificial neural network, with a coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.902 and a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.126, showed greater ability than linear regression in estimating the suitability value for road passage.

The results of this research demonstrate the capability of the intelligent method based on artificial neural networks and GIS for designing and planning the road network. The findings indicate an increase in the learning ability of the MLP network with an increase in iterations up to the 7th iteration.

Tourism development by planning the principles of access roads can help the management and development of villages in natural and protected areas. This study aimed at planning and developing the access roads to achieve the tourism and rural areas as the recreational attractions in Arasbaran protected area. For this purpose, the road network options were designed for three different scenarios to access the recreational and rural areas in GIS environment and evaluated in terms of technical, environmental and socio-economic aspects. In the next stage, the existing road network was modified according to the optimal-designed road options. Finally, the modified versions of the existing road network were proposed for tourism development and management in the region. Thus, the variants of the existing road network, the optimal-designed road network and the modified-road network were evaluated and compared. Moreover, among the designed options, the 10th option in three different scenarios to access the recreational areas and the minimum, medium, and maximum villages with densities of 4.17, 4.93, and 5.86 mha-1, respectively, was chosen as the optimal option to modify the existing road network. Finally, the modified road networks with densities of 3.98, 4.66, and 5.55 mha-1 and accessibilities of 72.7, 76.19, and 78.33 percent were proposed for these three scenarios. According to assessment and comparison of the variants, the optimal-designed road networks and the modified road networks were identified as the better alternatives compared to the existing road network. Tourism management and development in Arasbaran by principled planning and development of access roads can lead to prosperity of economic activities and improve the rural development in this area.

Recreational use of the area must be performed conforms to its ecological capability. Therefore, this study was carried out with the aim of providing a method for modelling and ranking the areas with ecotourism capability. For this purpose, Makhdoum systemic method, regarding to the region specifications, and multi-layer perceptron artificial neural network (MLP) were used to evaluate the ecological capability of Arasbaran protected area. At first, ecological and socio-economic resources were identified and maps of them were provided. Then, ecotourism capability map was prepared by analyzing and overlaying of data in ArcGIS. In the next step, using the results of the systemic method, neural network was trained and its various structures were evaluated. Finally, map of the suitable tourism areas was modeled based on neural network output. In the end, using the socio-economic criteria and recreational attractions, prioritize and final evaluation was performed. Regarding to the systemic analysis, the area has the capability for intensive recreation class-2 (0.06%), and extensive recreation class-2 (10.33%). Topology 7-9-3 was selected as the best classifier with an overall accuracy of 98% for recreational regions classification. The best and the lowest of neural network application were shown to belong to intensive recreation class, and extensive recreation class, respectively. Based on modeled map, 0.17%, 10.09%, and 89.74% of the area were shown to belong to intensive recreation-class 2, extensive recreation-class 2, and unsuitable for recreation, respectively. This study showed artificial neural network has potential for classification of the suitable tourism areas with high accuracy.

The road network is an important element for sustainable forest ecosystem management. On the other hand, efficiency and quality of road design can be improved by considering of environmental and technical principles. Therefore, this study was performed to determine the capability of Arasbaran protected area for road passing and communication routes in order to use in the area management. For this purpose, criteria of the slope, aspect, height, soil texture, lithology, erosion susceptibility, vegetation density, distance to stream, and distance to existing road as the effective criteria for road design were identified by literature review, and their prepared maps were standardized with the fuzzy logic method. Then, the criteria were weighted using of analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and finally were combined to prepare suitability map for road planning by weighted linear combination (WLC) method. According to results, the highest weight (0.289) and the lowest weight (0.033) were belonged to slope and height criterion, respectively. Finally, the area was classified into four classes with the capability of low, medium, high and very high for road network passing, that region with medium passing capability has the highest percent (49.83%). The study proved GIS and AHP capabilities considering to economic and environmental problems for developing the road capability map in order to use for road locating in Arasbaran area.

The aim of the study was to provide an intelligent artificial neural networks-based method for modeling the capability of Arasbaran protected area for road crossing, in order to design, modify, and appropriate development of existing road network and communication routs in the region. First, using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Weighted Linear Combination (WLC) method, and utilization the effective informative layers on routing, the suitability map of road construction was prepared to provide training samples in ArcGIS. In the following, Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) network was used to estimate the suitability value of road crossing. In order to evaluate the neural network’s model performance, the results were compared with the results of multivariate linear regression. According to the results, artificial neural network and statistical method of regression were shown to be useful in determining the suitability value of road crossing with coefficient of determination (R2) 0.908 and 0.901, root mean squared error (RMSE) 0.0385 and 0.04, respectively. Neural network results were relatively better than regression. Also, according to the results of sensitivity analysis of input variables, four criteria of slope, bedrock, erosion susceptibility, and soil texture showed the highest influence in estimating the model, respectively.

Access routes are the basic requirements to access recreational areas and tourism planning. The purpose of this study is designing and evaluating of forest road network in order to select the optimal road network for tourism development in Arasbaran protected area. For this purpose, recreational suitable areas were evaluated and identified using Makhdoum systemic methods and Multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network. In order to prepare the road passing suitability map, effective criteria for road designing have been standardized with the fuzzy logic method and combined according to the relative importance obtained from the analytical hierarchy process. Then, the road network options were designed for access to recreational areas in the GIS environment and evaluated in terms of technical, environmental and socioeconomic. The results of the tourism suitable area assessment showed sections of the region have a capability for intensive recreation class 2 (0.17%), and extensive recreation class 2 (10.09%). According to the weighting results by criteria, slope criterion with a value 0.289 and height criterion with a value 0.033 have the highest and the lowest weight, respectively. Overall, 14 road network variants were designed and based on the final evaluation, variant 7 was selected as the optimal option with density 3.34 m/ha, accessibility (hard) 64.68% and minimum cost and environmental impacts. Therefore, taking into account the cost and environmental impacts and using GIS capabilities, it is possible principle design of the road network, and as a result the development of existing access roads in order to develop tourism in the area.

Forest roads are essential infrastructure in management forested areas. On the other hand improperly planning of forest roads may cause environmental damages to forest ecosystems. One of the most important effects is erosion and sediment production. Therefore management of forest road should be such that in addition to forestry objective realization, environmental damage such as erosion and sediment production from road construction is at least. The purpose of this study was to assess drainage system of the road network in Kaleibarchay watershed of Arasbaran region, to provide practical solutions of maintenance and repair to reduce damage to forests. To do this, first 131 samples were selected and for each sample some data such as ditch, culverts, bridges and road template were collected. The spatial data and corresponding databased were developed in ArcGIS. According to the results 18.32% of the road segment had ditch and 22.9% of the samples have road template failure. But only one culvert was existed in network. In order to function properly of study case road drainage system, necessary places cross drainage creation were proposed. The results of this research can be used in forest road management and reduction of negative environmental effects.

Forest roads are basic infrastructures for management of forested areas. Sustainable management of roads depends on regular and timely forest road maintenance. Road inventory is as an important tool to recognize the needs of roads and do corresponding correction operations. GIS can be a powerful tool for acquirement, analysis and management of data in road management. The purpose of this study was to obtain the required information for road management in Kaleibarchay watershed, Arasbaran region, to provide practical maintenance and monitoring solutions. To do this, 131 samples were selected and for each sample some data such as road gradient, template, problems of surfacing and slope stability were collected. Then spatial data and corresponding database were developed in ArcGIS and were compared to standard values. According to the results cross-slope has the highest consistency with standard values. 25.19% of the road length was without any sign of surfacing problems. Among surfacing problems rutting has the highest and pothole has the lowest abundance and cut slope had more stability problems than fill slope. In order to better management of drainage system, we suggested some places for new cross drain including culverts and fords. The results of this research showed the potential application GIS for forest roads management.

Forest roads are as essential infrastructure and prerequisite in management of forested areas. Sustainable management of roads depends on regular and timely forest road maintenance. Road inventory is the first step in forest road management، control of construction standards and maintenance operation. The purpose of this study was to assess existing roads standards by road inventory and using the results to schedule maintenance operation. To do this a part of the road network from Kaleibarchay watershed in Arasbaran region was inventoried، and cross sectional components were measured and compared to standard ones. Culverts and bridges along the road were also investigated. Road components، problems of surfacing and slope stability were analyzed quantitative and qualitatively. The results showed that there were significant differences between existing parameters and standard ones and the exceptions were side ditch depth and roadbed. The results of culverts and bridges assessment showed that the road segment only had one culvert. According to the results cross-slope has the highest consistency with standard values. 25. 19% of the road length was without any sign of surfacing problems. Among surfacing problems rutting has the highest abundance and cut slope had more stability problems than fill slope. The results of this research can be used in maintenance operation for studied road and also as a model to study and collect required inventory data.