Environmental impacts of forest road construction on mountainous terrain

Creative Commons License

Caliskan E.

IRANIAN JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCE & ENGINEERING, vol.10, 2013 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 10
  • Publication Date: 2013
  • Doi Number: 10.1186/1735-2746-10-23
  • Journal Name: IRANIAN JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Keywords: Environmental impacts, Forest road construction, Buldozer, Excavator, Mountainous terrain, SEDIMENT YIELD, RUNOFF, MODEL
  • Karadeniz Technical University Affiliated: No

Abstract

Forest roads are the base infrastructure foundation of forestry operations. These roads entail a complex engineering effort because they can cause substantial environmental damage to forests and include a high-cost construction. This study was carried out in four sample sites of Giresun, Trabzon(2) and Artvin Forest Directorate, which is in the Black Sea region of Turkey. The areas have both steep terrain 930-50% gradient) and very steep terrain 951-80% gradient). Bulldozers and hydraulic excavators were determined to be the main machines for forest road construction, causing environmental damage and cross sections in mountainous areas.