The Role of Spatial Analysis in Planning Multi-Functional Forest Roads and Transport Routes

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Operations and Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 2977

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Forest Engineering, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology - University of Zagreb, Svetošimunska Cesta 23, Zagreb, Croatia
Interests: planning and design of forest roads; forest fire protection infrastructure; GIS analysis in forestry; park and urban forestry infrastructure; natural resource management; field measurement; CO2 emissions in forestry

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Guest Editor
Department of Forest Engineering, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, University of Zagreb, Svetošimunska Cesta 23, Zagreb, Croatia
Interests: planning and design of forest roads; forest fire protection infrastructure; GIS analysis in forestry; park and urban forestry infrastructure; torrents in forestry; CO2 emissions in forestry
Department of Forestry and Renewable Forest Resources, Biotechnical Faculty - University of Ljubljana, Večna Pot 83, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Interests: planning and design of forest roads; GIS analysis in forestry; natural resource management; field measurement; CO2 emissions in forestry, ergonomics, forest operations and harvesting technologies

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Forestry management is an important component of sustainable land use, which aims to provide economic, environmental, and social benefits. Forest roads and the planning of optimal transport routes are crucial in facilitating access to forest resources, enabling the transportation of forest products and workers and supporting conservation efforts. However, the development and use of forest roads can also negatively impact the environment, leading to soil erosion, habitat fragmentation, and an increased fire risk. Therefore, planning and managing forest roads and transport routes in a way that balances their various functions is essential.

In recent years, spatial analysis has emerged as a cutting-edge research area for planning and managing forest roads and transport routes. This involves using geographic information systems (GIS) and other geospatial tools to analyze spatial data and make informed decisions about the location and design of forest roads and optimization of transport routes, considering the various functions they serve, such as transportation, conservation, protection and recreation.

This topic explores spatial analysis's role in planning multi-functional forest roads and transport routes. The scope of this topic includes various aspects of forest road planning and management, including road location, design, construction, and maintenance, as well as the use of geospatial tools for analyzing and visualizing forest road data. It aims to provide insights into how spatial analysis can balance these functions and minimize the negative environmental impacts of forest roads.

Dr. Kruno Lepoglavec
Dr. Hrvoje Nevečerel
Dr. Anton Poje
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • forest roads and transport routes
  • multi-functional use of forest roads
  • forest resource management
  • spatial analysis and modeling
  • sustainable planning and design
  • forest biodiversity conservation
  • wildfire protection infrastructure

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 6311 KiB  
Article
Application of an Integrated Model for Analyzing Street Greenery through Image Semantic Segmentation and Accessibility: A Case Study of Nanjing City
by Zhen Wu, Keyi Xu, Yan Li, Xinyang Zhao and Yanping Qian
Forests 2024, 15(3), 561; https://doi.org/10.3390/f15030561 - 20 Mar 2024
Viewed by 1406
Abstract
Urban street greening, a key component of urban green spaces, significantly impacts residents’ physical and mental well-being, contributing substantially to the overall quality and welfare of urban environments. This paper presents a novel framework that integrates street greenery with accessibility, enabling a detailed [...] Read more.
Urban street greening, a key component of urban green spaces, significantly impacts residents’ physical and mental well-being, contributing substantially to the overall quality and welfare of urban environments. This paper presents a novel framework that integrates street greenery with accessibility, enabling a detailed evaluation of the daily street-level greenery visible to residents. This pioneering approach introduces a new measurement methodology to quantify the quality of urban street greening, providing robust empirical evidence to support its enhancement. This study delves into Nanjing’s five districts, employing advanced image semantic segmentation based on machine learning techniques to segment and extract green vegetation from Baidu Street View (BSV) images. Leveraging spatial syntax, it analyzes street network data sourced from OpenStreetMap (OSM) to quantify the accessibility values of individual streets. Subsequent overlay analyses uncover areas characterized by high accessibility but inadequate street greening, underscoring the pressing need for street greening enhancements in highly accessible zones, thereby providing valuable decision-making support for urban planners. Key findings revealed that (1) the green view index (GVI) of sampled points within the study area ranged from 15.79% to 38.17%, with notably better street greening conditions observed in the Xuanwu District; (2) the Yuhua District exhibited comparatively lower pedestrian and commuting accessibility than the Xuanwu District; and (3) approximately 139.62 km of roads in the study area demonstrated good accessibility but lacked sufficient greenery visibility, necessitating immediate improvements in their green landscapes. This research utilizes the potential of novel data and methodologies, along with their practical applications in planning and design practices. Notably, this study integrates street greenery visibility with accessibility to explore, from a human-centered perspective, the tangible benefits of green landscapes. These insights highlight the opportunity for local governments to advance urban planning and design by implementing more human-centered green space policies, ultimately promoting societal equity. Full article
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20 pages, 3545 KiB  
Article
Study of the Sustainability of a Forest Road Network Using GIS-MCE
by Chen Long, Yan Pang and Zhongwei Wang
Forests 2023, 14(12), 2410; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14122410 - 11 Dec 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1269
Abstract
An environmentally friendly and economically efficient forest road network is the key to sustainable forest management, and it is essential to evaluate the sustainability of an established forest road network and to optimize the forest road network based on sustainability criteria. This study [...] Read more.
An environmentally friendly and economically efficient forest road network is the key to sustainable forest management, and it is essential to evaluate the sustainability of an established forest road network and to optimize the forest road network based on sustainability criteria. This study proposes a sustainability evaluation method for forest road networks. The evaluation index system was constructed by selecting 12 indices from the social, economic, and ecological dimensions. To improve the credibility of the weighting of the evaluation indicators, the evaluation indicators were assigned subjective and objective weights by the analytic hierarchy process and the entropy weight method, respectively, and the game theory idea was used to comprehensively assign the weights. The study area was chosen to be the Taohuajiang State-Owned Forest Farm, which is a national forest park and is also an ecological public welfare forest. The development of the forest road network in the social, economic, and environmental dimensions was calculated by adopting the evaluation method proposed in this study, and the sustainability of the forest road network in each subdivision of the study area was determined, to provide a detailed theoretical basis for the management to carry out the upgrading of the sustainability of the forest road network. The results derived from the evaluation methodology show that the sustainable development of the forest road network in the study area is “excellent”. At the same time, the level of sustainability of the forest road network in different areas of the study area was also evaluated. Finally, this paper puts forward policy recommendations for optimizing the sustainable development of forest road networks. The original sustainability evaluation method in this paper provides a scientific tool for assessing the degree of sustainable development of forest road networks, which contributes to optimizing the forest road networks. Full article
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