Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
4.4
2.4
Journals
Forests
Special Issues
Recent Advances in Forests Roads Research
share announcement

Recent Advances in Forests Roads Research

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2024) | Viewed by 8330

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Stelian Alexandru Borz

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Forest Engineering, Forest Management Planning and Terrestrial Measurements, Faculty of Silviculture and Forest Engineering, Transilvania University of Brasov, Şirul Beethoven 1, 500123 Brasov, Romania
Interests: wood and biomass supply chain optimization; sensor technology; transport optimization; forest planning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Eugen Iordache

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Forest Engineering, Forest Management Planning and Terrestrial Measurements, Faculty of Silviculture and Forest Engineering, Transilvania University of Brasov, Şirul Beethoven 1, 500123 Brasov, Romania
Interests: engineering of forest roads and development of forest road networks; mechanization of forest operations; biomass and bioenergy; forest ecosystem services
Prof. Dr. Teijo Palander

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Science and Forestry, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 111, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland
Interests: wood procurement; bioeconomy; energy wood harvesting; forest industry logistics; wood supply chains; wood energy production control systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Kevin Lyons

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Forest Engineering Resources and Management, College of Forestry, Oregon State University, 311 Snell Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
Interests: forest road design; harvesting; worker safety

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

At the current level of development, managing our forests without a well-planned forest road network is not possible. In fact, forest roads are among the most important features of sustainable forest management, providing access to the forest resources, connecting resources to industries, and supporting many other management activities and industries. Multifunctionality of forest roads requires high-quality research to balance the environmental impacts with society’s needs, while the classification of forest roads, their utility and functionality are highly heterogeneous around the world. This Special Issue welcomes high-quality review and research papers that describe significant advances related, but not limited, to the following:

  • Functionality and multifunctionality of forest roads, including their social role and utility for other industries;
  • Ecology, environmental footprint, and energy requirements of forest roads, including life cycle perspectives on forest roads and transportation systems;
  • Economics of forest roads and forest transportation systems, including those of machines and machine systems used for construction;
  • New methods of planning, constructing, operating and maintaining forest road networks and forest transportation systems;
  • New and innovative materials and methods of construction;
  • Analysis and design of new forest transportation operations;
  • Analysis and design of new transportation modes;
  • Research on forest roads and forest transportation systems in the digital era;
  • Data analytics and integration of forest roads and transportation systems into larger systems;
  • Forest roads in integrated decision support systems and the optimization of integrated transportation systems;
  • Features on policy, safety, compliance and acceptance in relation to developing and maintaining the forest road network.

Prof. Dr. Stelian Alexandru Borz
Dr. Eugen Iordache
Prof. Dr. Teijo Palander
Dr. Kevin Lyons
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • forest road
  • road network
  • operations planning
  • construction
  • maintenance
  • transportation systems
  • forest engineering
  • cost control

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (5 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review

16 pages, 10631 KiB  
Article
Elevation Accuracy of Forest Road Maps Derived from Aerial Imaging, Airborne Laser Scanning and Mobile Laser Scanning Data
by Miroslav Kardoš, Ivan Sačkov, Julián Tomaštík, Izabela Basista, Łukasz Borowski and Michal Ferenčík
Forests 2024, 15(5), 840; https://doi.org/10.3390/f15050840 - 10 May 2024
Viewed by 1356
Abstract
Forest road maps are a fundamental source of information for the sustainable management, protection, and public utilization of forests. However, the precision of these maps is crucial to their use. In this context, we assessed and compared the elevation accuracy of terrain on [...] Read more.
Forest road maps are a fundamental source of information for the sustainable management, protection, and public utilization of forests. However, the precision of these maps is crucial to their use. In this context, we assessed and compared the elevation accuracy of terrain on three forest road surfaces (i.e., asphalt, concrete, and stone), which were derived based on data from three remote sensing technologies (i.e., aerial imaging, airborne laser scanning, and mobile laser scanning) using five geospatial techniques (i.e., inverse distance; natural neighbor; and conversion by average, maximal, and minimal elevation value). Specifically, the elevation accuracy was assessed based on 700 points at which elevation was measured in the field, and these elevations were extracted from fifteen derived forest road maps with a resolution of 0.5 m. The highest precision was found on asphalt roads derived from mobile laser scanning data (RMSE from ±0.01 m to ±0.04 m) and airborne laser scanning data (RMSE from ±0.03 m to ±0.04 m). On the other hand, the lowest precision was found on all roads derived from aerial imaging data (RMSE from ±0.11 m to ±0.23 m). Furthermore, we found significant differences in elevation between the measured and derived terrains. However, the differences in elevation between specific techniques, such as inverse distance, natural neighbor, and conversion by average, were mostly random. Moreover, we found that airborne and mobile laser scanning technologies provided terrain on concrete and stone roads with random elevation differences. In these cases, it is possible to replace a specific technique or technology with one that is similar without significantly decreasing the elevation accuracy (α = 0.05). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Forests Roads Research)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

17 pages, 2636 KiB  
Article
Forest Road Subgrade Improvement by Lime and Sodium Nanoalginate Used as Stabilizers for Clay Soils
by Fatemeh Mousavi, Ehsan Abdi and Stelian Alexandru Borz
Forests 2023, 14(7), 1332; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14071332 - 28 Jun 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1458
Abstract
Fine-grained soils cause problems for forest road construction and often require improvements of their mechanical properties. One of the methods of improving mechanical properties of clay soils is soil stabilization. In this study, the effect of a conventional (lime) and a non-conventional (sodium [...] Read more.
Fine-grained soils cause problems for forest road construction and often require improvements of their mechanical properties. One of the methods of improving mechanical properties of clay soils is soil stabilization. In this study, the effect of a conventional (lime) and a non-conventional (sodium nanoalginate) stabilizer on improving the characteristics of a high plasticity forest soil was compared. Atterberg limits including liquid limit, plastic limit and plasticity index, standard Proctor, UCS (Unconfined Compression Strength) and CBR (California Bearing Ratio) tests were performed on control (untreated) and soil samples treated with different doses (3%, 5% and 7%) of lime and sodium nanoalginate, according to the standard procedures. Moreover, to evaluate the effect of curing time, additional tests were performed on the soil samples treated with 3% lime and 3% sodium nanoalginate at 7, 14 and 28 days after the treatment. The results indicated that adding sodium nanoalginate and lime to the forest soil improves the Atterberg limits. Additionally, adding sodium nanoalginate to the forest soil increases the maximum dry density (γdmax) and decreases the optimum moisture content (OMC), whereas adding lime to the forest soil reduces the maximum dry density and increases the optimum moisture content. Adding sodium nanoalginate and lime in different doses (3%, 5% and 7%) increased UCS and CBR as the main indices of soil strength. The increment range of UCS for the soil stabilized with sodium nanoalginate and lime was 42.59%–160.14% and 31.34%–56.65%, respectively, and the range of CBR improvement for soil stabilized with sodium nanoalginate and lime was 28.72%–122.97% and 13.83%–45.59%, respectively. Increasing the curing time improved the mechanical properties of the forest soil in the samples treated with both stabilizers, but sodium nanoalginate performed better in soil stabilization. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Forests Roads Research)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

17 pages, 4208 KiB  
Article
Empirical Comparison of Supervised Learning Methods for Assessing the Stability of Slopes Adjacent to Military Operation Roads
by SeMyung Kwon, Leilei Pan, Yongrae Kim, Sang In Lee, Hyeongkeun Kweon, Kyeongcheol Lee, Kyujin Yeom and Jung Il Seo
Forests 2023, 14(6), 1237; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14061237 - 15 Jun 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1324
Abstract
The Civilian Access Control Zone (CACZ), south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea, has functioned as a unique bio-reserve owing to restrictions on human use. However, it is now increasingly threatened by damaged land and slope failures. In this [...] Read more.
The Civilian Access Control Zone (CACZ), south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea, has functioned as a unique bio-reserve owing to restrictions on human use. However, it is now increasingly threatened by damaged land and slope failures. In this study, a machine-learning-based method was used to assess slope stability by introducing the random forest (RF), support vector machine (SVM), extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), and logistic regression (LR) approaches. These classification models were trained and evaluated on 393 slope stability cases from 2009 to 2019 to assess slope stability in the northern area of the Civilian Control Line, South Korea. For comparison, the performance of these classification models was measured by considering the accuracy, Cohen’s kappa, F1-score, recall rate, precision, and area under the ROC curve (AUC). Furthermore, 14 influencing factors (slope, vegetation, structure conditions, etc.) were considered to explore feature importance. The evaluation and comparison of the results showed that the performance of all classifier models was satisfactory for assessing the stability of the slope, the ability of LR was validated (accuracy = 0.847; AUC = 0.838), and XGBoost proved to be the most efficient method for predicting slope stability (accuracy = 0.903; AUC = 0.900). Among the 14 influencing factors, the external condition was the most important. The proposed supervised learning method offers a promising method for assessing slope status, may be beneficial for government agencies in early-stage risk mitigation, and provides a database for efficient restoration management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Forests Roads Research)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

15 pages, 12237 KiB  
Article
A Geoprocessing Tool for the Calculation of Primary Wood Transportation Distance
by Ivan Sačkov and Ivan Barka
Forests 2023, 14(5), 907; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14050907 - 27 Apr 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1457
Abstract
Knowledge about wood transportation distances is essential for sustainable forest management and related decision making in forest protection against fire or flood events. In this context, we developed the geoprocessing tool TraDis to allow for the calculation of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) [...] Read more.
Knowledge about wood transportation distances is essential for sustainable forest management and related decision making in forest protection against fire or flood events. In this context, we developed the geoprocessing tool TraDis to allow for the calculation of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) distance between a forest stand and the nearest forest road (i.e., pre-skidding distance) and the distance between this road and the nearest hauling place (i.e., skidding distance). The first aim of this study is to present the workflow for the calculation of the primary wood transportation distance using the TraDis tool. A detailed description, flowchart, and scheme are provided for these purposes. The second aim is to present the applicability of this workflow through a case study. The study area included 391 ha of forest stands, 58 km of forest roads, and 18 hauling places, and the transportation distances were calculated for various target objects, such as 366 forest stands, 10,341 square cells, 7220 hexagon cells, and 83,120 tree crowns. The results show that, while there is the ability to calculate the 2D distances for six forests, eight cells, and three crowns in one second, the calculation time for 3D distances is 1.6 times longer. Moreover, the pre-skidding distance and skidding distance at the 3D level were 3.6% and 0.9% greater than these distances at the 2D level, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Forests Roads Research)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Review

Jump to: Research

20 pages, 5792 KiB  
Review
A Review of the Sediment Production and Transport Processes of Forest Road Erosion
by Jinhai Yu, Qinghe Zhao, Zaihui Yu, Yi Liu and Shengyan Ding
Forests 2024, 15(3), 454; https://doi.org/10.3390/f15030454 - 28 Feb 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1687
Abstract
Forest roads are a common land use feature with a significant impact on sediment yield and the water sediment transport processes within a watershed, seriously disrupting the safety and stability of the watershed. Previous studies have focused on the sediment production processes within [...] Read more.
Forest roads are a common land use feature with a significant impact on sediment yield and the water sediment transport processes within a watershed, seriously disrupting the safety and stability of the watershed. Previous studies have focused on the sediment production processes within the road prism. However, there has been limited attention given to the transport processes of road-eroded sediment at various scales, which is crucial for understanding the off-site effects of road erosion. This paper reviews research conducted on forest road erosion over the past two decades. It summarizes the mechanisms of sediment production from road erosion and provides a detailed analysis of the transport mechanisms of eroded sediments from roads to streams at the watershed scale. The paper also examines the ecological and hydrological effects, research methods, and control measures related to sediment transport caused by forest road erosion. It identifies current research limitations and outlines future research directions. The findings of this review highlight several key points: (1) Most research on forest road erosion tends to be specific and unilateral, often neglecting the broader interaction between roads and the watershed in terms of water–sediment dynamics. (2) Various research methods are employed in the study of forest road erosion, including field monitoring, artificial simulation experiments, and road erosion prediction models. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages, but the integration of emerging technologies like laser scanning and fingerprint recognition remains underutilized, hindering the simultaneous achievement of convenience and accuracy. (3) The transport processes of forest road-eroded sediment, particularly on road–stream slopes, are influenced by numerous factors, including terrain, soil, and vegetation. These processes exhibit significant spatial and temporal variability, and the precise quantification of sediment transport efficiency to the stream remains challenging due to a lack of long-term and stable investigation and monitoring methods. The establishment and operation of runoff plots and sedimentation basins may help offer a solution to this challenge. (4) Both biological and engineering measures have proven effective in reducing and limiting sediment erosion and transport. However, the costs and economic benefits associated with these regulation measures require further investigation. This review provides a comprehensive summary of relevant research on sediment erosion and transport processes on unpaved forest roads, enhancing our understanding of sediment yield in watersheds and offering valuable insights for reducing sediment production and transport to streams. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Forests Roads Research)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-5
Back to TopTop