An Investigation on the determination of locations and dimensions of forest road construction buildings at mountainous terrain

An Isvestigation on the Determining of Location and Dimensions of Forest Road Construction Buildings at Mountainous Terrain In mountainous regions, the efficiency of forestry activities depens primarily on the presence of healthy and dependable forest roads. One of the main factors affecting the durability of forest roads is the presence of sufficent number of construction buildings at proper locations. Identifying these costruction buildings on topographic maps requires a lot of time and labour. The goal of this study was to determine locations where construction buildings are needed, and types, dimensions and number of these buildings on a 79 km forest road in Yeşiltepe Forest District (Maçka, Trabzon) using Geographical Information Systems (GIS). On this road, total of 71 construction buildings (43 pipes, 14 culverts, 2 bridges, 6 hamps and 6 relying walls) were present. First, coordinates of locations of these buildings were determined using Global Position Systems (GPS). Only 27 % of these consruction buildings were operational. Later, watershed areas were calculated using GIS. Then, cross- section areas of hyraulic construction buildings were calculated using Talbot formula. Cross-sections that are less than 1m was classified as circular cross-section pipe or small culvert, between 1 and 2 m2 as basket handled pipe or hamp, between 2 and 8 m2 as large culvert or pipe hamp and larger than 8 m2 as bridge. All present 59 hydraulic consruction buildings were at the appropriate places but the types of these buildings were wrong Of these, 26 should have been circular cross-section pipe or small culvert, 16 basket handled pipe or hamp, 14 large culvert and 3 bridges. The locations and types of relying walls and hamps were appropriate. In addition to the present hydraulic construction buildings, it was determined that 38 watershed areas needed some kind of construction building. Of these, 20 should be circular cross-section pipe, 13 basket handled pipe or hamp and 5 large culvert or pipe hamp. In conclusion, GIS can be used to calculate watershed areas and to determine types of construction buildings in the future. Key Words: Forest Roads, Construction Buildings, Talbot Constant, GIS, GPS VIII