Assessment of roads within forested areas for visual quality aspect

Forest road planning and construction is a complex problem that requires assessment of many physical, ecological, and social factors. In recent years, there have been increasing public concern on visual quality of different road standards in the forested areas. Roads that are not planned or maintained by adequate techniques may negatively affect visual quality. In this thesis, the effects of different roads standards on visual quality have been investigated. The pictures of some roads within the forested areas of Paşacık Forest Enterprise Chief in Uşak Forest Enterprise Directorate were taken and an archive has been generated. Then, selected pictures were displayed to people (academicians, forest engineer, graduate students) related to forest roads and visual quality assessment was performed by applying a survey. Road template components such as cut slope, fill slope, and road platform were evaluated for visual quality purposes. The effects of road networks on visual quality when they were observed from far distances were also evaluated within forested areas considering road components (cut slope, fill slope, and road platform) and road types (valley road, hillside road, and hill road). Besides, considering condition of pavement material on road surface, effects of different road surface types (native road, forest road, gravel road, and asphalt road) on visual quality were evaluated for road template components (cut slope, fill slope, road platform) and different weather conditions (normal and wet weather). The effect of road platform on visual quality was investigated from road types and different weather conditions. Then, statistical analysis (correlation test, linear regression analysis) was performed and the factors affecting visual quality were evaluated. The results indicated that cut slope and fil slope were the most effective road components on visual quality when observed from closer or far distances. Vegetation cover on cut and fill slopes was considerably effective on visual quality. Comparing road types, it was found that hillside roads were better than other road types regarding with visual quality due to low visibility from far distances. When considering weather conditions and road surface types, the results indicated that native roads and forest roads exposed better visual quality in normal weather conditions. However, visual quality of native roads and forest roads reduced in wet weathers because road components, especially road surface, are damaged based on severity of surface runoff.