E. Abdi, B. Majnounian, A. A. Darvishsefat,
Volume 12, Issue 44 (7-2008)
Abstract
One of the most important cost factors in forest management, which involves a great deal of investment costs, is road construction. So evaluating forest roads and determining the best one can decrease costs. The objective of this study was to evaluate forest roads using Multi Criteria Evaluation with respect to costs. In Multi Criteria Evaluation method such factors as slope, aspect and soil type were used for suitability map. Then factors were compared in pair-wise comparison in the context of a decision-making process known as the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to develop weights of map layers. To do this, the opinions of some experts were collected using questionnaires and the results were integrated and factor weights were calculated. Then weights and their factors were entered into Multi Criteria Evaluation (MCE) Module to create final suitability map (factors were standardized before combining). Total costs of each variant were extracted from suitability map. After variant costs were obtained by dividing each variant total cost by its length, unit cost of each variant was calculated. Finally, unit costs were compared and the variant with the lowest costs was determined. The results showed that the slope had the greatest weight followed by soil and aspect. Also, variant 7 had the lowest cost and variant 8 the greatest cost. AHP method has the capability of considering qualitative and quantitative criteria so it is a proper method for weighting. Also MCE method in GIS environment has the capability of combining different factors. As it requires less time and cost, also has a higher precision, it is better to use MCE method in such studies.
