ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Assessment of Drainage System Standards
of Forest Roads in Iran Using GIS
Saeedeh Eskandari, Seyed Ataollah Hosseini
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Department of Forestry, Sari Agricultural Science and Natural Resources University, I. R. Iran
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2013;22(3):675-682
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Forest roads should be constructed according to standards and particular attention needs to be given to
forest roads in planning and management schemes to develop sustainable forest infrastructure. The creation of
standards for drainage systems is one of the most important technical developments in forest road construction.
Seri 1 of Darabkola forest has been located in the central part of the northern Alborz Mountains in basin
74 and in 15-kilometer distance of Sari in Iran and covers an area of 2,612 hectares. In this research slope and
aspect maps of the Seri 1 of Darabkola forest were prepared using Arcview 3.1 and ArcGIS 9.1 to evaluate
drainage. In addition, factors effecting road drainage were measured and evaluated: road width, cross and longitudinal
slopes of roads, ranges of excavation and embankment slopes, longitudinal slope of ditches, and
basal area of ditches at intervals of 1.5 kilometers of forest road and for each 40 meters of each section. Sample
points of locations were taken using global positioning system (GPS) and a related map was prepared.
Measurements of culverts were taken for diameter and distances apart from each other in the existing drainage
system as well as locations that were also recorded using GPS. In addition, road routes were tracked and recorded
using GPS to obtain the desired accuracy. Finally, the drainage system of the forest road was compared to
the accepted standards. Results showed that there was significant difference between the current drainage system
of Seri 1 of Darabkola forest roads and accepted standards, but in some cases evaluation of the existing
drainage systems on these roads demonstrated that they were in accordance with accepted standards.