Design of GIS Based Forest Road Layout and Environmental Assessment Tool

摘要

Poor road drainage has a potential of causing damage to roads, especially unpaved forest roads. In turn, forest roads can change water flow patterns, which may lead to local soil flooding, ditch erosion, siltation in down-slope water bodies, and the degradation of aquatic habitat in lake and stream bottoms. In this study, I developed an ArcView 3.3 GIS tool called FOROAD, to facilitate forest road layout by automatically avoiding steep slopes, wet areas and by minimizing the crossing of flow channels. Where stream crossings cannot be avoided, the tool also specifies culvert location and size according to drainage area and local climate normals.