Abstract
We surveyed the inclination, surface roughness, and horizontal and vertical types of hillsides within equivalent areas to determine the best location for a forest road for light cableway yarding operations, using a small skidder-mounted yarder with a tower, or an excavator-mounted yarder. The objective of this study was to develop criteria for locating forest roads using a geographic information system that stores information about the terrain attributes of features by representing them as polygons in a spatial database. The geometric relationship of a selected polygon and two neighboring polygons defines the skyline profile involving the three polygons. Combinations of horizontal types (concave, equilibrium, or convex) represent the suitability of a setting and combinations of vertical types (basin, uniform, or cone-shaped) indicate the advantages of carrying out a yarding operation. These criteria also provide polygons useful in deciding where the head or tail spar is best placed, given several skyline profiles. Using this classification method, we were able to determine where the forest road was best located within the trial area.
