Abstract
When heavy machines are used for harvesting operations and road building on steep terrain, deliberate consideration and planning are necessary to protect environmental conditions. In this study, we studied the various road spacing of the mini-forwarder to minimize the total costs of forwarding operations (C_f), the construction of sediment control embankment (C_<e1>), and vegetation of cut slopes (C_<e2>). On a slope of 30 degrees the road spacing that minimizes the total costs was 17m for C_f, 21m for C_f+C_<e1>, and 31m for C_f+C_<e2>. On the condition that C_f+C_<e2> was minimized, the productivity decreased from 2.87m^3 per hour to 1.99m^3 per hour while the total cost increased from 1,500 yen per m^3 to 2,990 yen per m^3. The result suggests that the mini-forwarder operations on dense road networks should be avoided on steep terrain.
