Natural Disasters in Forests and Forest Road Restoration Work: A Quantitative Analysis of Forest Road Disasters Due to Precipitation

Abstract

Forests provide us with numerous benefits. In recent years, as climate change has become more severe, natural disasters have had a significant impact on forests and forest roads. Analyzing the relationship between these factors is essential when considering forest roads, which are crucial infrastructure. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the type, frequency, and scale of natural disasters from past trends. Looking into the trends in natural disasters over 62 years, a strong correlation is implied between expenditure on forest road recovery projects and volume of rainfall. Additionally, using data provided by the Forestry Agency, the center points of national forest roads listed asdamaged over the past 14 years were plotted and the rainfall in those locations on the days the damage was caused was examined. The results showed that for daily rainfall totals between 50mm and 150mm, maximum hourly rainfall amounts were clustered between 10mm and 35mm. This indicates that such rainfall events increase the risk of major forest road damage and suggest that the expenditure on forest road repair projects may become more significant in coming years.