The purpose of this study was to propose approximate values of a correction factor for road density for each planning unit in mountainous area. We examined the effect of scale on this factor in four local authorities in the Higashimikawa Forest Planning Area in Aichi Prefecture and found that it tended to increase as the area of the unit increased. Some smaller units had good road allocation, while others did not, and had none. Smaller units were merged into larger ones, and overall road allocation became random. This factor tended to increase when public roads were considered along with forest roads, and further increased when the area was expanded by adding strip roads to public and forest roads. Consequently, the following values were found to be acceptable: 1.74 for the local authority planned wide area network covering at least 10,000ha; 1.60 for the block country planned network that focuses on main forest roads covering an area of around 1,000ha; 1.47 for the compartment planned network focusing on regular forest roads in an area of about 100ha: 1.39 for the sub-compartment planned network focusing on small forest and strip roads covering an area of about 30ha.

View full abstract