volume: 32, issue: 1
volume: 29, issue: 1
volume: 29, issue: 1
volume: 28, issue: 2
volume: 27, issue: 2
volume: 26, issue: 2
volume: 26, issue: 1
volume: 38, issue: 2
volume: 39, issue: 1
Natural forests are one of the three types of forest management in terms of origin. These forests
are of seed origin and they regenerate naturally. Therefore, natural forests are the most important
forest category from the point of view of timber production, as well as its quality and
biodiversity. The natural forests accessibility and overall forest accessibility are insufficient
for sustainable forest management. This is the reason for dealing with planning of forest roads,
actually planning of forest accessibility and designing of forest roads in this forest category.
This task requires quantity and quality analysis of the current forest road network, determination
of optimal density of forest roads, determination of suitability of forest area for the construction
of forest roads and designing of forest roads in the end. Planning of forest roads is
carried out at strategic level. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) allows the selection and
evaluation of influential factors related to planning of forest roads. The tools of Geographic
Information System (GIS) allow a complete spatial and statistical analysis and management
of data collected from the forest management plans or data surveyed in the field and obtained
by means of »Digital Terrain Model« (DTM) and AHP method. Planning of forest roads will
be done in the Management Unit (MU) »Prosara«, located in the northern part of Bosnia and
Herzegovina (BIH). The current density of forest roads is 7.3 m/ha in natural forests of this
management unit. The optimal density of forest roads should be 17 m/ha. The length of new
forest roads designed in the MU »Prosara« is 21 km, and forest accessibility has increased to
13.5 m/ha.
volume: 40, issue: 1
In recent decades fully mechanised cut-to-length forest harvesting systems have spread from
flat and gentle to steep and rough terrain. To analyse the potential adverse impact of these
changes on operator health, an observational study of exposure to noise and whole-body vibration
(WBV) was carried out in karst terrain. The results showed that, in contrast to exposure
to noise, the exposure of harvester and forwarder operators to WBV exceeds the daily exposure
action value specified in the European Directive. Differences between work sites may contribute
up to 8.7 dB(A) to noise exposure and up to 0.28 m/s2 and 6.0 m/s1.75 to WBV exposure
when working with forwarders and harvesters. Aside from technical upgrades of machines,
reduction of exposure to both WBV and noise, while simultaneously maintaining high productivity,
requires careful selection of work sites and adapted work organisation.
volume: 41, issue:
Planning of forest harvesting operations is one of the key elements of successful forest management. The integration of modern tools and traditional forestry procedures is something that must be done in contemporary forestry. This research investigated the use of multicriteria decision support (AHP) and GIS in choosing the optimal harvesting system for predominantly selection cutting forest management on the example of two Forest Management Units (FMU). Results showed that AHP could be easily integrated into GIS using the extAHP tool and its results could be of help, along with other input data, in choosing the optimal harvesting system. Spatial analysis of raster data in GIS gives a comprehensive insight into the stand and terrain characteristics and shows the relative share of the area proposed for each system. In FMU »Kozara–Mlječanica«, the harvesting system chainsaw-skidder had the highest relative share with 44% of the area, meaning that it is almost the only harvesting system in current use, followed by chainsaw-forwarder (36%), chainsaw-cable yarder (19%), and chainsaw-adapted agriculture tractor (AAT) (1%). The system harvester-forwarder was not used at all, which is understandable considering that FMU »Kozara–Mlječanica« has a higher average slope and higher diameter of trees to be cut than FMU »Prosara«, where harvester-forwarder system accounts for a significant 36% of the area. The dominant system in FMU »Prosara« was chainsaw-forwarder (42%), followed by chainsaw-cable yarder (17%), chainsaw-skidder (4%) and chainsaw-AAT (1%). It should be noted that the presence of chainsaw-skidder system is insignificant. It is replaced by the system chainsaw-forwarder. Traditional harvesting system chainsaw-skidder, which prevails in Bosnia and Herzegovina, should be upgraded with the new technologies and methods. Using tools like multicriteria decision support and GIS could be of great help in that process.