Applying Delphi approach and TOPSIS method in designing forest road network using GIS (case study: Lacobon forests, Abbasabad, Mazandaran)

Forest management plan are prepared for desirable use of forest products, ensuring the survival and continuous production. In forest management plan, designing appropriate roads play an important role.  In this study, Delphi technique and statistical parameters such as mode, median, mean, and binomial test were used to select the criteria. Afterwards, the criteria were weighted using TOPSIS method based on pairwise comparison and a road construction utility map was prepared by combining the criteria map and the weight of each by linear weighting method. Based on the suitability map, nine road network variants were designated and evaluated using PEGGER in ArcView software and the best option was selected. The weight of factors such as slope, forest stock and natural terrace were calculated 0.42, 0.24 and 0.10, respectively. Among all, the three variants including 3, 5, and 7 with 5725.01, 5668.88, and 5573.85 unit value per km revealed the best road networks. The study results showed that considering the environmental and technical criteria in the forest road designing mitigate environmental impact and reducing maintenance costs. Therefore, it is possible to design more suitable forest roads by combining GIS and Pegger software.