Prioritize Depot Wood Locations in Forest Using Hierarchical Analysis

One of the challenges facing the managers and planners of forest selection and prioritization of suitable locations for various uses. The purpose of this study was prioritized the appropriate places in the timber depot of the Lireh Sar basin of Mazandaran province.

For this purpose, the options were chosen with at least the requirements for timber depot. In the second step of the selection criteria were specified for timber landing. These criteria include: slope, stand type and the canopy density. In the third step weighting was performed criteria using the analytic hierarchy process and expert opinion. Finally, the rate of adjustment of regions of interest was prioritized.

The study measures the standing volume of forest stands adjacent to the depot highest weights (0/575) have been allocated. Among the 6 choice, choices 3 with a standing volume of 300- 400, crown density slope at the depot 50-25% and 10.5% were identified as the best option to construction landing.

The results of the weighting of the criteria showed the volume of the forest stands near the depot is the most important. Harvesting of forest stands with high volume requires the existence of wood depots and warehouses in the closest point to the forest stands.