FOREST ROADs are constructed to facilitate FOREST protection, reFORESTation, logging operations and maximizing the value of FOREST products. Therefore FOREST ROADs are key infrastructures in the development of the region. This study aims to plan FOREST ROAD NETWORK using artificial neural NETWORK and GIS regarding FOREST ROAD technical principles. First the criteria were chosen using Delphi method and then they were weighted regarding their importance in ROAD PLANNING. After that the criteria were combined with corresponding weighs to achieve suitability map based on the degree of suitability for ROAD allocation. Value and coordinates of each pixel were extracted by ENVI software and were normalized in the range of 0-1 for modeling by MATLAB software. In this study two neural NETWORKs were used for modeling, including multilayer perceptron (MLP) and radial-bases functions (RBF). The neural NETWORKs estimated suitability of different pixels in other districts based on the Patom district results. Using an ArcView GIS extension, PEGGER, two FOREST ROAD NETWORKs were planned. The results showed that MLP provides better ability for estimating suitability of pixels for ROAD passage in comparison with RBF with the R2 of 0. 994. A linear regression was also used to compare the results of the proposed neural NETWORKs. The results revealed that neural NETWORK improves the results in comparison with the linear regression and results showed that the second ROAD alternative was optimum NETWORK with regard to the unit cost.

Regarding to the importance of ROAD NETWORK in FOREST Management, Wood transportation and FOREST operation, this investigation was carried out in four districts of "Vaz" experimental FOREST. The study area was 4081 hectares. The FOREST NETWORK PLANNING was based on essential factors such as length of ROADs, length density of ROADs, wood transport distance in FOREST, NETWORK percentage, slope, soil mechanics, soil stability, volume of wood production and climatic factors. Three stages were considered to achieve these goals: In the first stage, existing ROADs were evaluated and recorded. The results were as follow: Length of ROADs: 21770 m, length density of ROADs: 7.8 m/ha and NETWORK percentage: 37 Due to unacceptable of the existing NETWORK, in the second stage FOREST NETWORK PLANNING (Major ROADs and Minor ROADs) was performed based on the important factors mentioned above to obtain optimal ROAD coverage and to reduce FOREST damages. In the third stage, new ROAD NETWORK was planned for each district and marked on its natural site, based on the factors mentioned above. The new ROAD NETWORK characteristics were as follow: Length of ROADs: 52469 m, length density of ROADs: 12.8 m/ha and percentage of NETWORK: 60 The soil mechanics test showed that soil is generally heavy textured with low plastic limit and high liquid limit. The result showed that although ROAD length density was increased but percentage of ROAD NETWORK was not expanded, because steep areas of the FOREST was a limiting factor for major ROAD NETWORK. For this reason, secondary ROAD NETWORK was designed to complete the total ROAD cover. As a result, the total length and density of the planned ROADs were 74459m and 19.5 m/ha, respectively. The density and percentage of minor ROAD NETWORK in series 1,2 and3 were appropriate and covered a desirable area of the FOREST. Slope was an important factor in major and minor ROAD PLANNING. Only 43% of the ROADs were located on the best class of slope (O-30%).The logging ROADs were located on 62% of the FOREST ground with moderate mechanical class of soil. Soil stability and climatic factors had important roles in logging ROAD PLANNING. In district 2, the slope was suitable but the soil stability was a limiting factorin logging ROAD construction all over its area. As a result, cable crane system should be applied to transport logs outside the FOREST. The soil mechanics test showed that soil is generally heavy textured with low plastic limit and high liquid limit.

FOREST ROAD NETWORK as the basic installations has a major role in organization the region, harvesting and transportation goods and services and keeping it. The ROADs NETWORK from PLANNING single route to completing it has technical and principle points that needs to make an exact decision. Up to now most of the designs have made based on economic and harvest goals.GIS-based PLANNING methods have the capabilility of saving and analyzaing a great deal of data as different digital layers with high precision and speed. So it can improve PLANNING process. One of the goals of this study is to develop a method to design a FOREST ROADs NETWORK based environmental issues and technical considerations. First, the necessary data and map and positive or negative points were extracted in the form of information layers (layer, Slop, Direction, Soil stability, Type, Volume per hectare and so on). Next so that after classifying and valuating the layers of the maps we used pair- wise comparison methods. Then weights, factors, and constraints were entered to create final suitability map and the layers were overlaperd due to important coefficient of layers based on using of Arc GIS software. In the next stage six variants of the ROAD NETWORK was designed using PEGGER software so that in the all of the variants, we tried the routs cross high levels of values. Finally, we used technical (BACKMOND, SEGBADEN, TON*Km AND Corrected TON*Km) assessment methods and their combination to identify the optimum route (the six variant).At the same time as a result it was obvious that due to a large amount of data. The designing using GIS has advantages than another methods because of precision, quality, expense and speed analyzing.

Hyrcanian FORESTs are the only FORESTs designated for commercial timber production in Iran. Ground-based skidding is the most common timber harvesting system used in these FORESTs, but due to low ROAD density (1-2m/ha), large parts of the FORESTs are still inaccessible. To facilitate timber harvesting in the FOREST, it has been proposed to increase the ROAD density up to 20 m/ha. The aim of this study was to incorporate the estimated skidding costs through a time study into existing transportation PLANNING tool, NETWORK 2000 software package to help decision making on FOREST ROAD building. This method was applied to Gorazbon district in Hyrcanian FORESTs, where 244 links were built for analysis. The study used continuous time studies based on empirical data for this logging method. The resulted regression model is a function of skidding distance. The best solution found by NETWORK 2000 indicated that all proposed ROADs should be built to minimize the total skidding and ROAD building costs.

The ROAD NETWORK is an important element for sustainable FOREST ecosystem management. On the other hand, efficiency and quality of ROAD design can be improved by considering of environmental and technical principles. Therefore, this study was performed to determine the capability of Arasbaran protected area for ROAD passing and communication routes in order to use in the area management. For this purpose, criteria of the slope, aspect, height, soil texture, lithology, erosion susceptibility, vegetation density, distance to stream, and distance to existing ROAD as the effective criteria for ROAD design were identified by literature review, and their prepared maps were standardized with the fuzzy logic method. Then, the criteria were weighted using of analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and finally were combined to prepare suitability map for ROAD PLANNING by weighted linear combination (WLC) method. According to results, the highest weight (0. 289) and the lowest weight (0. 033) were belonged to slope and height criterion, respectively. Finally, the area was classified into four classes with the capability of low, medium, high and very high for ROAD NETWORK passing, that region with medium passing capability has the highest percent (49. 83%). The study proved GIS and AHP capabilities considering to economic and environmental problems for developing the ROAD capability map in order to use for ROAD locating in Arasbaran area.

Regarding to importance of ROAD NETWORK in FOREST Management and wood transportation, this investigation was carried out in four series of "Vaz Research FOREST". The study area was 4081 hectares. This FOREST NETWORK PLANNING was based on essential factors such as length of ROADs, length density of ROADs, wood transport distance in FOREST, NETWORK percentage, slope, soil mechanics, soil stability, volume of wood production and climatic factors. To conduct the study, two stages were considered to achieve these goals: In first stage, existing ROADs were evaluated and recorded. The result was as follow: Length of ROADs: 21770 m Length density of ROADs: 7.8 m/ha NETWORK percentage: 37% In second stage, because the NETWORK of existing ROADs was unacceptable, FOREST NETWORK PLANNING (Major ROADs and Minor ROADs) was performed based on some factors such as length ROAD density, wood transport distance, NETWORK percentage, slope, soil mechanics, FOREST production volume and climatic condition was performed to obtain optimal ROAD coverage and to reduce FOREST damages. The new ROAD NETWORK characteristics were as follow: Length of ROADs: 52459 m Length density of ROADs: 14.1 m/ha Percentage of NETWORK: 61% The result showed that although ROAD length density was increased, the percentage of NETWORK was not expanded because steep areas of the FOREST. Slope was an important factor in major and minor ROAD PLANNING. Only 43% of the ROAD was located on the best class of slope (0-30%). The logging ROADs were located on 62% of the FOREST ground with moderate mechanical class of soil. Soil stability and climatic factors had important role in logging ROAD PLANNING. In series 2, the slope is suitable but the soil stability is a limiting factor in logging ROAD construction all over its area. As a result, cable crane system should be applied to transport logs outside the FOREST.

The goal of this study is presenting a proper method to improve the PLANNING of FOREST ROADs NETWORK based on environmental, technical and economical considerations using GIS (Geographical Information System) and AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process). Six different variants regarding to technical principles of ROADs NETWORK were designed using Pegger (an extension of ArcView software). Inner levels of layers were evaluated and ranked to get a proper environmental evaluation. The parameters were compared in pair-wise comparison in the context of AHP to develop map layers weights. Then weights, factors and constraints were entered to multi criteria evaluation (MCE) module to create final suitability map. All variants were evaluated from a technical stand of view in GIS using Backmond and Segebaden methods. In addition to six variants, in every 3 evaluation, we evaluate exiting plan in the study area as seventh variant. With review the result of environmental and technical evaluations of 7 variants, the variant with lowest total value in MCE with regard to technical principals was determined. This variant was evaluated economically, and then was checked by field reconnaissance. The obtained results showed that using GIS and AHP will improve PLANNING methods.