Fuzzy classification in forest area for road design (Case study: Lirehsar forest, Tonekabon)

Classification of forest area for determining optimum places for constructing forest roads has a great importance in protecting and managing of forest. However, high variability in classes introduces uncertainty in classification process. Fuzzy set theory provides some solutions for such problems. The aim of this research is to classify forest area for road construction based on various layers including: slope, aspect, soil, land stability, forest type and volume in Lirehsar forest, Mazandaran Province, by means of fuzzy sets theory. First, partial membership was defined and all layers converted to fuzzy layers. Then, layers were combined by geometrical mean and minimum operators. Assessment of final map showed 68 percent entropy that means an uncertainty in decision making for classification. Therefore, to classify the areas, the fuzzy method was used, since in this method, borders are not explicitly separated and changes occur very minor. The fuzzy method has the advantage that enables forest road network designers to consider the favorable range of classes and there is no need to separate the favorable and unfavorable classes from each other with high uncertainty.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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