BUILDING OF FOREST ROADS DATABASE BY GPS/GIS TECHNIQUES FOR TURKISH FORESTRY

The forestry operations spread out 20.5 million ha area that much of them locate on mountainously region in Turkey. The optimal forest road length planned for these areas is 201080 km. Total of 132693 km forest roads (65.75 %) could be constructed up to 1998. These forest road networks plans should be revised according to new assessments on forest managing aims and new technological developments. There is a need detailed forest road database for revising of available forest road network plans and transportation planning. Global Position System (GPS) is powerful data collecting tool for building of forest road database point of view accuracy and economical aspects. Large amount of data can be collect in a short time. Data manipulation and integration of GPS data with other relevant data of forest road network can be effectively made by Geographical Information System (GIS). The research site, Catak Forest District, is 19542.65 ha. Total 10241.72 ha of these areas is forest lands. 248.815 km forest road were inventoried by GPS "Trac Logging" options. Totally 183 waypoint were marked along the measured and mapped roads according to their importance point of view planning and construction priority. As results of this research, a comprehensive forest road database built up for Turkish forestry. In investigated district, there were determined that total of 7.395 km forest road has wet road surface, 12.705 km forest road located on rocky terrain and 47 number of pipes and culverts should be constructed. The usage of GPS and GIS technologies is determined accurate, effective, fast and economical method for inventory of forest road.