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The Impact of Weather and Slope Conditions on the Productivity, Cost, and GHG Emissions of a Ground-Based Harvesting Operation in Mountain Hardwoods2.82 MB
Published VersionCC BY-NC V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
The Impact of Weather and Slope Conditions on the Productivity, Cost, and GHG Emissions of a Ground-Based Harvesting Operation in Mountain Hardwoods
Forests, Vol.12(12), pp.1-19
2021
Abstract
Mountainous hardwood mixed stands offer challenges to timber harvesting operations in practice, including a harsh climate, variable topography, steep terrain, and large-sized timbers. This paper aims to develop productivity and cost models for a mountain-ground-based harvesting operation across the terrain (e.g., slope conditions), stand (e.g., tree volume) environmental (e.g., weather), and yard (e.g., winching distance) variables and to assess GHG emissions related to the equipment in use. This development was implemented in a timber harvesting practice under single-tree selection in mountainous forests of Iran where a motor-manual chainsaw is used for felling and a rubber-tired cable skidder is used for log extraction. The average delay-free productivity was 4.55 m3 for felling and 14.73 m3 h−1for skidding. Lower production costs and higher productivity rates were observed over the gentle slopes and in sunny conditions. The average production costs ranged between USD 4.27m−3 for felling and USD 5.35m−3 for skidding. The average emissions ranged between 0.96 kg m−3 for felling and 7.06 kg m−3 for skidding in snowy conditions over steep slopes. The study’s results confirm avoiding harvesting operations on steep slopes (greater than 35%) and in extreme weather conditions to obtain higher work efficiency and to minimize adverse effects of machinery on forest ecosystems. The results should be of use to harvest managers and forest planners considering the application of ground-based harvesting operations using a semi-mechanized system on a range of operating conditions in mountain hardwood stands.
Details
- Title
- The Impact of Weather and Slope Conditions on the Productivity, Cost, and GHG Emissions of a Ground-Based Harvesting Operation in Mountain Hardwoods
- Authors
- Sättar Ezzati (Author) - Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural ResourcesFarzam Tavankar (Author) - Islamic Azad University Khalkhal Branch (Iran)Mohammad Reza Ghaffariyan (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Forest Industries Research CentreRachele Venanzi (Author) - Università degli Studi della TusciaFrancesco Latterini (Author) - Centro di Ricerca Ingegneria e Trasformazioni AgroalimentariRodolfo Picchio (Author) - Università degli Studi della Tuscia
- Publication details
- Forests, Vol.12(12), pp.1-19
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Date published
- 2021
- DOI
- 10.3390/f12121612
- ISSN
- 1999-4907
- Copyright note
- 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- Organisation Unit
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Forest Industries Research Centre; Forest Research Institute
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99584902102621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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