TEMPORAL SEDIMENT PRODUCTION OF PAVED AND UNPAVED FOREST ROADS

Abstract

Sediment productions of paved (PFR) and unpaved (UPFR) forest roads were compared to undisturbed forest land (UA) in Belgrad Forest located in the Istanbul, Turkey. Annual sediment production of the sites were statistically different and estimated to be 0.654, 0.334 and 0.056 t ha(-1) yr(-1) for UPFR, PFR and UA, respectively. Monthly sediment production on UPFR was significantly higher than those of PFR and UA. The differences in monthly sediment production were observed throughout the measurement period. The amount of sediment production per month showed a parallel relationship to monthly precipitation. Similar to the results of previous studies, our results indicated that covering forest roads led to reduction in sediment production. However, total sediment production across the study sites were much less than the results of former studies. These differences may partly be explained by less traffic density (1-5 vehicles per day), lower logging and harvesting activities, lower road longitudinal slope (4-7%), and more plant cover in the current experimental sites.