Abstract
AbstractDespite facilitating transport by low‐volume roads for multiple purposes, these roads also open corridors to the remote pristine forests and accelerate forest dynamics with deleterious consequences to the forest functionalities and indigenous inhabitants. We assessed the spatial variations of Hyrcanian forest loss, fragmentation, and degradation resulting from the expansion of rural, logging, and mine roads between 1966 and 2016 in northeast Iran. Various data were employed to generate a precise road network; the density of road segments was weighted on the basis of their carrying capacity during 1966–1986, 1986–2000, and 2000–2016. Three dimensions of forest changes were retrieved using the Landsat time‐series and object‐based image analysis. The spatial patterns of high rates of forest changes were clustered using spatial autocorrelation indicators. The spatial regression models were carried out to explore relationships between forest change and road expansion. The results showed that rural roads were upgraded but forest and mine roads remarkably expanded in recent decades. The spatial variations of forest‐dynamic patterns have been changing from forest loss (1966–2000) to forest fragmentation and degradation (1986–2016). The high density of rural roads was significant on the high rates of forest loss and fragmentation during 1966–2000, and the expansion of forest and mine roads significantly intensified the rates of fragmentation and degradation during 1986–2016. Our findings suggest for mitigating destructive schemes over Hyrcanian forests, developing either protected areas or joining unprotected forests to the reserved areas should be prioritized.
Highlights
Low-volume roads facilitate transport to rural communities, timber harvesting, mining operations, and resource management (Douglas, 2017), paradoxically, accelerate deforestation, forest fragmentation, and degradation (Chomitz & Gray, 1996; Trombulak & Frissell, 2000) with deleterious impacts on flora and fauna communities such as physical disturbances of forests, chemical and nutrient contaminations, 1462 wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ldrLand Degrad Dev. 2020;31:1462–1481
Forest loss results from the conversion of forests to nonforest lands by direct anthropogenic activities such as clear-cutting of forests to establish farmlands or settlements (Shirvani, Abdi, Buchroithner, & Pradhan, 2017; Tejaswi, 2007); forest fragmentation refers to the breaking up of continuous forest areas into smaller patches resulting from natural processes or deforestation (Laurance, 2000; Tejaswi, 2007); and forest degradation is a consequence of declining biomass within forests due to intensive human-natural disturbances such as logging, mining, droughts, forest fires, and floods (Tejaswi, 2007)
With the contribution of time-series remote sensing data, object-based image analysis (OBIA), and spatial regression models, we developed a new analysis approach to retrieve 50-year variations of forest loss, fragmentation, and degradation caused by the expansion of rural, forest, and mine roads in northeast Iran
Summary
Low-volume roads facilitate transport to rural communities, timber harvesting, mining operations, and resource management (Douglas, 2017), paradoxically, accelerate deforestation, forest fragmentation, and degradation (Chomitz & Gray, 1996; Trombulak & Frissell, 2000) with deleterious impacts on flora and fauna communities such as physical disturbances of forests, chemical and nutrient contaminations, 1462 wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ldrLand Degrad Dev. 2020;31:1462–1481. Expanding and upgrading low-volume roads open up corridors between settlement areas and remote pristine forests for logging and mining operations that may lead to extensive deforestation and forest degradation, especially in developing countries (Ali et al, 2005; Laurance et al, 2001). Sonter et al (2017) reported that mininginduced forest loss has extended to approximately 70 km from the mine frontiers, and about 9% of all Amazonian forest loss were results from mining operations, only during 2005–2015 Many of these studies focused on the distance to roads as a main driver of deforestation and forest degradation, the impact of road types is less well documented. We will explored the weighted density of roads, which can be retrieved from the total amount of population, logging volume, and mining weight as the carrying capacity of rural, forest, and mining roads during a specific period
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