Using Network 2000 Program for Transportation Planning of Forest Products

Year 2018, Volume: 4 Issue: 1, 18 - 25, 12.06.2018

Hande Egemen Suslu

https://doi.org/10.33904/ejfe.427547

Abstract

The construction and maintenance of forest roads
are the activities that require the highest financial investment in the extraction
of forest products. In addition, the cost of transporting forest products from landing
to storage area can be significant proportion of the total extraction cost. For
this reason, forest engineers are obliged not only to reduce the cost of road
construction and maintenance, but also to prepare the most appropriate
transportation plan to minimize total costs. Computer aided models can be used
to solve complex transportation problems that require the evaluation of many
alternative routes and selection of the alternative with least cost. In this
study, the Network 2000 program based on the shortest path algorithm was used
in transportation planning of forest product, and then the solution capacity of
the method was examined in a sample application. As a study area, two Forest
Enterprise Chiefs (FECs) of Paşalar and Sarnıç were selected from
Mustafakemalpasa Forest Enterprise Directorate (FED) in the border of Bursa
Forest Regional Directorate. The transportation cost of the road sections,
forest product types, location of landing and forest depots were entered into the
Network 2000 program after being digitized with ArcGIS 10.2 software. In the
solution process, firstly, the route that minimized the transportation cost was
investigated, and then, the route with the maximum net profit was determined by
taking the sale prices of forest products into consideration. According to
results, the transportation cost mostly depends on the transportation time,
hourly truck cost and load capacity of the truck. 

Keywords

Transportation of forest products, transportation cost, Network 2000, shortest path algorithm

References

• Acar, H.H. 1998. Minimization to be Using of Transport Model of Transportation Costs by Trucks at Artvin Forest District, Journal of Agriculture and Forestry, 22(1998): 491-497. Akay, A.E., Erdaş, O., Karaş, İ.R. 2006. Using GIS and optimization techniques in selecting forest road alignment with minimum sediment yield. 1. Remote Sensing-GIS Workshop, 27-29 October, İTÜ, İstanbul.
• Akay, A.E., Erdaş, O. 2007. Network Model Approach in Transportation Planning of Forest Products. İ.Ü. Faculty of Forestry, A Series. 57(2): 1-20. Akay, A.E., Şakar, D. 2009. Using GIS based decision supporting system in determining optimum path that provides the transportation to fire zone at the shortest time. TMMOB Geographical Information Systems Congress, 02-06 November. İzmir.
• Aykut, T. 1985. Mechanization and its productivity in transportation of forest products, I. National Symposium of Mechanization and its efficiency in Forestry, 8-12 July, Bolu, Publication No. 339, 130-158.
• Chung, W., Sessions, J. 2000. NETWORK 2000: a program for optimizing large fixed and variable cost transportation systems. in Proc. of the Eighth Symposium on Systems Analysis in Forest Resources, Arthaud, G.J. (ed.). Sept 28-30, Aspen, Colorado, USA.
• Schnelle, B. 1980. MINCOST users instructions. USDA Forest Service Report, Northern Region, Div. of Engineering, Missoula, MT.
• Sessions, J. 1985. A heuristic algorithm for the solution of the fixed and variable cost transportation problem. in Proc. of the 1985 Symposium on Systems Analysis in Forest Resources, Dress and Field (eds.). Soc. of American For., Dec 9-11, Athens, GA, USA.
• Sessions, J., Chung, W., Heinimann, H.R. 2001. New algorithms for solving large scale harvesting and transportation problems including environmental constraints. in Proc. of the FAO/ECE/ILO workshop on new trends in wood harvesting with cable systems for sustainable forest management in mountain forests, June 18-24, Ossiach, Austria.
• Sulliva, E.C. 1974. Network user guide. Spec. Rep. Inst. Transport and Traffic Eng. Berkley, Univ. of California.