“DEViR”: A Software for Determining and Visualizing Optimal Tree Felling Direction in Three-Dimensional Terrain

Year 2021, Volume: 7 Issue: 1, 1 - 11, 30.06.2021

Burak Türkay Abdurrahim Aydın

https://doi.org/10.33904/ejfe.932208

Abstract

Felling trees, which is the basis of forestry activities, is dangerous and difficult work that needs to be performed carefully. These activities can affect forest workers’ safety, damage the remaining forest, or reduce the value of the extracted product. Most of the accidents and injuries in forestry operations occur due to the trees not falling in the desired direction. Directional mistakes in tree felling processes or underestimating the criteria negatively affect the felling process, which may increase the damage on the product. In terms of life safety and property quality, not only the felling direction but also the safe escape route for the crew should be determined during tree felling. If these issues are ignored due to incomplete information or carelessness, they can cause serious safety problems. However, work safety can be improved through training programs. The primary purpose of this study was to develop a training tool, called “DEViR”, to assist loggers for determination and visualization of the optimal tree felling direction. "DEViR" software was specifically designed to determine the ideal tree felling direction, as well as the escape route for the crew, and dangerous work zone according to safety rule of two tree in a 3D virtual environment. The sample application of the software was run considering artificially placed trees in a study area located in the city of Erzurum in Turkey. The findings of the sample application indicated that the use of this computer-aided simulation systems can provide felling direction solutions with high accuracy and details that cannot be done by a logger’s decision. The results indicated that as the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and orthomosaic resolution increases, "DEViR" can perform more realistic modeling and accurate calculations, but computation time and hardware requirement increase with increasing data size. Also, it was found that "DEViR" software is a good training tool as it presents visual material, animates the tree felling process interactively, and reflects the result of every decision to the user. Thus, it has great potentials to increase the performance of the loggers in training and daily felling operations.

Keywords

Felling Simulation, 3D Terrain, 3D Virtual Forest, Escape route, Safety

Thanks

The authors would like to thank to Dr. Zennure UÇAR for her helpful advice on the English version of the Manuscript.

References

• Adamiker, M.D., 1997. TruFlite-3D terrain visualization. The Association of American Geographers (AAG) newsletter 32(8).
• Anonymous, 2016. Treefelling best practice guide. Forest owners association, pp. 29-35.
• Ager, A., McGaughey, R.. 1995. Utools. http://forsys.cfr.washington.edu/Software/UTOOLS/readme.txt (Accessed: 26 April 2021).
• Blombäck, P., 2002. Improving occupational safety and health: the International Labour Organization’s contribution. RAP publication (FAO). http://www.fao.org/3/AC805E/ac805e0l.htm (Accessed: 26 April 2021).
• Bruenig, E.F., 2017. Conservation and management of tropical rainforests. An intergrated approach to sustainability. 2nd edition. CAB International, pp. 401.
• Cedergren, J., Falck, J., Garcia, A., Goh, F., Hagner, M., 2002. Feasibility and usefulness of directional felling in a tropical rain forest. Journal of tropical forest science, 14(2):179-190.
• Garland, J.J., 2018. Accident reporting and analysis in forestry: guidance on increasing the safety of forest work. Forestry working paper no 2, Rome, FAO.
• Jackson, S.M., Fredericksen, T.S., Malcolm, J.R., 2002. Area disturbed and residual stand damage following logging in a Bolivian tropical forest. Forest ecology and management, 166:271-283.
• Jimenez, P., Thomas, F., Torras, C., 2001. 3D collision detection: a survey. Computers & Graphics, 25(2):269-285.
• Krueger, W., 2004. Effects of future crop tree flagging and skid trail planning on conventional diameter-limit logging in a Bolivian tropical forest. Forest ecology and management, 188:381-393.
• Kantartzis, A., 2018. A visualization tool for forest landscape using open software. International journal of Engineering Research and Development, 14 (07):23-40.
• Lindroos, O., 2006. Efficiency and Safety in Self-employed Family Forestry. Doctoral thesis, Swedish university of agricultural sciences, Umea.
• Lis, R., 2014. Role of visualization in engineering education. Advances in science and technology research journal, 8(24):111-118.
• McGaughey, B.. 1997. Visualizing forest stand dynamics using the stand visualization system. In: Proceedings of the 1997 ACSM/ASPRS Annual Convention and Exposition; April 7- 10, 1997; Seattle, WA.
• Bethesda, MD: American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. 4:248-257.
• McGaughey, R.J., 1998. Techniques for visualizing the appearance of forestry operations. Journal of forestry, 96(6):9-14.
• McGaughey, R.J., 1997. SVS - Stand Visualization System. Pacific Northwest Research Station USDA Forest Service, Portland. http://faculty.washington.edu/mcgoy/svs.html (Accessed: 26 April 2021).
• Nagao, M., Yamada, Y., 2019. Physical effects of hinges shape on chainsaw felling direction in Japanese Cypress. International journal of forest engineering, 30(3):182-189.
• Naghdi, R., Nikooy, M., Ghajar, I., Ershadifar, M., 2016. A Practical linear model for estimation of tree falling direction error in mountainous forests of northern Iran. Ecopersia, 4(3):1505-1516.
• Naemura, T., Yoshida, T., Harashima, H., 2001. 3-D computer graphics based on integral photography. Optics express, 8(2):255-262.
• Naghdi, R., Bagheri, I., Taheri, A.K., Akef, M., 2007. Evaluation of assortment logging method with respect to residual damage in Shefarood Forest (North of Iran). Iranian journal of natural resources, 60(3):931-947.
• Nikooy, M., Naghdi, R., Ershadifar, M., 2013. Survey of directional felling and analysis of effective factors on felling error (Case study; Iranian Caspian forests). Caspian Journal of Environmental Sciences, 11(2):177-184.
• Newman, S.M., Keefe, R.F., Brooks, R.H., Ahonen, E.Q., Wempe, A.M., 2018. Human factors affecting logging injury incidents in Idaho ant the potential for real-time location-sharing technology to improve safety. Safety 4(4):43.
• Shormag, Y., 2009. Economical–environmental evaluation of felling component in two logging methods (traditional and planned) (The case study of district 3. Nav–Asalem). Doctoral dissertation, MSc. Thesis, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran.
• Strong, S., Smith, R., 2001. Spatial visualization: fundamentals and trends in engineering graphics. Journal of industrial technology 18(1):1-6.
• Suhurtana, S., Yuniawati, 2019. The economic and environmentally friendly tree felling techniques in natural forest. In: IOP conf. series: Earth and environmental science 359, p. 012007, IOP publishing.
• Tavankar, F., Majnounian, B., Bonyad, A.E., 2013. Felling and skidding damage to residual trees following selection cutting in Caspian forests of Iran. Journal of forest science, 59(5):196-203.
• Tobita, K., Nitami, T., Yoshioka, T., 2019. Factors associated with injuries related to chainsaw tree felling in Japan. International journal of forest engineering, 30(3):190-194.
• Uusitalo, J., Kivinen, V.P., 2000. Implementing SmartForest forest visualization tool on PC environment. In Resource Technology '98 Nordic International Symposium on Advanced Technology in Environmental and Natural Resources. pp. 1-7.