Overview of Amazon Basin Forest Roads Manual

Abstract

A forest roads manual is being written to aid the Brazilian Forest Service in its tropical forestry operations and timber sale concessions in the Amazon basin. The objective of the manual is to develop standards, guidelines, and operational information that will help forest road operations meet best management practices. The manual includes information on transportation planning in conjunction with strategic and tactical timber sale planning; road design; road drainage considerations; roadway materials use; slope stabilization issues; road maintenance issues; and environmental issues, including water quality protection, erosion control, and pollution management. Discussion of each of these typical transportation system planning and design issues considers the unique circumstances and resources found in the Amazon basin. This project grew from the involvement of the Office of International Programs, U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, and the newly created Brazilian Forest Service in the process of helping the new agency manage its large long-term logging concessions throughout the Amazon basin through use of prudent, sustainable management practices. Forest road design and operation are significant parts of overall forest management and major cost items. The manual development is based on many training courses that have been held over the past 10 years across the Amazon basin in the states of Pará, Acre, and Rondonia. In addition, many courses have been conducted and lessons learned in portions of the upper Amazon basin of Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. This paper discusses the development of the Amazon Basin Forest Roads Manual and presents an overview of its content as well as many of the unique aspects of building roads in Amazon basin forests.

Classification Systems Applied to Forest Road Planning: Research Gap Analysis

“…From the documents studied, only Keller et al [28] consider a clear form of forest road classification. Keller et al [28] analyze the content of the Amazon Basin Forest Roads Manual, which aims to develop standards and guidelines for forest road operations.…”

Computationally efficient modeling of lightweight expeditionary airfield surfacing systems at large length scales

“…Nonetheless, despite its logistical shortcomings, AM2 is a robust, proven system that continues to serve a critical role in sustaining forceprojection capabilities. While the armed forces have historically been the primary clients of portable matting systems, the potential to extend its application in certain cases to supporting civil infrastructure and civilian rapid response operations for lightweight aircraft and ground support vehicles should not be discounted (3,4). Additional improvements in modeling and full-scale evaluation capabilities will continue to increase end-user confidence and ensure safe operation for both civil and military flight operations.…”

Challenges in the Construction of Highways in the Brazilian Amazonia Environment: Part I – Identification of Engineering Problems

“…Tropical residual soils, especially lateritic deposits, which have been the subject of research in the Amazonia for use in road paving, can also be identified [47,60,108,109] due to their peculiarities in comparison to sedimentary soils, as previously described. Keller et al [110] stated that the materials commonly used in the Amazonia region for road paving include local laterite deposits but that despite being a hard and cemented material, they may still contain a high clay content. As a paving material, it is widely used for the structural layers of highways, but the first challenge is to locate the deposits with an adequate quantity and quality of the material.…”

“…Figure 20.Use of wood in the drainage of igarapés crossing roads with low traffic volume in the Brazilian Amazonia. (a)Wooden bridge (pinguela); (b) hollow wood "tube"[110].…”