Designing a forwarder operation considering tolerable soil disturbance and minimum total cost

A model is developed to minimize the sum of road construction plus forwarding costs with the constraint that rut depth caused by the forwarder cannot exceed a maximum depth during the anticipated season of operation. Road spacing, forwarder trail spacing, forwarder size, forwarder load capacity, and tire inflation pressures are used as decision variables in developing the transportation plan. The total cost was minimized using the optimum road spacing approach. The model identifies whether the cumulative rut depth caused by the forwarder exceeds the maximum allowable rut depth at the point of or prior to the spacing that minimizes the cost, and if so, the rut depth limits the road spacing. If the road spacing at the point of minimum cost is less than the road spacing at the maximum allowable rut depth, road spacing is not constrained by rut depth. This model will help logging managers to evaluate the trade-offs between specified decision variables and then to design an optimum forwarder operation with tolerable soil disturbance and minimum total cost. The solution procedure of the model is described and a computer program is used to apply this model using a numerical example.