Evaluating the environmental, social and economic effects of the Dohezar forest road in Tonekabon using Geocybernetic Assessment Matrix

Abstract

Forest road construction is one of the activities that not only cause a lot of changes in the plant and animal species of forest ecosystem, but also, due to its widespread use in forest management, it is one of the most important projects that should be assesed. The aim of this research was to evaluate the environmental, social, and economical impact of Dohezar road of Tonekabon in the three stages including; before, during and after the road construction. In this study, the Geocybernetic Assessment Matrix (GAM) method, which is the latest method of evaluating effects, was used. In GAM, the parameters selected or determined by the evaluation criteria were examined according to the three aspects of environmental, social and economic. The results showed that the total geocybernetic score before road construction, during road construction, and after road construction was similar (before road construction: -13.33; during road construction: -80.78, and after road construction: -36.47), indicating that the construction of the Dohezar road had negative effects, especially during construction, but social and economic services, especially in the after road construction, have kept the total geocybernetic score constant. By implementing the GAM evaluation method, a suitable tool is obtained to ensure the proper implementation of the project or to stop it, which can be considered as a way to determine, predict and interpret the environmental, social and economic effects of the road construction project on the environment of the study area.

Keywords

• road construction time period
• hyrcanian forest
• forest management
• assessment criteria