Search results for " utilizzazioni forestali"
showing 10 items of 37 documents
Forest road planning to improve tourism accessibility: a comparison of different methods applied in a real case study
2022
Forest road planning with the available tools, e.g. PEGGER and GIS, still requires a lot of time of an expert, and the designed roads are not guaranteed to be efficient in terms of the cost or suitability of the road. In this article, we propose a novel Genetic Algorithm (GA) based method for forest road planning. To do so, each road is represented as a sequence of fixed and variable (control) points. A novel objective (fitness) function is defined based on the length, gradient, and suitability of the roads (individuals). The proposed algorithm is applied to the Arasbaran forest area and the resulted roads are compared with PEGGER-designed roads regarding length, Bachmund index, accessibili…
Analysis of dust exposure during chainsaw forest operations
2017
Abstract: In 1999, the European Union proclaimed hardwood dust carcinogenic based on the classification of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) issued in 1995. The operational exposure limit (OEL) for inhalable wood dust has been set to 5 mg m-3 by EU directives, though in different countries the OEL ranges from 1 to 5 mg m-3. The objective of this study was to determine the exposure to wood dust of forest workers in chainsaw cutting and processing and suggest possible countermeasures. The study took into consideration different silvicultural treatments (coppice clear cut, conifer thinning, conifer pruning, and sanitary cut) and chainsaw fuel (normal two-stroke gasoline mi…
L’uso tradizionale del legno in Sicilia
2017
Fin dall’antichità, il legno è stato utilizzato per produrre oltre che energia, materiale per la costruzione di edifici e di oggeti che servivano per la vita quotidiana. Ma il legno è stato utilizzato anche come materia prima per la scultura e per i manufati artistici. Anche in Sicilia sono numerosi gli edifici storici (o parti di esso) in legno, mez - zi di trasporto (carri o navi), opere d’arte dipinte su legno, sculture religiose e strumenti musicali che sono arrivati ai giorni nostri e che dimostrano le abilità e la padronanza di tecniche nelle civiltà del passato. Indubbiamente il legno era nella cultura rurale una risorsa essenziale ed un capitale per l’economia dei piccoli laboratori…
Strategies to Mitigate the Effects of Soil Physical Disturbances Caused by Forest Machinery: a Comprehensive Review
2022
Abstract Purpose of Review Ground-based mechanized forest operations can cause severe soil disturbances that are often long lasting and detrimental to the health of forested ecosystems. To reduce these soil disturbances, focus is being increasingly directed at identifying and using appropriate mitigation techniques. This systematic review considered 104 scientific articles and reported the main findings according to four core themes: terrain-related factors, operational planning, machine modifications, and types of amendments used to mitigate machine-induced soil impacts. Recent Findings For terrain-related factors, most severe disturbances occur on machine operating trails exceeding 20% sl…
Determining exhaust fumes exposure in chainsaw operations
2016
Abstract The objective of this study was to investigate the inhalation exposure of forest operators to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and total xylenes) contained in the exhaust fumes released from chainsaws and to suggest possible countermeasures. The study was carried out in four silvicultural treatments (coppice clearcut, conifer thinning, conifer pruning, and sanitary cut), using three types of chainsaw fuel (normal two-stroke petrol mix and two alkylate fuels). Eighty personal air samples were collected; IOM samplers combined with Amberlite XAD-2 sorbent tubes were used for collecting PAHs and Radiello® samplers were used for BTEX. Resu…
Impacts of wood extraction on soil: assessing rutting and soil compaction caused by skidding and forwarding by means of traditional and innovative me…
2021
AbstractIntensive forestry operations may cause soil compaction, plastic soil disturbances and rutting, which are responsible for undesirable effects on soils, vegetation and water bodies. Despite the numerous studies aimed to identify the main factors affecting soil damages, it still remains unclear whether wood extraction methods and driving direction (uphill or downhill) may affect the impacts of forest machines. This research analyses soil compaction and soil penetration resistance as well as rutting from forwarding and skidding using the same farm tractor in up- and downhill wood extraction. Rutting was estimated by 3D soil reconstruction derived by portable laser scanning (PLS) and cl…
Can the certification of cork management agroforestry system in Sicily help to relaunch its future management?
2019
The economic importance of cork oak forests is mainly attributable to the role of provisioning non-timber forest products. The history of human management of these cork oaks stands make them a perfect example of agroforestry system, which surface is totally included in the Mediterranean-climate zones with more than 2.3 million hectares. In Sicily, the surface covered by cork forests amounts to about 15,000 ha but the most of this area is not affected by cultural practices. The cultural abandonment of many cork oak stands threatens their survival because of the close link between the conservation of cork stands and its use for productive purposes. The abandonment reasons are related to poor …
Environmental performance of wood pellets' production through life cycle analysis
2016
Abstract Forests play a key role as the source of an essential renewable material and/or fuel: wood. The aim of this study was to evaluate the environmental impacts related to high-quality pellet production for domestic heating following the LCA (life cycle assessment) methodology and considering a cradle-to-gate perspective in the Tuscany region. This is representative and interesting for Italian pellet factories and for similar factories located in Central Europe, considering the Italian contribution to the production capacity of that area. All of the activities involved, from wood extraction in no-industrial forests to packed pellet production, ready for delivery to final users, were tak…
The paradox of the alien plant Leucaena leucocephala subsp. glabrata (Rose) S. Zárate in Sicily: another threat for the native flora or a valuable re…
2020
With this contribution, an updated picture of the rapid expansion of Leucaena leucocephala subsp. glabrata in Sicily is provided. On the one hand, this is a quite worrying sign, as this woody species figures among the world’s worst invasive alien species. On the other hand, the species shows interesting potential for production purposes (for wood, biomass and for feeding livestock), also considering its nitrogen fixation ability. Consequently, the two opposite options to cope with this species, i.e. cultivation and control/eradication, should accurately take into account the possible uses as well as its invasive behaviou.
From the old agroforestry systems of the modern high-density olive groves: which Carbon sequestration?
2019
Olive tree (Olea europaea L) represents one of the most important evergreen tree species. In Sicily agroforestry systems based on the olive tree, named traditional olive orchard, are common and often are grown together to other tree crops, such as vineyards, or with cereals or forages. This last are usually grown in the interspace between rows and particularly in olive groves were planting density is rather low (less than 200 trees/ha). To increase crop efficiency and to reduce costs of harvesting, by using proper machines, in the last 20 years in the olive industry have been developed new planting systems: Intensive (up to 400 trees/ha), and the Superintensive (up to 2000 trees/ha). Within…