METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF GEOINFORMATION SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT FOR FOREST ROADS
The article analyzes trends of the geographic information systems (GIS) development in forestry and international requirements to the environmentally friendly technologies on the basis of optimal transport network, as prerequisites for a real implementation of the principles of sustainable forest management. The necessity of having objective data of the transport network of forest enterprises was substantiated. Methodological approaches of the development of GIS of forest roads were provided. The seconsist in: the feasibility of supplying information on forest roads as a linear object with a known relative position along the road and the presence of a certain number of the calibration points; correct locations on the map the line showing the road and supplying reliable information on it in the form of descriptive and visual information (text, table, image, drawing) that should display its performance characteristics; every part of the enterprise transport network has to be displayed independently of the others due to the structure of forest enterprises in which the main role of organizing forestry work has local forestry unit. Using the above mentioned methodological approaches as prototype of GIS of forest roads was created. State enterprise “Osmoloda forestry”, Ivano-Frankivsk forest regional administration that has forest area of 64.4 thousand hectares was chosen as a model area. GIS contains information about the woodland of the enterprise, as well as of 58 existing forest roads with total length of 182.97 km. The prototype of GIS for forest roads uses a proven model for working with the data - geodata base, which is the common basis for all products and applications of QuanumGIS. It allows to work with different data types, use the original rules and communication and access huge volumes of geographic data stored in files and databases. A common method for creating and using electronic cards was applied. During the field work indicators of the basic elements of the road were established. Recording particular points of the forest roads was carried out using GPS-receiver and surveying instruments while simultaneously describing all road objects. Such descriptions in table format were stored in separate files in Excel. All digital map information was transformed to the coordinate system WGS-84. Additional information (photos, descriptions or specifications of road elements), which were not spatially related, was organized in the GIS through a direct link. They were located in separate folders making it easier to update the information process. It should be noted that the created GIS software provides the possibility of making amendments or revisions to data regarding forest roads. The above-mentioned approach allows to provide systematization and presentation of electronic information about the location of forest roads network, technical characteristics and status of all its elements. Application of the developed GIS creates the conditions not only for the effective management of forest roads and monitoring compliance of the requirements of their construction and operation, but also for making competent management decisions while planning and organizing forestry and logging.