Abstract
Turkey has more than 21.67 million ha forest areas and 10.11 million ha of these forest areas are still degraded or highly degraded in 2012 year. These areas can only be transformed into a productive state with implementation of rehabilitation treatments. Determination of the priority of degraded forest areas for the rehabilitation is important issue and affected by many parameters in Turkey. Some important indicators such as slope, aspect, elevation, social pressure, roads near forest and tree species, were used to determine priority of forest rehabilitation areas by using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). In this study, we developed a spatial database including topographic parameters, forest stand type maps and stand type parameters, forest stratification, roads and settlement areas and its proximity tables with forest stands. Slope, aspect and elevation maps of the study area were created by employing a digital elevation model (DEM) produced from contour curves (10 m height accuracy). The study area is naturally covered by Pinus brutia, Pinus nigra, Abies cilicica, Cedrus libani, Juniperus spp., and Quercus spp., the most widely distributed species in the Mediterranean region. Total degraded forest areas consist of 2.880 sub compartments with 11.363 ha. Finally, we designed a priority map of the forest rehabilitation based on these sub compartments and other indicators by using GIS techniques. It is shown that 6364 ha of degraded forest areas has high priority index value (>=16 and =<19) and 1254 ha of degraded forest areas has very high priority values with higher than 19 priority index value.
Key words: Forest rehabilitation, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), forest management plans, Digital Elevation Model (DEM), priority areas, slope, aspect, proximity, degraded forest.
