Evaluating the relative importance of natural disaster prevention indicators by forest road stage

Seong Man Kim; Ji-Young Son; Hyeongkeun Kweon; Ye Jun Choe; Joon-Woo Lee; Sung-Min Choi

doi:10.7744/kjoas.530302

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2026 Vol.53, Issue 3 Preview Page Next Page

Plant & Forest

Evaluating the relative importance of natural disaster prevention indicators by forest road stage

1 September 2026. pp. 291-308

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Abstract

As climate change accelerates the frequency and scale of forest disasters, the role of forest roads as crucial infrastructure for forest management and disaster response has become increasingly important. However, forest roads are inherently vulnerable to heavy rainfall, and existing research has largely focused on site-specific damage or post-disaster recovery rather than a comprehensive life-cycle approach. Furthermore, traditional multi-criteria decision-making methods often suffer from splitting bias when evaluating asymmetric hierarchical structures. Therefore, this study aimed to derive the relative importance and priorities of natural disaster prevention indicators across the four stages of a forest road’s life cycle (planning, design, construction, and maintenance) by applying a global weighting approach based on global normalization. The results revealed that in the planning and design stages, practitioners prioritized active engineering controls—such as route selection to avoid landslide-prone areas, structural reinforcement of fill slopes (e.g., retaining walls), and the optimization of drainage facilities—over passive environmental surveys. In the construction stage, ‘benching’ to induce mechanical interlocking between the original ground and fill slopes, alongside the installation of side ditches, emerged as the most critical factors to prevent sliding and erosion. During the maintenance stage, uncontrolled water (overflow and subsidence) flowing into fill slopes was evaluated as the greatest threat; however, the broad distribution of evaluation indicators highlighted the current limitations of fragmented and reactive management. Ultimately, establishing disaster-resilient forest roads requires a paradigm shift in design and construction standards, prioritizing the maximization of drainage capacity and the structural stabilization of fill slopes. This study provides practical guidelines for forest road policies and emphasizes the urgent need to develop a quantitative risk assessment model for proactive maintenance.

Keywords

forest road

global weight

life-cycle assessment

natural disaster prevention

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Information

Publisher :Institute of Agricultural Science, Chungnam National University
Publisher(Ko) :충남대학교 농업과학연구소
Journal Title :Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
Journal Title(Ko) :농업과학연구
Volume : 53
No :3
Pages :291-308
Received Date : 2026-03-19
Revised Date : 2026-04-10
Accepted Date : 2026-06-17
DOI :https://doi.org/10.7744/kjoas.530302

Korean Journal of Agricultural Science ISSN:2466-2402(Print) 2466-2410(Online) 농업과학연구

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