Characteristics of Spur Road Construction and Damages after Salvage Logging in Wildfire Damaged Area: A Case of Gangneung-si, South Korea

초록

Post-fire salvage logging operations are essential for mitigating secondary disaster risks such as debris flows and landslides by removing unstable woody debris. However, current practices involve scattered harvest unit development requiring extensive spur road construction, raising concerns about soil disturbance and infrastructure damage vulnerability during precipitation events. This study investigated spur road construction characteristics and damage patterns following salvage logging operations in the 2019 wildfire-damaged areas of Gangneung-si, South Korea. Eleven harvest units covering 851.6 ha were classified into four geometric configurations (square, rectangular, triangular, irregular), and spur roads were categorized by location into contour, slope, and valley types. Field surveys identified 92 damage locations with an average length of 77.1 m per site. Results showed significant variations in road density by harvest unit shape, with rectangular units exhibiting the highest density (58.6 m/ha) and irregular units the lowest (20.3 m/ha). Damage ratios varied dramatically by road type: valley roads showed 50% damage, slope roads 45%, and contour roads only 1%. Notably, triangular harvest units demonstrated the lowest damage rates (23.7%) despite high proportions of slope and valley roads, attributed to gentler longitudinal gradients in foothill locations. The study concludes that increasing contour-oriented road proportions and implementing slope roads with gradients below 20% can significantly reduce infrastructure damage and maintenance costs in post-fire salvage operations.

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