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The influence of rural road development on forest extent changes over the three time periods: A case study of Chegeni region, Lorestan province

The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of the development of road quality (surfacing condition and road type) and road quantity (road density and distance to main road) on forest extent changes in a region in Zagros forests of Iran over the three time periods of 1960s, 2000s and 2010s. Ranks of 1 to 5 were assigned to road quality. Forest extent changes were analysed on digital aerial photo mosaic. The Spearman and Pearson correlation coefficients were used to test the relationship between the road parameters and forest extent changes. Results showed that rural-forest road network has more influence on settlement development. Forest extent was correlated negatively with the road quality. Moreover, there were more disturbances to native forests closer to roads. It was concluded that forest cover decrease was associated with physical parameters including access to roads, cultivation practices, road quality and settlement development.