Designing harvester trail systems for mechanised logging across diverse soil types using nominal ground pressure criteria

Poje, Anton (author), Krč, Janez (author), Leban, Vasja (author)

Soil conservation during forestry operations is an increasing concern. This study proposes a theoretical model to forecast the depth of ruts associated with harvester trail systems and organisational boundary conditions, with the aim of reducing the harmful impacts of heavy logging machinery. The research combines empirical data on soil penetration resistance and soil water content of six soil types with theoretical rut depth models, emphasising the organisational dimensions of forest operations. Empirical data were gathered from sixteen soil sample plots in Slovenia. Based on this data and existing litterature, six models were developed to show the relationship between soil penetration resistance and soil water content. The maximum harvester trail length was then calculated for each soil type, based on harvest intensity and rut depth models. The findings indicate that modelled rut dept is less than 0.1 m if the soil can withstand a nominal ground pressure of 849 kPa in all analysed soil types. However, modelled rut depth of any soil type will consistently exceed 0.1 m when the soil cannot withstand a nominal ground pressure of 456 kPa. To avoid deeper ruts, it is advisable to plan and use harvester trail lengths of no more than 100 metres at 40% volumetric soil water content when the soil type is unknown. Incorporating soil type data into rut models could be an effective means of predicting rut depth at a given time, thereby boosting the efficiency of forestry operations.

• Language: English
• Keywords: harvester trail, nominal ground pressure, soil water content, forest operation, soil damage, rutting, soil types
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.01.2026
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: 16 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 47, issue 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-182876
• UDC: 630*114:631.171
• ISSN on article: 1848-9672
• DOI: 10.5552/crojfe.2026.2519
• COBISS.SI-ID: 279428867
• Publication date in RUL: 26.05.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Croatian journal of forest engineering
• Shortened title: Croat. j. for. eng.
• Publisher: Forestry Faculty of Zagreb University, Croatian Forests, Croatian Chamber of Forestry and Wood Technology Engineers, FORMEC
• ISSN: 1848-9672
• COBISS.SI-ID: 55971331

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: sled kombajna, nominalni pritisk na tla, vsebnost vode v tleh, gozdne operacije, poškodbe tal, kolesnice, vrste tal

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: V4-1624
• Name: Vpliv strojne sečnje na gozd in določitev meril za njeno uporabo