Environmental road construction in dry grasslands

The road as every technical work should upgrade the area that crosses and should not destroy it. In other words, it must be compatible with the environment. The primary concern of a forest engineer should be the compatibility of such infrastructural works with the environment. “Compatibility with the environment” means to define, describe and assess the effects of a road construction work on the environment, and to take measures for its protection. Aim of this paper is to find the evaluation principles as far as the impacts on the landscape and environment by the road construction is concerned and opening it up in order to determine an objective and practical evaluation of different route alternatives, before the construction is completed. A combination of digital photogrammetry and GIS technology was used to evaluate the compatibility between the road and the natural environment. In order to evaluate the compatibility, practical criteria of the intensity of the human influence as well as criteria of the environment absorbency to such interventions were used. The digital maps and the spatial analysis were used for the efficient and reliable evaluation of these criteria. We tried to adapted the already existed assessment criteria for infrastructural works that are used to examine and evaluate the impact on the natural environment of such works, as well as to choose the best (compatible) environmental solution from various alternatives during the phase of the grassland roads’ planning. From the analysis of the results of the above criteria we were led to useful conclusions regarding the construction of grassland roads.