Technodiversity Glossary

From the Saxonian technological map we know the idea to expand the distance between permanent trails when the soils has a high sensitivity.

In Technodiversity, the decision about the distance between skid trails is made by the forest owner. This socio-economic approach gives the full freedom to him, asking: How much of the site’s productive potential are you willing to sacrifice to the technical function?”

Depending on the answers, we introduce five so-called P-classes (for productivity, but it does not only depend on the productivity):

P1: At a stand with low value (rocks, pure sand), any possible damage of traffic is not as important for the owner. Here, traffic may happen.

P2: At a medium-value stand, where the advantages of fully mechanized methods are dominant, up to 20% of compacted soil is acceptable.

P3: At a high value forest stand, where the owner sees the biological needs prior to technical needs, compaction should stay under 10%.

P4: At a stand with a very high value, the technical considerations should be restricted to a minimum, say roundabout 5 %.

P5: Finally, at a stand with an extreme high value, no machine traffic on the floor is accepted.

When we assume that a trail has a width of 4 m, then this corresponds with following patterns of opening-up:

P1: driving is accepted without any permanent pattern = “unlimited”

P2: trails with “20 m” distance

P3: trails with “40 m” distance

P4: trails on old given routes, mostly >80 m distance = “uneven”

P5: no driving with machines outside constructed roads at all.

These P-classes form the Y-axis oft the technogram of a stand as well as the ecogram of harvesting methods.

(See more at TDiv PR1-D04)

In Technodiversity, the total harvesting process normally is seen as a combination of several sub-processes. Each sub-process has a certain level of mechanization. The degree of mechanization describes the combination of these levels. There are five degrees of mechanization: (fully) manual method, partly motor-manual method, (fully) motor-manual method, partly mechanized method, fully mechanized method.

If one sub-process is done by manual or motor-manual work and the other by mechanized work, then the method is a partly mechanized method.

Examples are: chainsaw and skidder, chainsaw and forwarder, or hand tool and tractor.

(See more under TDiv PR1-B04 and B05)

In Technodiversity, the total harvesting process normally is seen as a combination of several sub-processes. Each sub-process has a certain level of mechanization. The degree of mechanization describes the combination of these levels. There are five degrees of mechanization: (fully) manual method, partly motor-manual method, (fully) motor-manual method, partly mechanized method, fully mechanized method.

If one sub-process is done by manual work and the other by motor-manual work, then the method is a partly motor-manual method.

Examples are: chainsaw and horse or chainsaw and extraction by hand.

(See more under TDiv PR1-B04 and B05)

See system performance

Ergonomics follows a very simple basic model that derives from physics: When you impact a body with a certain stress, the body will react with a corresponding strain. Since a standard method causes a stress that is typical for this standard method, the strain as a reaction to this typical stress situation should be typical, too.

The intensity of the strain, however, is not the same. It depends on the worker: his personal attributes, his abilities and his skills (together they form the capability for work). And it varies due to the actual disposition and motivation (together called readiness for work), and his health. If the strain overruns the permanent work load, breaks are necessary for his personal recovery to avoid acute or chronic damage.

When the worker can manage his workload independently, he can find the right pace to keep strain at an acceptable level.But there are situations when the strain exceeds that level. For example, when the worker is pushed to reach a certain performance that is beyond his long-term capacity… or when he is so motivated that he does not realize that he is overreaching.

If the actual strain momentarily exceeds this permanent load, it will not be a problem. In real life, this happens very often. It can even improve the training and exercise (conditioning). But at the end of the day there should be a balance between periods of excessive strain and periods of lower strain (recovery). Otherwise, overload will accumulate and result in damage.

(See more under TDiv PR1-E04)

What happens, when a vehicle drives on dry soil?

First compaction:The larger pores collapse, and the soil is compacted.

Relaxation:After the wheel has passed, the elastic component of the soil (roots, pores with compressed gas etc.) will push it back towards its original volume. But the former level is seldom reached.

Subsequent compaction (following passes):When the load is the same as with the former traffic, the compaction and relaxation are as high as before.

Finally, there remains a permanent rut.

(See more at PR1-D02)

The portable winch is used for pre-skidding tree length or single logs from the stand (buffer 12 or 13) to the trail (buffer 22 or 23). Other possibilities to pre-skid logs are by tractor winch, horse/ mule or a human carrying the logs. 

The portable winch is a powered tool that reels in or pays out a cable. To use the reeling function the portable winch gets tied to the base of a tree close to its location. From there the portable winch can fulfill its dragging function as soon as the cable has been fixed to the full tree, tree length or log, that should be dragged.

Because of its light weight, the portable winch causes negligible soil compaction and can be carried to its location by human. Since the portable winch needs to be carried into the stand/ trail by a human, the work with the portable winch is considered as motor-manual work.

(See PR1-B03 and B07)

The post calculation is a part of the cost calculations that a manager must do during the work life of a machine or working system.

The task of the post calculation is to collect all costs that have occurred with this system during its total life span. So, it is only pure statistics. But these statistics give important hints for further calculations, because they serve as experience data and reference numbers for calculations that concern with comparable machines or systems, respectively.

(See more at TDiv PR1-C01)

In a study from 2009, Kleinhückelkotten et al. have found five different groups of people who use the forests for recreation. One of them are thepragmatical distant persons, the others are holistic forest friends, ecological forest romantics, self-centered forest users, and indifferent persons.

In the study, the pragmatical distant persons represented 23% of the total and formed the biggest group. They see the forest primarily as a material resource. They believe that forestry performs well and like it when a forest looks organized and cleaned up. This group supports efficient forest technology and may complain when efficiency is sacrificed to nature conservation. 

(See more under TDiv PR1-E02)

Before we decide to invest into any machine or system, we should try to get a detailed insight to its cost structure. If we use the same scheme for calculation for different options, we can compare the costs of them. So, the calculation scheme is important. Traditionally, we use the engineering formula, which has fife cost elements: depreciation, interest costs, repair costs, variable costs and labor costs.

But before we start to calculate the costs of any sub-process, we need to get an overview over the cost structure of the total process. To do this, we must build up the tree of calculations.

(See more at TDiv PR1-C01)