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The use of the state-of-art information and communication technology has been found to enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of the tourism industry and many countries have chosen to implement smart tourism tools as a strategy to adapt to the continuously changing profile of tourists. While there are many tools which could be implemented for such endeavors, the evaluation of the tourist preferences in relation to their use and importance needs to be done so as to ensure at least the sustainability of investments and of the local development strategies. The Chimborazo Fauna Reserve (canton of Riobamba, Ecuador) was selected for the application of a questionnaire survey to evaluate the importance of 38 smart tourism tools based on the experience of Ecuadorian and international tourists with them. The survey considered more than 700 respondents and 500 valid questionnaires were retained for analysis which was done mainly by developing distributions of the relative frequencies of ratings given on a 5-point Likert scale and by a correspondence analysis at the level of two subsamples: national and international tourists. There were obvious differences between these two groups in terms of importance placed on the smart tourism tools. The first difference was that the Ecuadorian tourists found less utility in the smart tools as compared to the international tourists. The second difference was that the best rated tools in terms of importance were different among the two groups, with the international tourists placing, for instance, more importance on safety-related tools. Correspondence analysis has shown the similarities of profiles and data association, being a useful tool of associating the ratings to the evaluated tools. The knowledge gained by the survey may be helpful in supporting the development of local tourist strategies, providing at the same time valuable data to support preference comparisons with other tourist destinations and countries.
Danny Daniel Castillo Vizuete; Alex Vinicio Gavilanes Montoya; Eduardo Antonio Muñoz Jácome; Carlos Renato Chávez Velásquez; Stelian Alexandru Borz. An Evaluation of the Importance of Smart Tourism Tools in the Riobamba Canton, Ecuador. Sustainability 2021, 13, 9436 .
AMA StyleDanny Daniel Castillo Vizuete, Alex Vinicio Gavilanes Montoya, Eduardo Antonio Muñoz Jácome, Carlos Renato Chávez Velásquez, Stelian Alexandru Borz. An Evaluation of the Importance of Smart Tourism Tools in the Riobamba Canton, Ecuador. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (16):9436.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDanny Daniel Castillo Vizuete; Alex Vinicio Gavilanes Montoya; Eduardo Antonio Muñoz Jácome; Carlos Renato Chávez Velásquez; Stelian Alexandru Borz. 2021. "An Evaluation of the Importance of Smart Tourism Tools in the Riobamba Canton, Ecuador." Sustainability 13, no. 16: 9436.
Forest operations are well known in exposing their workers to many risk factors, and they often require ergonomic interventions for improvement. In this regard, evaluation of biomechanical exposure has gained a lot of interest due to the concerning scientific results repeatedly showing the association between poor working postures and the development of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Due to its simplicity, easy understanding, cost affordability, and the capability to evaluate the whole body, the OWAS method has been commonly used in postural evaluation of forestry work, being able to map the experimental observations in a final action category, in the form of a postural risk index (PRI), which helps designing or taking actions for ergonomic improvement. However, postural comparability is both relevant and important when, for instance, one tries to improve a work method or to introduce a new technology. Unfortunately, the PRI metric holds a rather low capability to characterize the changes brought by such factors in terms of postural dissimilarity or similarity, making it difficult to accurately follow the changes. For this reason, we introduce in the postural analysis, test and discuss herein two commonly used similarity metrics as specific to plant sociology and other ecology-related sciences, namely the Sørensen’s quotient of similarity (hereafter QS) and the Canberra metric (hereafter CM); their selection was based on their mathematical capabilities of dealing with data at two resolutions, namely species and individuals. Three case studies were setup to show the differences between QS, CM, and PRI and their usefulness for postural analysis while, for a better understanding, the results were described and discussed by analogy to the living world. As the technology of automating data collection and processing for postural analysis is in progress, the utility of similarity metrics in postural assessment and comparison could be further expanded so as to map a given work sequence in the time domain against best-fit postural profiles. The main conclusion of this study is that the PRI is useful for action-taking while the similarity metrics are useful for pairwise postural change evaluations and comparison.
Stelian Borz; Eugen Iordache; Marina Marcu. Enhancing Working Posture Comparability in Forest Operations by the Use of Similarity Metrics. Forests 2021, 12, 926 .
AMA StyleStelian Borz, Eugen Iordache, Marina Marcu. Enhancing Working Posture Comparability in Forest Operations by the Use of Similarity Metrics. Forests. 2021; 12 (7):926.
Chicago/Turabian StyleStelian Borz; Eugen Iordache; Marina Marcu. 2021. "Enhancing Working Posture Comparability in Forest Operations by the Use of Similarity Metrics." Forests 12, no. 7: 926.
Sawmilling operations represent one of the most important phases of the wood supply chain, because they connect the conversion flow of raw materials into finite products. In order to maintain a high volume of processed wood, sawmills usually adopt different processing strategies in terms of equipment and methods, which can increase the value or volume of the lumber produced from logs. In this study, the performance of small-scale sawmilling operations was monitored, whilst also evaluating the exposure of workers to harmful factors. An assessment of time consumption, productivity, and main ergonomics was conducted during the use of a manually driven bandsaw. In addition, the exposure to noise was investigated to complement the knowledge in this regard. The results indicated a rather high time utilization in productive tasks, which may come at the expense of exposure to noise and to poor working postures. The modelling approach resulted in statistically significant time consumption models for different phases (blade adjustment, effective sawing, returning, unloading lumber, and loading and fixing lumber). The exposure to noise was close to 92 dB (A) (8 h) and, therefore, the level of emitted noise is likely to depend on the condition of the used blades, species sawn and on the dimensional characteristics of the logs. In terms of ergonomic risks, the poorest postures were those related to tasks such as moving the logs, loading the logs, fixing the logs, rotating and removing the logs, as well as unloading the lumber.
Stelian Borz; Maryam Oghnoum; Marina Marcu; Arpad Lorincz; Andrea Proto. Performance of Small-Scale Sawmilling Operations: A Case Study on Time Consumption, Productivity and Main Ergonomics for a Manually Driven Bandsaw. Forests 2021, 12, 810 .
AMA StyleStelian Borz, Maryam Oghnoum, Marina Marcu, Arpad Lorincz, Andrea Proto. Performance of Small-Scale Sawmilling Operations: A Case Study on Time Consumption, Productivity and Main Ergonomics for a Manually Driven Bandsaw. Forests. 2021; 12 (6):810.
Chicago/Turabian StyleStelian Borz; Maryam Oghnoum; Marina Marcu; Arpad Lorincz; Andrea Proto. 2021. "Performance of Small-Scale Sawmilling Operations: A Case Study on Time Consumption, Productivity and Main Ergonomics for a Manually Driven Bandsaw." Forests 12, no. 6: 810.
Providing high quality seedlings for use in forestry applications is one of the main challenges faced by the forest nurseries, and it depends on the practices used in such facilities. For instance, controlled experiments have shown that seedling growth is affected by the soils’ physical condition, which in turn is rather difficult to manipulate by the equipment used; this raises the question on whether changing the operational procedures could enable better physical properties of the seedbeds’ soils, in such a way that they will contribute to a better seedling growth. This study compares two seedbed tillage systems, termed as traditional (T, plowing, disk harrowing and cultivation) and minimal (M, scarifying and rototilling) in terms of physical properties of the soils and seedling growth, accounting for the variation induced by the local soil and climate conditions (three forest nurseries) as a separate factor. The results indicate highly significant gains in growth of the root collar diameter and shoot height for four tested species (pedunculate oak, common ash, wild cherry and Norway spruce), which accounted for 16 to 109% and for 10 to 134%, respectively, when using the M system. Root volume growth, which was tested for pedunculate oak, has also shown significant gains, accounting for 49 to 59% as of using M instead of T. In general, the seedlings resulted from the M treatment were found to be more homogeneous in terms of morphological characteristics, though the association and dependence between their features and physical properties of the soils were poorer. These gains in growth seem to be more related to the tillage systems rather than to local soil and climate conditions, as no or marginally significant differences were found to support their relation to the forest nurseries taken into study. The main conclusion of the study is that changing the regular seedbed tillage system by the minimal one could contribute not only at improving the growth of the seedlings, but also to the responsivity of forest nurseries.
Nicuşor Boja; Stelian Borz. Seedling Growth Performance of Four Forest Species with Different Techniques of Soil Tillage Used in Romanian Nurseries. Forests 2021, 12, 782 .
AMA StyleNicuşor Boja, Stelian Borz. Seedling Growth Performance of Four Forest Species with Different Techniques of Soil Tillage Used in Romanian Nurseries. Forests. 2021; 12 (6):782.
Chicago/Turabian StyleNicuşor Boja; Stelian Borz. 2021. "Seedling Growth Performance of Four Forest Species with Different Techniques of Soil Tillage Used in Romanian Nurseries." Forests 12, no. 6: 782.
Motor-manual operations are commonly implemented in the traditional and short rotation forestry. Deep knowledge of their performance is needed for various strategic, tactical and operational decisions that rely on large amounts of data. To overcome the limitations of traditional analytical methods, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been lately used to deal with various types of signals and problems to be solved. However, the reliability of AI models depends largely on the quality of the signals and on the sensing modalities used. Multimodal sensing was found to be suitable in developing AI models able to learn time and location-related data dependencies. For many reasons, such as the uncertainty of preserving the sensing location and the inter- and intra-variability of operational conditions and work behavior, the approach is particularly useful for monitoring motor-manual operations. The main aim of this study was to check if the use of acceleration data sensed at two locations on a brush cutter could provide a robust AI model characterized by invariance to data sensing location. As such, a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) with backpropagation was developed and used to learn and classify operational events from bimodally-collected acceleration data. The data needed for training and testing was collected in the central part of Romania. Data collection modalities were treated by fusion in the training dataset, then four single-modality testing datasets were used to check the performance of the model on a binary classification problem. Fine tuning of the regularization parameters (α term) has led to acceptable testing and generalization errors of the model measured as the binary cross-entropy (log loss). Irrespective of the hyperparameters’ tunning strategy, the classification accuracy (CA) was found to be very high, in many cases approaching 100%. However, the best models were those characterized by α set at 0.0001 and 0.1, for which the CA in the test datasets ranged from 99.1% to 99.9% and from 99.5% to 99.9%, respectively. Hence, data fusion in the training set was found to be a good strategy to build a robust model, able to deal with data collected by single modalities. As such, the developed MLP model not only removes the problem of sensor placement in such applications, but also automatically classifies the events in the time domain, enabling the integration of data collection, handling and analysis in a simple less resource-demanding workflow, and making it a feasible alternative to the traditional approach to the problem.
Stelian Borz. Development of a Modality-Invariant Multi-Layer Perceptron to Predict Operational Events in Motor-Manual Willow Felling Operations. Forests 2021, 12, 406 .
AMA StyleStelian Borz. Development of a Modality-Invariant Multi-Layer Perceptron to Predict Operational Events in Motor-Manual Willow Felling Operations. Forests. 2021; 12 (4):406.
Chicago/Turabian StyleStelian Borz. 2021. "Development of a Modality-Invariant Multi-Layer Perceptron to Predict Operational Events in Motor-Manual Willow Felling Operations." Forests 12, no. 4: 406.
Steep terrain harvesting can only be implemented by a limited set of operational alternatives; therefore, it is important to be efficient in such conditions, in order to avoid incurring high costs. Harvesting abiotically-disturbed forests (salvage harvests caused by wet snow), which is becoming common these days, can significantly impact the operational efficiency of extraction operations. This study was implemented in order to evaluate the performance of truck-mounted uphill cable yarding operations in salvage logging deployed in coniferous stands. A time study was used to estimate the productivity and yarding costs, and predictive models were developed in order to relate the time consumption and productivity to the relevant operational factors, including the degree of wood damage. The average operational conditions were characterized by an extraction distance of 101 m and a lateral yarding distance of 18 m, resulting in a productivity rate of 20.1 m3 h−1. In response to different kind of delays, the productivity rate decreased to 12.8 m3 h−1. Under the prevailing conditions, lateral yarding accounted for 32% of the gross work cycle time, and for 50% of the delay-free work cycle time of the machine. Decreasing the lateral yarding distance and increasing the payload volume to the maximum capacity of the machine would eventually lead to a yarding productivity of close to 30 m3 per SMH (scheduled machine hour). The calculation of the gross costs of uphill yarding showed that the labor costs (35.7%) were slightly higher than the fixed costs (32.9%), and twice as high compared to the variable costs (17.7%). The remote control of the carriage, mechanical slack-pulling mechanisms, and radio-controlled chokers are just some of the improvements that would have led to increments in operational efficiency.
Stanimir Stoilov; Andrea Proto; Georgi Angelov; Salvatore Papandrea; Stelian Borz. Evaluation of Salvage Logging Productivity and Costs in the Sensitive Forests of Bulgaria. Forests 2021, 12, 309 .
AMA StyleStanimir Stoilov, Andrea Proto, Georgi Angelov, Salvatore Papandrea, Stelian Borz. Evaluation of Salvage Logging Productivity and Costs in the Sensitive Forests of Bulgaria. Forests. 2021; 12 (3):309.
Chicago/Turabian StyleStanimir Stoilov; Andrea Proto; Georgi Angelov; Salvatore Papandrea; Stelian Borz. 2021. "Evaluation of Salvage Logging Productivity and Costs in the Sensitive Forests of Bulgaria." Forests 12, no. 3: 309.
To be characterized as sustainable, forest operations need to be studied and validated from many points of view, including their productivity, ergonomics and costs. In most of these areas, performance enhancement was found to be sustained by the development and use of mechanization, including that of landing operations done to process small-sized trees. For these, an affordable and sustainable alternative could be that of using double-grip processors. However, there is a lack of information characterizing their capability and performance, which was one of the main reasons for carrying on this study. Observational data were collected over four operational days for a HYPRO 775 double-grip processor to estimate the productivity, exposure to noise and cardio-vascular workload in processing small-sized trees at landing. Miniaturized dataloggers and video recording were used to document close to 28 h spent at the workplace and 15 h of operation, respectively. A time study was used to estimate the productive performance and the commonly used metrics were computed to evaluate the exposure to noise and cardio-vascular workload. A delay-free work cycle was framed around a processed tree and it took, on average, ca. 45 s. Based on 901 processed trees (average height of ca. 12 m and average breast height diameter of ca. 12 cm), the net productivity rate was estimated at ca. 65 trees per hour (ca. 224 logs of 2.4 m produced per hour). While the cardiovascular activity indicated light work, exposure to noise seems to be a concerning problem to be addressed in the future, given the figures found (A-weighted sound pressure level higher than 85 dB(A) and the sound pressure level normalized for a nominal day of 92.79 dB(A)). This becomes even more important as this study found a machine utilization rate of ca. 60%, therefore an extension of productive time could increase the exposure to noise. We conclude that double-grip processors represent a valuable technical alternative in processing small-sized trees at landing if supplementary precautions would be taken against exposure to noise. These may rest very well in the awareness and behavior of the operators as well as in wearing protective equipment.
Monica Cecilia Zurita Vintimilla; Sarahi Nicole Castro Pérez; Stelian Alexandru Borz. Processing Small-Sized Trees at Landing by a Double-Grip Machine: A Case Study on Productivity, Cardiovascular Workload and Exposure to Noise. Forests 2021, 12, 213 .
AMA StyleMonica Cecilia Zurita Vintimilla, Sarahi Nicole Castro Pérez, Stelian Alexandru Borz. Processing Small-Sized Trees at Landing by a Double-Grip Machine: A Case Study on Productivity, Cardiovascular Workload and Exposure to Noise. Forests. 2021; 12 (2):213.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMonica Cecilia Zurita Vintimilla; Sarahi Nicole Castro Pérez; Stelian Alexandru Borz. 2021. "Processing Small-Sized Trees at Landing by a Double-Grip Machine: A Case Study on Productivity, Cardiovascular Workload and Exposure to Noise." Forests 12, no. 2: 213.
Transportation of renewable wood is increasing, being a necessary operation in logistics of the environmentally sustainable forest industry. However, increasing the transportation capacity is a source of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to trucks’ emissions, maintaining road infrastructure affects the environment by the emissions of increasing utilization of HCT (high-capacity transportation), that is, larger and heavier vehicles, affecting the backhauling transportation and the efficiency of road-network combinations. Environmental efficiency is an important metric which is used for comparisons among technological alternatives employed in the utilization of energy derived from both fossil and renewable resources. Based on the enterprise resource planning (ERP) data (2018–2020), CO2 emissions of increasing HCT were calculated for a forest industry corporation. The reduction in average fuel consumption (ml t × km−1), between 52% and 70% in backhauling transportation, was 18.88%. In this respect, CO2 emissions were reduced by 4.52 g t × km−1, achieving 19.48 g t × km−1, based on the data from the 76 t vehicle combinations. Furthermore, the metric of total environmental efficiency shows the potential of the alternative road-network combinations for the HCT. The environmental efficiency of the 92 t HCT increased by 11% via an intensive road-network combination, compared to the most efficient 76 t HCT alternative and the efficiency increased by 21%, compared to the most efficient line-hauling alternative. Thus, the results are in favor of the backhauling transportation by the means of 92 t vehicles for HCT development. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis demonstrates that technological improvement of the forest roads is essential for HCT in an increasing harvesting of renewable wood energy. Also, to achieve the maximum environmental efficiency of the HCT during upgrading of the forest roads, efficiency measurements of the HCT should be implemented in the transportation planning systems.
Teijo Palander; Stelian Alexandru Borz; Kalle Kärhä. Impacts of Road Infrastructure on the Environmental Efficiency of High Capacity Transportation in Harvesting of Renewable Wood Energy. Energies 2021, 14, 453 .
AMA StyleTeijo Palander, Stelian Alexandru Borz, Kalle Kärhä. Impacts of Road Infrastructure on the Environmental Efficiency of High Capacity Transportation in Harvesting of Renewable Wood Energy. Energies. 2021; 14 (2):453.
Chicago/Turabian StyleTeijo Palander; Stelian Alexandru Borz; Kalle Kärhä. 2021. "Impacts of Road Infrastructure on the Environmental Efficiency of High Capacity Transportation in Harvesting of Renewable Wood Energy." Energies 14, no. 2: 453.
Forwarding technology is well established in use around the world but, at the same time, forwarders are expensive machines that require a good planning to ensure the sustainability of operations. In addition, forwarder market is characterized by a limited pool of customers, therefore innovation attempts may be limited compared to other product development industries. Since the steps towards a full automation of operations are still at their beginning, improvements of forwarder machines may rest in developing and integrating components that could contribute to an increased effectiveness. To respond to such challenges, the Forwarder2020 project developed innovative components that were integrated in a number of forwarder prototypes based on a market pull approach that resulted in a flexible adaptation to customer requirements and work environments. Since one of the typical work environments was that of low access forests, some components (i.e. suspended cabin and transmission system) were engineered to enable faster and safer operations and to economize fuel. As a common validation step is that of bringing field evidence on the performance improvement, this study evaluated the operational speed, productivity and fuel consumption of a forwarder prototype in conditions of a steep-terrain low-access forest. The main findings were very promising as the prototype was able to operate at significantly increased speeds and the fuel savings were evident. For an average forwarding distance of about 1.5 km, net productivity and efficiency rates were estimated at 14.4 m3/h and 0.07 h/m3, respectively. They were related to the availability of wood, and further improvement of such figures is possible by a better organization of tree felling and processing. Operational speed was affected by the condition of skid roads used for forwarding, which were harsh. During the transportation tasks developed on roads typical for forwarding, the machine was able to sustain average speeds estimated at 8 km/h. As a matter of fact, in such tasks, the dominant operational speed (almost in 100% of the cases) was higher than 5 km/h irrespective of the road condition. Hourly fuel consumption was estimated based on the time in which the engine was working and it amounted to 17.1 l/h. More importantly, by considering the forwarded payload in terms of volume and mass, the unit fuel consumption was estimated to be 1.25 l/m3 and 1.47 l/t, respectively. These results bring evidence on the performance improvement by modular innovation. In fact, such solutions could answer the challenges related to the sustainability of forest operations in low access forests.
Stelian Alexandru Borz; Marina Viorela Marcu; Maria Francesca Cataldo. Evaluation of an HSM 208F 14tone HVT-R2 Forwarder Prototype under Conditions of Steep-Terrain Low-Access Forests. Croatian journal of forest engineering 2021, 42, 1 .
AMA StyleStelian Alexandru Borz, Marina Viorela Marcu, Maria Francesca Cataldo. Evaluation of an HSM 208F 14tone HVT-R2 Forwarder Prototype under Conditions of Steep-Terrain Low-Access Forests. Croatian journal of forest engineering. 2021; 42 (2):1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleStelian Alexandru Borz; Marina Viorela Marcu; Maria Francesca Cataldo. 2021. "Evaluation of an HSM 208F 14tone HVT-R2 Forwarder Prototype under Conditions of Steep-Terrain Low-Access Forests." Croatian journal of forest engineering 42, no. 2: 1.
Sawmilling operations are typically one of the most important cells of the wood supply chain as they take the log assortments as inputs to which they add value by processing lumber and other semi-finite products. For this kind of operations, and especially for those developed at a small scale, long-term monitoring data is a prerequisite to make decisions, to increase the operational efficiency and to enable the precision of operations. In many cases, however, collection and handling of such data is limited to a set of options which may come at high costs. In this study, a low-cost solution integrating offline object tracking, signal processing and artificial intelligence was tested to evaluate its capability to correctly classify in the time domain the events specific to the monitoring of wood sawmilling operations. Discrete scalar signals produced from media files by tracking functionalities of the Kinovea® software (13,000 frames) were used to derive a differential signal, then a filtering-to-the-root procedure was applied to them. Both, the raw and filtered signals were used as inputs in the training of an artificial neural network at two levels of operational detail: fully and essentially documented data. While the addition of the derived signal made sense because it improved the outcomes of classification (recall of 92–97%) filtered signals were found to add less contribution to the classification accuracy. The use of essentially documented data has improved substantially the classification outcomes and it could be an excellent solution in monitoring applications requiring a basic level of detail. The tested system could represent a good and cheap solution to monitor sawmilling facilities aiming to develop our understanding on their technical efficiency.
Stelian Alexandru Borz; Marius Păun. Integrating Offline Object Tracking, Signal Processing, and Artificial Intelligence to Classify Relevant Events in Sawmilling Operations. Forests 2020, 11, 1333 .
AMA StyleStelian Alexandru Borz, Marius Păun. Integrating Offline Object Tracking, Signal Processing, and Artificial Intelligence to Classify Relevant Events in Sawmilling Operations. Forests. 2020; 11 (12):1333.
Chicago/Turabian StyleStelian Alexandru Borz; Marius Păun. 2020. "Integrating Offline Object Tracking, Signal Processing, and Artificial Intelligence to Classify Relevant Events in Sawmilling Operations." Forests 11, no. 12: 1333.
Wood transportation is an important source of greenhouse gas emissions, which should be considered when the carbon neutrality of the forest industry is of concern. The EU is dedicated to improving technology for a carbon-neutral development. This study investigates carbon neutrality by improving road freight transportation fleets consisting of various vehicle size combinations. The environmental emission and energy efficiency of a transportation fleet were analyzed in selected wood procurement regions of Stora Enso corporation (Finland). Based on the enterprise resource planning (ERP) data (2018–2020), the environmental emission efficiency increased by 11% via 76 t-vehicles compared 64 t vehicles. The maximum reduction in fuel consumption was 26% for 92 t vehicles, though this was achieved when operations were fully adjusted to the maximum weight limit. The wood-based energy efficiency measure (wood energy/transport energy) was a useful development indicator. It showed that the adapted fleets of transportation companies support a positive development for a carbon-neutral forestry. In respect to the current legal fleet (64, 68 and 76 t), the use of 76 t vehicles increased energy efficiency most effectively, by 50%, compared to 64 t vehicles in the best region. Currently, transportation service providers and their clients are using ERP information to tailor their energy efficiency metric and to implement them locally in the transportation monitoring systems. A three-year sensitivity analysis demonstrates that the technological development of management tools to improve transportation efficiency is essential for larger and heavier vehicle utilization. In the future, the whole wood supply chain from forest to factory will also be optimized with respect to energy efficiency criterion to ensure a low-carbon forest industry.
Teijo Palander; Hanna Haavikko; Emma Kortelainen; Kalle Kärhä; Stelian Alexandru Borz. Improving Environmental and Energy Efficiency in Wood Transportation for a Carbon-Neutral Forest Industry. Forests 2020, 11, 1194 .
AMA StyleTeijo Palander, Hanna Haavikko, Emma Kortelainen, Kalle Kärhä, Stelian Alexandru Borz. Improving Environmental and Energy Efficiency in Wood Transportation for a Carbon-Neutral Forest Industry. Forests. 2020; 11 (11):1194.
Chicago/Turabian StyleTeijo Palander; Hanna Haavikko; Emma Kortelainen; Kalle Kärhä; Stelian Alexandru Borz. 2020. "Improving Environmental and Energy Efficiency in Wood Transportation for a Carbon-Neutral Forest Industry." Forests 11, no. 11: 1194.
Lignocellulosic biomass is used in various industries and its procurement involves a set of operations that are mainly done using equipment powered by internal combustion engines. The sustainability of forest operations may be characterized by balancing their energy inputs with those typically embodied in their outputted products. Forest tending operations are problematic because most of them cannot output marketable products while the data on their energy inputs are important for the forest management. Six of the most commonly used brushcutters equipped successively with discs and knives were tested to provide part of the data needed to run an energy analysis and to be able to characterize the energy inputs in release cutting operations by implementing the Gross Energy Requirements method. Fuel burning was found to have the greatest contribution (83–92%) in the total energy inputs (0.8–1.2 GJ/ha) of the studied operations and it was highly dependent on the efficiency of operations. Moreover, by simulation, it was identified that factors such as the assumed service life of equipment may significantly affect the outcomes of the analysis. Release cutting operations may be seen as important contributors in the energy balance of forest operations and data provided by this study may be of help for both forest management and more detailed and scaled analyses such as that of the Life Cycle Assessment.
Nicuşor Boja; Stelian Alexandru Borz. Energy Inputs in Motor-Manual Release Cutting of Broadleaved Forests: Results of Twelve Options. Energies 2020, 13, 4597 .
AMA StyleNicuşor Boja, Stelian Alexandru Borz. Energy Inputs in Motor-Manual Release Cutting of Broadleaved Forests: Results of Twelve Options. Energies. 2020; 13 (18):4597.
Chicago/Turabian StyleNicuşor Boja; Stelian Alexandru Borz. 2020. "Energy Inputs in Motor-Manual Release Cutting of Broadleaved Forests: Results of Twelve Options." Energies 13, no. 18: 4597.
The forestry and timber industry are strong sectors in the economies of European countries. The current trend of introducing forestry management that respects the various functions of the forest has created new challenges. However, forestry itself, as well as those challenges, varies in different regions in Europe. The aim of this review paper was to describe forest resources and their potential as well to define challenges in forestry and forest engineering in regions of East Europe. Case studies were selected from four countries: Croatia, Latvia, Poland and Romania. The background data and information of the forest-based sector included: forest resources and forest productivity, forest utilisation, development of forest operations and difficulties in forest management. In the analysed countries, state-owned forestry was represented by at least 45%. Forestry is an important sector in all four countries and future challenges are observed in forest management and forest engineering mainly including: an increase in timber resources, improvement in species composition for better productivity and the introduction of effective mechanised forest operations in pre-commercial thinning. Further improvement of harvester heads is expected for the harvesting of broadleaved species and for young stands. Issues linked to the environment were also recognised as challenging factors: mild winters make it difficult to use CTL technology on wet and sensitive sites. Additionally, dry seasons have a high impact on forest fire frequency, but this can be controlled by effective monitoring systems. Improvement in IT systems used in forest operations should limit the carbon footprint by optimising transport, machine use and limiting fuel use. Finally, innovations are recognised as key issues in the improvement of forest management and forest engineering; therefore, special budgets have been allocated to support science and development.
Piotr S. Mederski; Stelian A. Borz; Andreja Đuka; Andis Lazdiņš. Challenges in Forestry and Forest Engineering. Croatian journal of forest engineering 2020, 42, 117 -134.
AMA StylePiotr S. Mederski, Stelian A. Borz, Andreja Đuka, Andis Lazdiņš. Challenges in Forestry and Forest Engineering. Croatian journal of forest engineering. 2020; 42 (1):117-134.
Chicago/Turabian StylePiotr S. Mederski; Stelian A. Borz; Andreja Đuka; Andis Lazdiņš. 2020. "Challenges in Forestry and Forest Engineering." Croatian journal of forest engineering 42, no. 1: 117-134.
Poplar forests are cultivated worldwide on extended areas, contributing to the provision of wood for industries. Their management is intensive, especially in planting operations which are done, in many parts of the world, by the use of manual labor. This situation raises the question on their sustainability from an ergonomics point of view. Particularly, the postural risk is in question, as uncomfortable work postures may cause musculo-skeletal disorders. Two types of planting operations (large cutting—CP and bare-root seedling—SP) were selected as representatives for the evaluation of postural risks which was carried out for 14 subjects. Based on the analysis of approximately 14,500 images (approximately 67 h of field study), the postural risk indexes were estimated at 259 and 250 for the CP and SP, respectively. No significant differences were found between the operations, but the high share of effective planting tasks and their associated postural risk indexes generated these concerning results. The main conclusion is that these kinds of planting operations need postural improvement and ways for doing so should be researched in the future.
Tiberiu Marogel-Popa; Marina Marcu; Stelian Borz. Postural Risk in Manual Planting Operations of Poplar: Two Options Compared. Sustainability 2020, 12, 5531 .
AMA StyleTiberiu Marogel-Popa, Marina Marcu, Stelian Borz. Postural Risk in Manual Planting Operations of Poplar: Two Options Compared. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (14):5531.
Chicago/Turabian StyleTiberiu Marogel-Popa; Marina Marcu; Stelian Borz. 2020. "Postural Risk in Manual Planting Operations of Poplar: Two Options Compared." Sustainability 12, no. 14: 5531.
Research Highlights: A low-cost experimental system was developed to enable the production monitoring of small-scale wood processing facilities by the means of sensor-collected data and the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, which provided accurate results for the most important work operations. Background and Objectives: The manufacturing of wood-based products by small-scale family-held business is commonly affected by a lack of monitoring data that, on the one hand, may prevent the decision-making process and, on the other hand, may lead to less technical efficiency that could result in business failure. Long-term performance of such manufacturing facilities is limited because data collection and analysis require significant resources, thus preventing the approaches that could be pursued for competitivity improvement. Materials and Methods: An external sensor system composed of two dataloggers—a triaxial accelerometer and a sound pressure level meter—was used in combination with a video camera to provide the input signals and meta-documentation for the training and testing of an artificial neural network (ANN) to check the accuracy of automatic classification of the time spent in operations. The study was based on a sample of ca. 90 k observations collected at a frequency of 1 Hz. Results: The approach provided promising results in both the training (ca. 20 k) and testing (ca. 60 k) datasets, with global classification accuracies of ca. 85%. However, the events characterizing the effective sawing, which requires electrical power, were even better recognized, reaching a classification accuracy of 98%. Conclusions: The system requires low-cost devices and freely available software that could enable data feeding on local computers by their direct connection to the devices. As such, it could collect, analyze and plot production data that could be used for maintaining the competitiveness of traditional technologies.
Marius CheŢa; Marina Viorela Marcu; Eugen Iordache; Stelian Alexandru Borz. Testing the Capability of Low-Cost Tools and Artificial Intelligence Techniques to Automatically Detect Operations Done by a Small-Sized Manually Driven Bandsaw. Forests 2020, 11, 739 .
AMA StyleMarius CheŢa, Marina Viorela Marcu, Eugen Iordache, Stelian Alexandru Borz. Testing the Capability of Low-Cost Tools and Artificial Intelligence Techniques to Automatically Detect Operations Done by a Small-Sized Manually Driven Bandsaw. Forests. 2020; 11 (7):739.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMarius CheŢa; Marina Viorela Marcu; Eugen Iordache; Stelian Alexandru Borz. 2020. "Testing the Capability of Low-Cost Tools and Artificial Intelligence Techniques to Automatically Detect Operations Done by a Small-Sized Manually Driven Bandsaw." Forests 11, no. 7: 739.
Biomass for energetic use can be procured from various sources including willow short rotation crops (WSRC). The feasibility of willow crops, however, is dependent on the costs incurred by operations such as the plantation, maintenance, harvesting and transport. In small scale applications, cost balancing often results in the use of equipment designed for general agricultural purposes to carry on the operational management of WSRC. This study evaluated the productive performance in planting operations of WSRC for a planting equipment consisting of regular farming tractors used to propel machines designed to support planting on single twin rows. Planting equipment consisting of 4 different types of farming tractors fitted with willow planting equipment was tested in 14 filed plots to be able to compute the main performance indicators such as the net and gross productivity rates. An evident variability in terms of time consumption on categories was observed at plot-level, and the planting time was related to a great extent to the operated area. The size of areas subjected to planting operations was the most important factor that affected productive performance. Variation of net productivity rate was explained largely by the ratio of the length of headland returning maneuvers to total length covered in a given plot. The model developed for the total study time shows that, in the observed conditions, it may take more than 7 h to plant one hectare. The equipment taken into study stands for a flexible option for small-scale farmers which could increase the utilization rates of their farming tractors by using them in other agricultural operations when needed. In addition, the studied equipment fits well to very narrow and small-sized plots, as such situation is typical to Romania and other European countries.
Nicolae Talagai; Marina Viorela Marcu; Giuseppe Zimbalatti; Andrea Rosario Proto; Stelian Alexandru Borz. Productivity in partly mechanized planting operations of willow short rotation coppice. Biomass and Bioenergy 2020, 138, 105609 .
AMA StyleNicolae Talagai, Marina Viorela Marcu, Giuseppe Zimbalatti, Andrea Rosario Proto, Stelian Alexandru Borz. Productivity in partly mechanized planting operations of willow short rotation coppice. Biomass and Bioenergy. 2020; 138 ():105609.
Chicago/Turabian StyleNicolae Talagai; Marina Viorela Marcu; Giuseppe Zimbalatti; Andrea Rosario Proto; Stelian Alexandru Borz. 2020. "Productivity in partly mechanized planting operations of willow short rotation coppice." Biomass and Bioenergy 138, no. : 105609.
Implementation of process management in the forest supply chains has a great potential for organizational and managerial improvement, at least by resource saving. Nevertheless, techniques of process management have been scarcely used to improve the forest supply chains in many parts of the world. In this study, for both Romanian state and private forests, the processes of the timber supply chain – from the harvest site to the forest-based industry plant – are mapped and analyzed. The main objectives of this work were to identify process optimization potentials and to redesign processes in order to improve the performance of the Romanian timber supply chain. Results show that particularly inter-organizational processes offer great saving potentials, mainly due to the existing multi-level hierarchy and multi-level control obligations. Therefore, introducing a web-based platform to enhance a collaborative workflow can considerably decrease the time needed for providing harvest sites or logs to customers via auctions. Further process optimization can be reached by the empowerment of lower level hierarchies facilitating the reduction of hierarchy levels of involved state organizations.
Peter Rauch; Stelian Alexandru Borz. Reengineering the Romanian Timber Supply Chain from a Process Management Perspective. Croatian journal of forest engineering 2019, 41, 85 -94.
AMA StylePeter Rauch, Stelian Alexandru Borz. Reengineering the Romanian Timber Supply Chain from a Process Management Perspective. Croatian journal of forest engineering. 2019; 41 (1):85-94.
Chicago/Turabian StylePeter Rauch; Stelian Alexandru Borz. 2019. "Reengineering the Romanian Timber Supply Chain from a Process Management Perspective." Croatian journal of forest engineering 41, no. 1: 85-94.
Short rotation poplar forests are a viable alternative in producing high quality wood for industrial applications. Their success depends on timely and high-quality implementation of a series of operations. Weed control operations are implemented to favor the trees in their competition for soil resources, and cultivation is an option typically used in many European countries. For the moment, a complete mechanization of such operations is virtually impossible, and they still require an intensive use of manual labor. Since information on work difficulty and risks in manual cultivation operations is limited, this study aimed to characterize this job. Evaluation was made in terms of work efficiency, cardiovascular workload, work intensity and postural risks by implementing a time and motion study combined with heart rate measurements, accelerometry and whole-body postural analysis. Work efficiency was particularly low even if the share of effective work time was high (70% of the observation time). Job was characterized as moderate to high intensity, which resulted into a moderate to high cardiovascular strain. While the postural analysis indicated rather small risks, the main problem was found for the back postures assumed during the work. Improvements should aim to extend mechanization, train the workers and appropriately design rest breaks.
Tiberiu Marogel-Popa; Marius CheŢa; Marina Viorela Marcu; Cristian Ionuţ Duţă; Florin Ioraş; Stelian Alexandru Borz. Manual Cultivation Operations in Poplar Stands: A Characterization of Job Difficulty and Risks of Health Impairment. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2019, 16, 1911 .
AMA StyleTiberiu Marogel-Popa, Marius CheŢa, Marina Viorela Marcu, Cristian Ionuţ Duţă, Florin Ioraş, Stelian Alexandru Borz. Manual Cultivation Operations in Poplar Stands: A Characterization of Job Difficulty and Risks of Health Impairment. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2019; 16 (11):1911.
Chicago/Turabian StyleTiberiu Marogel-Popa; Marius CheŢa; Marina Viorela Marcu; Cristian Ionuţ Duţă; Florin Ioraş; Stelian Alexandru Borz. 2019. "Manual Cultivation Operations in Poplar Stands: A Characterization of Job Difficulty and Risks of Health Impairment." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16, no. 11: 1911.
Cable yarding operations are conventionally used in steep terrain harvesting, but their share in operations varies widely, tending to be low in many regions. This study evaluated the time consumption, productivity and cost of downhill sledge-yarding operations in group shelterwood extractions deployed in steep terrain beech forests. Relevant operational variables (yarding distance, lateral yarding distance and slope) were selected as predictors to model the time consumption based on a number of 558 work cycles. For an extraction distance of 326 m, a lateral yarding distance of 43 m and a payload of 1.87 m3 per turn, the yarding cycle time was estimated to about 12.5 min. Notable as share in the yarding cycle time were the choking (28%), lateral-in (19%), lateral-out (16%) and unchoking (13%), with the second and the third work elements being significantly affected by very high lateral yarding distances. Estimated productivity and efficiency rates were of 8.80 m3 h−1 and 0.11 h m−3, respectively. Extraction costs were estimated at 7.4 € m−3, in which the operator costs contributed the most (4.3 € m−3). Given the low fossil energy inputs, increased environmental performance due to suspended extraction of the logs, and the acceptable productivity and cost, this system could be extended in low-accessibility, steep-terrain harvesting.
Cătălin Munteanu; Mika Yoshida; Eugen Iordache; Stelian Alexandru Borz; Gheorghe Ignea. Performance and cost of downhill cable yarding operations in a group shelterwood system. Journal of Forest Research 2019, 24, 125 -130.
AMA StyleCătălin Munteanu, Mika Yoshida, Eugen Iordache, Stelian Alexandru Borz, Gheorghe Ignea. Performance and cost of downhill cable yarding operations in a group shelterwood system. Journal of Forest Research. 2019; 24 (3):125-130.
Chicago/Turabian StyleCătălin Munteanu; Mika Yoshida; Eugen Iordache; Stelian Alexandru Borz; Gheorghe Ignea. 2019. "Performance and cost of downhill cable yarding operations in a group shelterwood system." Journal of Forest Research 24, no. 3: 125-130.
Afforestation and reforestation operations constitute an important part of the forest management, being crucial for the sustainability of forests. In such operations, there are three options to prepare the planting holes: manual, partly mechanized, and fully mechanized. Given the high cost of mechanized planting and the ergonomic issues of manual planting, one option which is worth exploring is using of augers, because they have the potential to mitigate and/or eliminate intense physical effort and aspects of some of the ergonomic problems. This study examines the early survival of seedlings following the use of augers to prepare the planting pits. Working time, fuel consumption and physical quality of the pits were evaluated on nine sites for two drill types differentiated by their diameter (150 vs. 200 mm). Time consumption was systematically higher when using the larger drill, while fuel consumption was not found to be statistically different. The larger drill systematically produced pits characterized by less physical quality in terms of resistance to penetration and shear strength, but the early survival of seedlings was higher when using this drill size. Survival probability modeled by means of logistic regression showed that pit size was among the factors that may affect the early survival of seedlings. The study concludes that the larger drill would be more appropriate to plant seedlings, but further studies should be arranged to see if long-term survival would be affected in this case.
Nicuşor Boja; Florinel Boja; Alin Teusdea; Dan Vidrean; Marina Viorela Marcu; Eugen Iordache; Cristian Ionuţ Duţă; Stelian Alexandru Borz. Resource Allocation, Pit Quality, and Early Survival of Seedlings Following Two Motor-Manual Pit-Drilling Options. Forests 2018, 9, 665 .
AMA StyleNicuşor Boja, Florinel Boja, Alin Teusdea, Dan Vidrean, Marina Viorela Marcu, Eugen Iordache, Cristian Ionuţ Duţă, Stelian Alexandru Borz. Resource Allocation, Pit Quality, and Early Survival of Seedlings Following Two Motor-Manual Pit-Drilling Options. Forests. 2018; 9 (11):665.
Chicago/Turabian StyleNicuşor Boja; Florinel Boja; Alin Teusdea; Dan Vidrean; Marina Viorela Marcu; Eugen Iordache; Cristian Ionuţ Duţă; Stelian Alexandru Borz. 2018. "Resource Allocation, Pit Quality, and Early Survival of Seedlings Following Two Motor-Manual Pit-Drilling Options." Forests 9, no. 11: 665.