Regional Network Analysis of Primary-Industry Truck Traffic on Public Roads in New Zealand by Using Geographic Information Systems

Industrial forestry activities in New Zealand are now in a phase of unprecedented growth: the annual cut will double from 18 million m3 to well over 30 million m3 a year during the next 5 years. Given that most of the wood is taken from forest to mill or port by road in New Zealand, including a portion of the trip on public highways, the impacts of the doubling in logging truck traffic will be significant and severe. New Zealand’s roads have, for the most part, thin-sealed, unbound pavements. New Zealand’s second-largest industrial sector is tourism. Pavements and tourists will feel the impact of the looming increase in logging truck traffic unless steps are taken to anticipate the changes in traffic volumes and patterns. There is the complicating factor that the dairy industry too is now expanding rapidly with associated increases in raw milk tanker traffic. There is some friction between the forest industry and the dairy industry over which will be responsible for the increased strengthening, rehabilitation, and maintenance of roads. Research is under way to use regional network analysis and geographic information systems to predict the increases in heavy-truck traffic and changes in its distribution on public roads. This is the first step toward devising measures to mitigate the impacts and is a precursor to the implementation of pavement management. A unique opportunity exists in southern New Zealand: cooperation between forest operators and government agencies in the Otago and Southland region of the South Island of New Zealand on large-scale projects, providing the environment needed to examine such large, landscape-scale problems.