GPS mobile devices and open sources GIS: a comparison between different solutions

Planning forest operation require detailed support information to correctly characterize fundamental element such as forest road network and terrain features. Data survey and analysis often require also considerable investment both in terms of time and money. The purpose of the study is to verify the possibility of using technology and software at low or zero cost for planning forest operation. To achieve this result a real test was carried out using different available GPS tools and GIS software. The procedure consisted on field GPS surveys of forest road network and terrain roughness in a mountainous area in the Northern-East part of Italy. The collected data was then used for GIS-based analysis for settling on the forest operation plan using different software. It was evidenced that professional and commercial technologies and software, required really high investment but also bring to high quality results and allows simple and fast workflow. Low investment or freeware solution can even support forest technicians, allow a considerable saving of money, but taking into consideration that the workflow often will result more elaborated, less simple an accurate and more time-expensive.