Aim of study: The aim of the study was to determined the tree volume and damage level in windthrow areas and to assess the impact of topographic factors and forest structure on windthrow damaged.
Area of study: Our study was conducted within the Düzce Forest Management Directorate.
Material and methods: The windthrow areas within the boundaries of Düzce Forest Management Directorate were obtained from extraordinary yield reports. According to windthrow data verified using Google Earth, the borders for each damage were determined and transferred to ArcMap. The relationships between windthrow areas and enviromental parameters were determined using digital maps and forest management plans. Correlation analysis was applied to find out the relationship between windthrow areas and topographic and forest characteristics. Additionally, variance analysis was performed to determine if there were differences in terms of dominant aspects and forest types between windthrow areas and amounts. T-tests were conducted to determine if there were differences between windthrow areas and amounts and the dominant wind direction. Based on the statistically significant results, an intersect analysis was applied to environmental parameters to generate a windthrow susceptibility map.
Main results: Windthrow occurred mostly in the southwest aspect, in the Fir-Beech species and in the cd age classes. A statistically significant relationship (p