Forest road network planning in Ameliorated forest is an important factor for constant forest development that not only leads to decrease in cost but also prevents forest destruction. Final decision in forest road planning is not possible just by optimization of one variable. Therefore, multi criteria decision methods have been developed. Analytic Hierarchical Process (AHP) is one of the most well-known multi criteria decision techniques that has been introduced for resolving planning needs. The purpose of this study is to evaluate AHP application in preparing road potential map for Hyrcanian forests in northern Iran. The study area is a part of No 7 watershed domain in northern Iran and has the general criteria for Hyrcanian forests. Regarding natural condition of Hyrcanian forests, in this study, 8 factors such as slope, aspect, and altitude, vegetation type, volume of growing stock, hydrography, geology and pedology are taken in to account. In order to validate indicators, a questionnaire was designed and given to road construction experts in Natural Resource Organization. Indicators relative weights were calculated by Expert Choice software. After getting every layers validity ratio, these layers are synthesized in ArcGIS9.2 software to make potency map for road construction. Resultant potency map was compared with potency map resulted by university professors. 40 points were designated electively in both potency maps and were evaluated with regards to8 mentioned factors. Studies showed that professors given results accuracy is rather more dominant than experts given results. However, with regards to percentages and results obtained this method cannot be used safely in potency map preparation for road construction in Hyrcanian forests.
