Along the Ruhr valley there are about 80 hectares of forest in Essen on steep and geologically unstable areas, which are supported by safety structures. These forest stands are to be specially treated for traffic safety and for optimal soil and rockfall protection function. UNIQUE developed a road safety, maintenance and development concept for these steep slope forests in the critical rock slope area. On the basis of a geodata analysis and terrain inventory, the forest area was analyzed and typical, repetitive forest conditions were combined into "forest strata". In order to restore the protective functions of the steep slope forests, silvicultural and silvicultural implementation proposals were developed for seven forest roads. Finally, the costs necessary for the implementation of the proposed measures were calculated.

• Geodata analysis and data acquisition in the forest.
• Classification of the critical rock slopes according to typical forest compositions and forest functions.
• Evaluation of best practice experiences for steep slope forests.
• Formulation of forestry and silvicultural measures for the development of optimal protective functions.
• Rough derivation of the costs required to implement the measures